Should you be taking specific steps to control your postprandial (after-meal) glucose levels? Does postprandial hyperglycemia play a unique role in the development of diabetes complications? Seeking to answer these and other questions, the American Diabetes Association recently convened a panel of experts to review current knowledge about postprandial blood glucose.

In people who don't have diabetes, plasma glucose peaks about an hour after a meal and returns to pre-meal levels within 2-3 hours. In people with diabetes, postprandial glucose increases to a higher level and lasts longer. The experts pointed out that it is not yet known how postprandial glucose is correlated with HbA1c or whether it plays a unique role in the development of diabetes complications.

A number of oral anti-diabetes drugs and insulin analogs lower postprandial blood glucose and also lower HbA1c. The ADA panel stated that while it has been suggested that these agents may decrease the risk of hypoglycemia and weight gain, such claims have not been consistently supported by randomized, controlled clinical studies.

Overall, the ADA position is that more research needs to be done to determine and define the role of postprandial blood glucose in glycemic control. Meanwhile, patients should be tested and postprandial elevations treated, according to lifeclinic.com's Clinical Advisory Board.

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