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Glucose 2hr Post Prandial

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A postprandial glucose test (2 hour Post Prandial Glucose test or blood sugar test after eating) is a blood glucose test that determines the amount of a type of sugar, called glucose, in the blood. Glucose comes from carbohydrate foods. It is the main source of energy used by the body.
Normally, blood glucose levels increase slightly after eating. This increase causes the pancreas to release insulin, which assists the body in removing glucose from the blood and storing it for energy. People with diabetes may not produce or respond properly to insulin, which causes their blood glucose to remain elevated. Blood glucose levels that remain high over time can damage the eyes, kidneys, nerves, and blood vessels.
A 2-hour postprandial blood sugar measures blood glucose exactly 2 hours after eating a meal. By this point blood sugar has usually gone back down in healthy people, but it may still be elevated in people with diabetes. Thus, it serves as a test of whether a person may have diabetes, or of whether a person who has diabetes is successfully controlling their blood sugar.

The trends for managing diabetes change over the years. When self-blood-glucose monitoring first arrived, post prandial blood sugar tests were not considered important. However, it would be careless now to ignore the significant research on 2 hour post prandial glucose tests. Slightly elevated sugars after eating are associated with increased eye damage, heart disorder and other diabetes complications. This also applies to people with pre-diabetes.
You should consider doing glucose tests 2 hour after eating if:

·	If your A1c blood test comes back above the A1c target but your blood sugars before meals have mostly been in target . You might very well be having high blood sugars after eating. (You should also check your blood glucose monitor and diabetes test strips for accuracy).

If you experience excessive tiredness after eating, or are sleepy after eating. These are both diabetes symptoms or more commonly put, symptoms of high blood sugars. You would not expect to feel this way if you had diabetes with well-controlled blood sugars. You should investigate your 2 hr post prandial glucose levels.

·	You want to know what specific foods or meals are doing to your blood sugar.

·	You are interested in fine-tuning your blood sugar control. Checking blood sugars after eating at least once or twice a week is part of a regular glucose testing schedule for many people with diabetes. Some people may need to do it more often. Check with your diabetes educator.

·	You want to check to see how well your diabetes medications are working. Some diabetes medications are designed specifically to lower blood sugars after eating.