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Alcohol and liver bounce back or Jersey Royals

C

charon

Well-Known Member
Messages
201
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
I am type 2 diet controlled but this should apply to type 1 too.
It's about why I have a highish reading for the last 18 hours or so - is it alcohol recovery or jersey royal new potatoes?

I notice that when I have a glass of wine (or two) with a meal my BG seems to stay low whatever I eat. I am normally under 5.5 if I am careful but even after having potatoes with a meal and a dessert with a couple of glasses of red wine my BG is often in the low 4's.
I thought goody - just have to be careful to make sure I don't turn into an alcoholic.

On Saturday I had a meal with friends - barbeque, potato salad with (quite a large) belgian chocolat trifle - and a couple of glasses of wine. When I got home a couple of hours later my level was 4.6. I also hadn't had a reading above 5 for the previous 4 days.
Yesterday evening though, I had a smallish jersey royal new potato with dinner and an apple. Was feeling pretty confident but the reading 2 hours later was 6.3. This morning 6.3, afternoon having bacon and eggs and coffee 6.8 (that's never happened before), 2 hours later 6.0.

I know 6.8 max is well within NICE guidelines and a lot better than some can do but it is a lot more than I have been getting and not going down as I would expect.
I thought it was the jersey royal - I've tried normal baked potatoes without problems though.
Had another thought - maybe it is the body (liver?) recovering from the alcohol and giving a higher level a day or so later.

Has anyone else noticed that - or could the jersey royals cause high BG for 16 hours.

(Of course, an option would be to never stop drinking wine but suspect I would become resistant and need more and more. Don't see any downside there :) ).
 
Could be your liver. Since I stopped alcohol a few months back my liver seems to have got me out of "low sugar" a few times without intervention.

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gezzathorpe said:
Could be your liver. Since I stopped alcohol a few months back my liver seems to have got me out of "low sugar" a few times without intervention.

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Click to expand...

Indeed..whilst your liver is dealing with removing the alcohol from your system it appears to be 'Too busy' to do its job of rectifying low blood glucose..I've quit drinking too and my BG's are more stable and my insulin use is more stable.

Best wishes

Paul
 
charon said:
I am type 2 diet controlled but this should apply to type 1 too.
It's about why I have a highish reading for the last 18 hours or so - is it alcohol recovery or jersey royal new potatoes?

I notice that when I have a glass of wine (or two) with a meal my BG seems to stay low whatever I eat. I am normally under 5.5 if I am careful but even after having potatoes with a meal and a dessert with a couple of glasses of red wine my BG is often in the low 4's.
I thought goody - just have to be careful to make sure I don't turn into an alcoholic.

On Saturday I had a meal with friends - barbeque, potato salad with (quite a large) belgian chocolat trifle - and a couple of glasses of wine. When I got home a couple of hours later my level was 4.6. I also hadn't had a reading above 5 for the previous 4 days.
Yesterday evening though, I had a smallish jersey royal new potato with dinner and an apple. Was feeling pretty confident but the reading 2 hours later was 6.3. This morning 6.3, afternoon having bacon and eggs and coffee 6.8 (that's never happened before), 2 hours later 6.0.

I know 6.8 max is well within NICE guidelines and a lot better than some can do but it is a lot more than I have been getting and not going down as I would expect.
I thought it was the jersey royal - I've tried normal baked potatoes without problems though.
Had another thought - maybe it is the body (liver?) recovering from the alcohol and giving a higher level a day or so later.

Has anyone else noticed that - or could the jersey royals cause high BG for 16 hours.

(Of course, an option would be to never stop drinking wine but suspect I would become resistant and need more and more. Don't see any downside there :) ).
Click to expand...
I'm pretty new to all this but they sound like pretty good balanced blood levels to me except the low 4's.
I yo yo from 4 to 17! The last week I've balanced out at between 4.5 and 7 which is very good for me.
 
I always find this after having a drink, I only have a couple of glasses with a meal once a month - lower numbers after the meal than ususal so can have a few extra carbs not many though maybe just an extra potato, spoonful of rice etc but no pud unless I nick a bit of hubbys :roll: Those are great numbers for what you have eaten and within the guidelines so if your happy with them I wouldnt worry too much

but the next three days I run a little higher - more in the mid to high 5s and not the usual mid to high 4s - don't let it bother me though - my life is stressful caring for my son and the 4hrs we get a month for a night out together is worth the little dalliance :D
 
Thanks.
Not concerned about the low numbers - I can usually get down to the low 4's by exercise anyway.
It's why I'm getting around 6.5 when normally I would expect 5.5 max. Not too worried about 6.5 occasionally either as long as I know why it's happening.
Usually I am 4.5-5 before meals and up to 5.5 two hours after a meal with exercise.
Could also be this batch of test strips which read about 1.0 higher on the control solution than the previous batch.

I'll watch it for a few days then experiment without the potatoes.


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It's the booze. And like someone else mentioned, you feel like you can get away with just a little more.

I think i might be type 2, no medication.

One night I drank 2 cans of cider and dropped straight to 'Lo' and woke up the next morning feeling like I was dying at 19.1 mmol

Another night I has a glass of white wine with my meal with everyone else (new potatoes and lamb were involved) and my 2 hour reading was an amazingly low 6.1

So I thought I could afford a small serving of prawn crackers. A bit later I shot up to 19.4

I think I will forgo the booze that is sort of giving falsified low readings. I realize that booze induced low postprandials are not a license to eat a bit more and it /will/ catch up with you later...

OP your numbers are still great though so I'd still smile x


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Thanks LittleWolf. That's the sort of thing I am seeing but nowhere near as extreme.
Don't mind as long as I know to expect it but it's something to watch and monitor over the next couple of days after drinking.
 
Yep, just be cautious. It is so tempting to see that low and think 'well maybe I can have desert'

I know you're not the reckless type, Charon ;3

It's just worrying when I keep seeing posts from people saying they were arrested on a booze induced hypo or went out for cocktails and then ate lots of carbs and didn't test/inject and wondered why things went wrong @_@

Its annoying for those of you who like to drink, I know. I only drank on both occasions because my boyfriend's family are the posh type and like wine or something with meals. I have (or had) a huge tolerance for alcohol on the occasion that bemused friends would try to get me drunk at least once. For some reason alcohol never affected me, so I stopped drinking it altogether as it was a bit pointless for the price. Now with the diabetes thing it kind of sucks I can't seem to have any without issues. *shakesfist* I can't believe I actually started a thread on using alcohol to manage blood sugar because I thought it was a great idea... Until the above story happened.

Experimenting cant hurt under controlled conditions. If you're at home and have your meter and means to correct hypo or hyperglycaemia you can work out what happens exactly when you drink and with the food ingested afterwards. What kind of timescale you're looking at before your liver is done with the alcohol and what happens.

Hope you get it all sorted x Many hugs xx


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I don't drink alcohol, so Ihaven't anything to say about it, but Ido eat the occasional Jersey Royal.I can handle 3 of the smaller ones without any ill effects
Hana
 
Seems to be staying around 5-7 now whereas it was 4-6.
Kippers and eggs this morning and reading now 5.7. Would have expected more like 4.7.

Possibilities
Warm weather
Different strips - these controlled at 8.1 instead of 7.0. Range 5.9-8.9 rather than 5.7-8.6. That would account for the 1.0 rise.
My system has realised what I am doing and has settled at a new level or pancreas is getting less effective.

I bought an extra meter which will come with 10 strips so I'll try those.
If that is the issue then I will have had a couple of readings below 4.
 
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