Alcohol cause of high reading

[davd]

3 months in from being told I have type 2 with HbA1c of 90 . And With low carbing got my daily BG levels down to between 4.2 and 7.5 depending on what I eat . and converted the last 60 average to HbA1c of 34.6 .
For the last 8 years I have not had a good diet and my favourite drink was Port , very high in sugar and carbs ,I was drinking
2 Ltrs a week .
Have now cut down on bread,potatoes, biscuits and stopped Port altogether.
So I was just wondering if it was just the high amount of port I was drinking that pushed my BG level so high And with stopping it I was not actually diabetic as my levels have dropped so significantly in such a short time .
My next test at surgery is not until end of July but was just wondering about my port theory..
By the way I have also lost 30 lbs in weight

 

[urbanracer]

I think you have a couple of things going on here.

If you were overweight, then it probably would not have been helping in terms of insulin resistance. So shifting some of the weight will be helping you there.

In terms of diet, if you've cut down on bread, potatoes, and biscuits then you will have significantly reduced your carb intake.

As to the port - from our own information repository (https://www.diabetes.co.uk/alcohol-and-blood-sugar.html ) a glass of port could be as high as 20g of carbohydrate, and that's as much as some of our members eat in a day.

Well done on getting your levels down!

 

[davd]

I think you have a couple of things going on here.

If you were overweight, then it probably would not have been helping in terms of insulin resistance. So shifting some of the weight will be helping you there.

In terms of diet, if you've cut down on bread, potatoes, and biscuits then you will have significantly reduced your carb intake.

As to the port - from our own information repository (https://www.diabetes.co.uk/alcohol-and-blood-sugar.html ) a glass of port could be as high as 20g of carbohydrate, and that's as much as some of our members eat in a day.

Well done on getting your levels down!

Thanks , the port wasn’t just a glass it could have been half a bottle in a night, not good I know but over 8 years heavy drinking of it , could not touching it now make me non diabetic or is it diabetes for life .

 

[ziggy_w]

Hi @davd,

The highish sugar content of the port may have very well contributed to the higher blood sugar levels you've seen. (Zero-carb alcohol in itself such as vodka, gin, whisky, rum will usually not drive up your blood sugar levels. Also dry wines will hardly move them.)

However, the potatoes, bread and biscuits will have been equally bad as the Port -- if not worse.

Non-diabetics would not see higher blood sugar levels regardless of what they eat or drink. So, personally I suspect that returning to eating bread, cakes, biscuits, rice, potatoes, cereals or drinking sweet beverages (even without the Port) would make you see diabetic blood sugar levels again.

You can always give it a try, though. In this case, however, I would recommend using a blood glucose meter to see the immediate impact of the change in diet rather than waiting three months or longer to see the effect on your HbA1c.

 

[davd]

Hi @davd,

The highish sugar content of the port may have very well contributed to the higher blood sugar levels you've seen. (Zero-carb alcohol in itself such as vodka, gin, whisky, rum will usually not drive up your blood sugar levels. Also dry wines will hardly move them.)

However, the potatoes, bread and biscuits will have been equally bad as the Port -- if not worse.

Non-diabetics would not see higher blood sugar levels regardless of what they eat or drink. So, personally I suspect that returning to eating bread, cakes, biscuits, rice, potatoes, cereals or drinking sweet beverages (even without the Port) would make you see diabetic blood sugar levels again.

You can always give it a try, though. In this case, however, I would recommend using a blood glucose meter to see the immediate impact of the change in diet rather than waiting three months or longer to see the effect on your HbA1c.

Thanks Ziggy .
I am using meter as surgery gave me one , gone onto Gin and slimline tonic instead of port .
Have cut out all potatoes and biscuits but occasionally have a slice of toast but not often .
Average BG readings on meter over last 3 months is 5.8 .
On 1mg of Glimepiride but have done a trial of not taking it for three weeks to see if changed my readings,but not much change.