We often encounter patients who only measure fasting blood glucose and do not pay attention to the monitoring of postprandial 2-hour blood glucose. Firstly, 2 hours postprandial blood sugar is one of the diagnostic criteria of diabetes. The diagnostic criteria of diabetes include both fasting blood sugar and 2 hours postprandial blood sugar level, and there are three kinds of high blood sugar in diabetic patients: the first kind is high fasting blood sugar and normal postprandial blood sugar; the second kind is normal fasting blood sugar and high postprandial blood sugar; the third kind is high fasting blood sugar and postprandial blood sugar. If only fasting blood sugar is checked, then the second and third conditions will not be detected. Therefore, when you suspect diabetes, you must check both fasting blood glucose and 2-hour postprandial blood glucose. Secondly, elevated postprandial blood glucose is more harmful Postprandial hyperglycemia is an independent risk factor for macrovascular diseases, which means that only fasting blood glucose is well controlled, but elevated blood glucose 2 hours after meals will still increase the chance of suffering from cardiovascular, cerebrovascular and other macrovascular diseases. In other words, the higher the postprandial glucose, the higher the chance of angina pectoris, myocardial infarction and stroke. In addition, postprandial hyperglycemia also increases the risk of diabetic retinopathy and diabetic nephropathy. Therefore, it is important for diabetic patients to strengthen postprandial glucose monitoring to prevent diabetic complications. Thirdly, measuring postprandial blood glucose can reflect whether the diet and medication are appropriate. 2-hour postprandial blood glucose can reflect the blood glucose control situation of patients after eating and taking medication. Therefore, diabetic patients can adjust their food and medication according to their blood glucose status 2 hours after meal. What is the range of blood glucose control for diabetic patients? For young and middle-aged people and patients with first-onset diabetes, it is required to control the blood glucose at 2 hours after meals at 8
mmol/L or less, while for elderly diabetic patients, patients with serious complications or frequent hypoglycemia should be controlled at 8-10 mmol/L. This will help to reduce the burden on pancreatic beta cells, protect the function of pancreatic beta cells and reduce the vascular complications caused by diabetes. Finally, we remind diabetic patients that it is difficult to control blood sugar well if they do not take medication. The purpose of measuring postprandial blood sugar is to detect whether the amount of medication taken and the amount of diet is appropriate for disease control. Therefore, when measuring postprandial blood glucose, the meal should be similar to the usual diet, and the timing should start from the first bite, without stopping the usual hypoglycemic drugs, so that it can reflect the real blood glucose level when you usually apply hypoglycemic drugs. Finally, adjust the treatment plan according to the 2-hour postprandial blood sugar.