Cerebral Palsy and Diabetes

Fact Checked

Cerebral palsy is a neurological condition caused by brain underdevelopment or damage. Diabetes is a chronic illness characterized by poor production or usage of insulin in the body, resulting in elevated blood sugar. A child born with cerebral palsy may be at a greater risk of developing diabetes and other chronic illnesses.

What Is Gestational Diabetes?

There are a few different types of diabetes, but all are characterized by insufficient or improperly used insulin and chronically high blood sugar levels. High blood sugar can lead to many complications, from nerve damage to vision loss, inability to utilize nutrients in the body, organ failure, and death.

Some people develop type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disorder, as children and live with it for the rest of their lives. This type of diabetes is insulin-dependent and requires daily insulin injections for survival.

Others develop type 2 diabetes as adults, which is usually secondary to obesity and inactivity. This type does not always require injected insulin. It can be controlled with positive lifestyle changes, like exercise, a better diet, weight loss, and oral medications that help the body utilize insulin and metabolize glucose.

Gestational diabetes occurs in pregnant women who did not have diabetes before conception. They develop insulin resistance and high blood sugar levels only during pregnancy. Nearly ten percent of pregnant women develop this condition.[1]

No one knows for sure what causes gestational diabetes. It might be related to hormones produced by the placenta that blocks the action of insulin, which usually regulates blood sugar.

How Diabetes Affects Babies

A woman with gestational diabetes can control and manage the condition, but if it is not controlled, it can cause harm to the developing fetus. Gestational diabetes puts babies at risk for excess fat, breathing problems, and later development of obesity and type 2 diabetes.

It is not just gestational diabetes that puts babies at risk; type 1 and type 2 diabetes may also cause complications.

A woman with type 1 or type 2 diabetes can minimize risks to her unborn baby by keeping her condition under control and her blood sugar levels normal.

If diabetes is not well-controlled, the baby could be at risk for severe heart, spine, or brain birth defects, excess fat and abnormal size, and even a miscarriage or a stillbirth.

Maternal Diabetes and Cerebral Palsy

Diabetes in the mother is already known to be related to several conditions in babies, especially when it is not adequately controlled. Among the many possible complications, research has also connected maternal diabetes to an increased risk of cerebral palsy in babies.[2]

A woman with poorly-controlled diabetes is more likely to give birth to a baby of a larger size. This puts the mother at risk of having a difficult labor, resulting in oxygen deprivation and brain bleeds in the baby.

Asphyxia (lack of oxygen) is one of the most common causes of brain damage that results in cerebral palsy.

Children with Cerebral Palsy and Diabetes

While mothers with diabetes may put their children at risk of having cerebral palsy, the risk is not significant. This is especially true for mothers with their diabetes under control. On the other hand, a child with cerebral palsy may be at a greater risk of having diabetes as a child or adult.

A recent study found that children with cerebral palsy are at an increased risk for diabetes as well as other chronic health conditions, including high blood pressure, asthma, arthritis, emphysema, and cardiovascular health problems.

The study from the University of Michigan looked at adults with cerebral palsy and compared the rates of these chronic health problems with rates in the general population. The researchers found that 9.2 percent of adults with cerebral palsy also have diabetes, while only 6.3 percent of adults without cerebral palsy live with diabetes.[3]

This difference was found after adjusting for several other factors, like age, physical activity, body mass index, the severity of the disability, and socioeconomic status.

The researchers did not delve into why children with cerebral palsy were more likely to grow up to have diabetes, but they did suggest possible explanations and areas for concern. One likely reason is that most adults with cerebral palsy lose mobility more rapidly with age and become more inactive.

Inactivity can lead to weight gain, obesity, insulin resistance, and ultimately diabetes.

Prevention of Diabetes

A significant area of concern for people living with cerebral palsy is the prevention, management, and treatment of chronic health conditions like diabetes. If these people are at a greater risk for diabetes, better health care, and education are needed to help prevent this debilitating chronic condition.

Children with cerebral palsy need to learn about their risks and be given good health options for avoiding diabetes. They need ways to exercise that make sense for their disabilities and healthy food choices.

Diabetes poses several problems for anyone living with it. For pregnant women, diabetes may cause complications in fetal development and childbirth. For babies born with cerebral palsy, diabetes may be a future health concern.

For both demographics, knowledge is power. Women need to understand the importance of controlling blood sugar for both themselves and their babies; children with cerebral palsy need to understand their health risks and be given the information and the tools to take control of their own health.