What should I pay attention to when doing glucose tolerance test tomorrow?

Many people are having a physical examination for the first time, so it is inevitable that they do not know much about some of the examination items and precautions. Especially for pregnant women doing glucose tolerance test, they should pay attention to controlling their diet the day before. They need to consume a lot of carbohydrates and do a small amount of exercise. Do not eat before doing the test, and make sure to do it without breakfast in the morning.

1. Three days before the OGTT test, you should control your diet, the carbohydrate content in your daily diet should not be less than 150 grams, and maintain normal activities.

2. Drugs that affect this test (drugs that cause blood sugar to increase or decrease) should be discontinued.

3. The patient should not eat for 10 to 14 hours before the test.

4. On the morning of the test, fasting venous blood is drawn and the patient is asked to drink 300 ml of sugar water containing 75 grams of glucose within 5 minutes. Venous blood is drawn once 30 minutes, 1 hour, and 2 hours after drinking the sugar water, and urine is collected for qualitative test of urine sugar. During the entire test, you are not allowed to smoke, drink coffee, tea or eat, and you should sit quietly in a chair.

Importance of glucose tolerance test

Gestational diabetes is different from other types of diabetes. Most expectant mothers with gestational diabetes will return to normal after the baby is born, but about 1/3 of them will develop diabetes 5 to 10 years after delivery.

Diabetes is caused by the pancreas not producing enough insulin. Insulin controls the amount of sugar in your blood and enables your body to store sugar that is not immediately used for energy.

During pregnancy, especially after about 5 months, your baby's growth begins to accelerate, and your body must produce extra insulin to meet your baby's needs. If your body can't keep up with these changes, you may develop gestational diabetes.

Your baby needs sugar in the form of glucose to grow, but too much sugar may cause him to grow too fast. If the baby is too big, the mother's delivery will be more difficult and she may need a caesarean section, which in turn increases the baby's risk of neonatal jaundice and respiratory distress syndrome.

Before the use of new diagnostic criteria for gestational diabetes, the incidence of gestational diabetes ranged from 1 to 14%, and approximately 5% of expectant mothers in China would develop gestational diabetes. After the new diagnostic criteria were used, the incidence of gestational diabetes increased significantly, and it is expected to reach or exceed 15%. In most cases, though, you just need to eat a healthy diet and exercise to keep your blood sugar in check. In some cases, doctors may prescribe insulin for pregnant women to take as injections.