Questions re alcohol and fat

[ReaL]

Hi

Wondered if I could pick your brains?

I was diagnosed just under a year ago with Type 2 and had been managing my blood levels very well with a very low carb diet and weight loss of 3 stones. I came off metaformin after 4 weeks. I had however been drinking alcohol quite heavily to cope with the grief of losing my husband. I have stop drinking since the beginning of the year and have found my bloods spiralling out of control even though I am eating the same things as previously. My fasting was a 9 this morning although usually high 7's. I did know that alcohol did lower BS but thought that my liver might cope better by having a break from the alcohol. I wondered if this was something that might settle down when my liver had recovered from the alcohol use. Anyone have any experience of this?

Also I have been 'enjoying' eating low carb and don't find it too difficult but find that I am using a lot of fat and red meat to stop the hunger and maintain my weight as I don't really want to loose any more. (fats being butter, cream, mayonnaise, avocado oil and olive oil) I just have a nagging doubt that all this fat is going to cause heart problems and negate all the benefit of getting on top of my diabetes - there would be no point in kicking that into touch to end up having a heart attack at an early age. Any thoughts on this one.

Thanks

 

[Mike d]

Two points outta this. The diet is fine ... and so are the fats. Seen a LOT worse than yours.

Second thing is what "type" of alcohol? ... and sooo sorry to hear of your loss

 

[ReaL]

Two points outta this. The diet is fine ... and so are the fats. Seen a LOT worse than yours.

Second thing is what "type" of alcohol? ... and sooo sorry to hear of your loss

Hi Mike

Mainly wine and some whisky - no beer too many carbs.

 

[Mike d]

Thought as much. Red or white?

You seem to have a good handle on it all, so well done for that

 

[ReaL]

Thought as much. Red or white?

You seem to have a good handle on it all, so well done for that

Both and in quite large quantities I'm afraid. Feel better for not drinking generally but annoyed about bloods. It would be a shame to start drinking again just to control blood sugar!!!

 

[EllieM]

Alcohol combats something called the dawn phenomena - basically you wake up in the morning and your liver kindly pumps out sugar so you can go out and chase down a mammoth (or whatever) . Of course, if you''ve been drinking the night before the liver is busy processing the alcohol and hence pumps out less sugar....

The good news is that fasting blood sugars seem to be the last to come down when you adopt a LCHF diet (probably because of the dawn phenomena). I suspect you just need to play a waiting game here. Though obviously you'd prefer slightly lower fasting readings they are not that high in the global scheme of things and should come down eventually on their own.

Good luck and keep up the good work.

 

[Mike d]

Both and in quite large quantities I'm afraid. Feel better for not drinking generally but annoyed about bloods. It would be a shame to start drinking again just to control blood sugar!!!

That'd be the last thing I'd suggest @ReaL You can refine the details later so we have a more complete picture of the reason the bloods are rising, but whilst they're not ideal, neither are they disastrous

 

[VashtiB]

Hi @ReaL ,

I'm sorry for the loss of your husband- that must be devastating. Along with the dawn phenomena, stress can also increase your levels. If you are no longer self medicating it may be that your body is experiencing more stress.

Take care of yourself- keep posting and venting when needed.

 

[JoKalsbeek]

Hi

Wondered if I could pick your brains?

I was diagnosed just under a year ago with Type 2 and had been managing my blood levels very well with a very low carb diet and weight loss of 3 stones. I came off metaformin after 4 weeks. I had however been drinking alcohol quite heavily to cope with the grief of losing my husband. I have stop drinking since the beginning of the year and have found my bloods spiralling out of control even though I am eating the same things as previously. My fasting was a 9 this morning although usually high 7's. I did know that alcohol did lower BS but thought that my liver might cope better by having a break from the alcohol. I wondered if this was something that might settle down when my liver had recovered from the alcohol use. Anyone have any experience of this?

Also I have been 'enjoying' eating low carb and don't find it too difficult but find that I am using a lot of fat and red meat to stop the hunger and maintain my weight as I don't really want to loose any more. (fats being butter, cream, mayonnaise, avocado oil and olive oil) I just have a nagging doubt that all this fat is going to cause heart problems and negate all the benefit of getting on top of my diabetes - there would be no point in kicking that into touch to end up having a heart attack at an early age. Any thoughts on this one.

Thanks

I'm with @VashtiB on this... I've been where you are, though I didn't drink to work through the grief, and wasn't a T2 back then... But I remember how stressed I was all the time, and hurting. I also remember not sleeping well. It was in fits and starts and there were a lot of nightmares. Stress will up blood glucose, but if you're not sleeping well and waking up often, or having nightmares, those can push up your fasting blood glucose too. Your liver keeps thinking it's morning and will dump glucose, again and again... (Which it didn't do because it can't multi-task, and was working on the alcohol). Give yourself time. Grief tends to incorporate itself into your daily life rather than just consuming everything all the time, and then sleep should eventually get better and stress levels will go down. It's a long process though. (The first year was the hardest, after about 3 years I was sort of back to my normal self.). In the meantime, drinking isn't exactly a solution, as you've experienced by now, but you could, if sleeping is a problem, try CBD oil. It got me back into a proper sleeping rhythm while I'd been an insomniac since I was 4 or something. Also took the edge off a little. (And while it is made out of cannabis, it can not and will not make you high because those components aren't present in the oil. I prefer Jacob Hooy's from Holland & Barrett).

I hope you'll feel better soon... And I can't tell you how sorry I am for your loss.
Hugs,
Jo

 

[dawnmc]

Stress also has a dramatic effect on blood sugars as does bad sleep. So I would go easy on yourself for the time being.

 

[ReaL]

Thanks for all your replies. I think I will be patient and see what happens over the coming weeks and months. I certainly feel better generally not drinking so will stay on the wagon. Thanks again xx