A new study has suggested that babies born to poor mothers with pregnancy-related diabetes have an extra-high risk of developing attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Gestational diabetes typically develops during the second or third trimester of pregnancy, particularly in women who are overweight before getting pregnancy, do not exercise, or eat an unhealthy diet.

“There seems to be more research going in the direction that… the brains of children with ADHD are different,” said Ginette Dionne, who has studied gestational diabetes and language development at Laval University in Quebec but wasn’t involved in the new study.

“Gestational diabetes may not be a specific cause (of ADHD), but may be one of the factors that affects brain development,” she added.

One in 10 adults could have diabetes by 2030, according to latest statistics by the International Diabetes Federation.

The advocacy group estimated in a report issued on Monday that 522 million people would have diabetes in the next two decades, based on things like aging and demographic changes.

From news.yahoo.com:

The figure includes both types of diabetes. The group expects the number of cases to jump by 90 percent even in Africa, where infectious diseases have previously been the top killer. Without including the impact of increasing obesity, the International Diabetes Federation said its figures were conservative.

According to the World Health Organization, there are about 346 million people worldwide with diabetes, with more than 80 percent of deaths occurring in developing countries. The agency projects diabetes deaths will double by 2030 and said the International Diabetes Federation’s prediction was possible.

“It’s a credible figure,” said Gojka Roglic, head of WHO’s diabetes unit. “But whether or not it’s correct, we can’t say.”

A warning has been issued by scientists that diet drinks, which are labeled as the calorie-free way of having a sweet treat, could make people fat.

A diabetes conference heard that waistbands of people who downed two or more diet fizzy drinks a day expand at five times the rate of those who never touched such drinks.

From Dailymail.co.uk:

The results were so dramatic that the American researchers advise that people ditch their diet drinks and use water to quench their thirst instead.

Those who cannot bear to give up the sugar rush may be better off drinking normal full-sugar fizzy drinks.

Professor Helen Hazuda, of the University of Texas’s health science centre, said diet sodas and artificial sweeteners may foster a sweet tooth, distort appetite and even damage key brain cells. As a result, treating them as healthy alternatives may be ‘ill advised’

Sharon Fowler, who was involved in the research, said: ‘Artificial sweeteners could have the effect of triggering appetite but unlike regular sugars they don’t deliver something that will squelch the appetite.’