Insulin resistance during pregnancy and it's effect on baby's neurodevelopment.Obese women with and without insulin resistance were compared in a study that found the obese mothers with insulin resistance showed significantly impaired neurodevelopment in their children at 2 years of age.
Specifically, the deficits were seen in motor functioning and attention. The deficits also correlated with several markers of abnormal glucose and fat metabolism in the insulin-resistant women.
This is some of the first data in humans to characterize metabolic abnormalities on brain development. Who knew it started in utero?
The study followed 75 women with 25 characterized as obese with type 2 diabetes requiring insulin treatment, 25 obese women without insulin resistance and 25 lean women without insulin resistance. The women gave birth to 65 children who were followed out to 2 years old. The women also shared similar demographic profiles.
The two year olds were tested using a variety of behavioral and functional assessments. They measuresd motor function, cognition, and language with the Baylet Scales of Infant and Toddler Development. They also applied the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers as well as the Infant-Toddler Social and Emotional Analytics to assess competence, externalizing, internalizing, and dysregulation. The results revealed statistically significant deficits for the assessments of the children born to mother with insulin resistance.
A final analysis examined the correlation between the motor deficits identified and various metabolic tests of fat, glucose, and protein metabolism run on the enrolled mothers during the last weeks of gestation. This showed significant links between depressed motor development and maternal lipolytic rate, plasma free fatty acids, and hepatic glucose output.
Pregnant women must talk to their OB provider about blood sugar management during pregnancy. For everyone else:
For the non-pregnant woman and everyone else -