Director of Diabetes Services with ACT Health, Dr Chris Nolan has urged Canberra’s expectant mothers to be “diabetes aware”.
Dr Nolan (pictured), who is also Professor of Endocrinology at The Australian National University Medical School, received a 2018 Diabetes Australia Research Grant to explore the genetic factors that explain overlap in the risk for type 1 and type 2 diabetes.
He said he hoped his research will lead to new approaches to the prevention and management of both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, following a granular look at the genetics involved.
Dr Nolan, who has been working in the ACT for more than 13 years, said the biggest change he has noticed in this time is the rate at which mothers-to-be are developing gestational diabetes.
“In the ACT, as is the case globally, the prevalence of gestational diabetes has been increasing significantly,” Dr Nolan said.
He said in 2010 in the ACT 5 per cent of expectant mothers had gestational diabetes; by 2016 that figure rose to 15 per cent.
“What we do know is that this rise is due to a number of risk factors including an increase in pre-pregnancy weight, more mothers having babies at an older age and more mothers coming from a high-risk ethnic group,” Dr Nolan said.
He said timely prevention, timely intervention and timely treatment were keys to managing type 2 diabetes — a condition in which lifestyle was crucial to outcomes.
“For women who are contemplating starting a family the message is to get timely with your lifestyle and eating habits to create and enjoy a healthy pregnancy,” Dr Nolan said.
“It’s important for mothers-to-be to get their pregnancy off to a good start because the effects of diabetes in pregnancy are not just short term but long term as well.”
