Alcohol & Blood Sugar

[shaneo]

Could alcohol theoretically counteract hyperglycemia?
If I hypothetically had an unexpected high once in a blue moon, say excessive carbs during a special occasion, and am only a diet&exercise diabetic, would it be worth my while consuming a unit of clear spirit alcohol?

 

[lildanfen]

Alcohol contains no carbs and therefore does not send the blood sugars upward
What did you drink on these nights? Do you know whether your body processes alcohol first or insulin?
How did you feel following day, did you run high all day then have trouble maintaining a level BS level.

As a diabetic you have to view yourself as your own experiment. Keep a diary of your highs lows and your behaviour prior too.

Once you know how your body works then make informed decisions on what to do, talk to your doc or to us old hats for advice.

But never assume because it makes an as S out of you and me

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

 

[Daibell]

As a generalistion alcohol has little effect on blood sugar. The problem is while the liver is busy getting rid of it, it can't release glycogen to counteract a hypo. Now unless you are on insulin or Gliclazide or similar that may not be an issue, but I would not use alcohol to try to control blood suagr

 

[Tweetypie]

I tried this one Christmas, happily thinking I could eat what I wanted and knock it all back with alcohol. It works at the time (for me) i.e, it lowers your blood sugar, however the next morning, for me it seems to have a knock on effect and sends my liver into overdrive. So, drinking equals lower blood sugar, but then that triggers my liver to dump sugar, which in turn exacerbates the dawn phenomenom process you may be familiar with. So I end up with higher morning readings. Of course, that's just my experience and I'm not a big drinker any way, you may be different, we all have varying tolerance when it comes to alcohol. It's a shame because I love red wine but can only manage the odd glass!

 

[Russ]

Alcohol contains no carbs and therefore does not send the blood sugars upward
What did you drink on these nights? Do you know whether your body processes alcohol first or insulin?
How did you feel following day, did you run high all day then have trouble maintaining a level BS level.

As a diabetic you have to view yourself as your own experiment. Keep a diary of your highs lows and your behaviour prior too.

Once you know how your body works then make informed decisions on what to do, talk to your doc or to us old hats for advice.

But never assume because it makes an as S out of you and me

Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

This information is incorrect. Alcohol does contain carbohydrates. Not a great many but enough worth considering.

 

[Russ]

This information is incorrect. Alcohol does contain carbohydrates. Not a great many but enough worth considering.

 

[novorapidboi26]

I don't think pure spirit contains carbs..............pretty sure about that............

the thing with alcohol and its magical blood sugar lowering effects is that those effects only start when the liver decides to start getting rid of the alcohol, which for everyone will be a different time..........

for me, the effect doesn't really happen till the next morning........so around 8 hours or so.......

but for most the effect wouldn't be instant, not quick enough to get your BG down quickly anyway..........

and of course, the more you have the quicker and more severe the effect.........and you don't really want to get really drunk just to drop a few mmol..............