Revisión actual de los conocimientos sobre la absorción intestinal de carbohidratos y su relación con la prevención del riesgo cardiovascular

Diabetes mellitus is a chronic disease characterized, among other cardiometabolic anomalies, by hyperglycemia and the development of micro and macrovascular outcomes in the long range. Treatment of Diabetes mellitus has to reduce fast and postprandial glycemia to near to normal values in order to diminish the frecuency and progression of micro and macrovascular complications. This paper reviews the mechanisms of carbohydrate intestinal absorption, and it is discussed the role of several hypoglucemic and antidiabetic drugs, mainly acarbose, an inhibitor of α-glucosidades, which has proved to reverse glucose intolerance and to delay the development of DM, reducing significatively both, fasting and postprandial glycemia, as well as improving insulin resistance, independently of age and gender. It is concluded that acarbose is among the first choice drugs used in the management of glucose intolerance and in the prevention of Diabetes mellitus, as well as one of the main drugs, used in monotherapy or in combination with other pharmacology agents, in the treatment of the established disease.