Alcohol tolerance

[toad]

Hi,

I've been a type 1 for just over a year. I have always enjoyed drinking socially, however i have noticed that as soon as i developed the disease, before and after being diagnosed, my tolerance to alcohol has completely decreased. I have found that after only a couple of drinks i get very drunk, and i'm just wondering if there is any relationship between the two? I am considering stopping drinking altogether after i got very aggressive after drinking recently. It scared the life out of me, as i have always been a very 'happy' drunk. I don't know if i was hypo as i didn't check my sugar levels.Any help and advice would be great.

 

[sandymaynard]

Hi there
Drinking alchol can lower blood sugar that would result in a hypo! A little is okay but not too much!
My mum is a type one has been for over 70 years now! she only needs 3 sips of alchol and she is drunk, but then she always goes into hypo!
It is best to be safe! always check blood sugar! Don't be too hard on yourself, everybody has to learn at a stage that is right for them!
Just ask question's there are better people on here that know more than what i know!

 

[kegstore]

Hey toad, I will never forget my 27th birthday, which is when my hangovers moved from hours into days. :mrgreen:

But seriously, alcohol works like a catalyst with insulin i.e. it speeds up the effect, so you can go hypo quite quickly. Might look like you're just drunk too, which is even more dangerous as it's more likely to go unnoticed by others. I have found this effect increases the older I get, so even though I'm "only" 40, I do have to take extra care to avoid going hypo while asleep after a night out.

 

[lucati]

Always try to have a meal before drinking, those carbs you eat help to stabilize your sugar levels more whilst drinking. In fact, this is actually good advice for non-diabetics too! But even having said that, my tolerance has really been reduced too. Which, let's be honest, makes the night cheaper

 

[toad]

thanks for the advice.... I am just going to stick to drinking with dinner now. I'm not organised enough to make sure i eat before i go for drinks after work etc, so think it's safer for me to just stick to a glass of wine with dinner. Looking forward to saving lots of money! Just don't know if my boyfriend will forgive me for being so horrible. Will try to explain that it's not so much my fault maybe...... thanks again

 

[Thirsty]

You're right to be careful, toad. Back in my days as a publican, some guy suffered a hypo, knocked the living daylights out of his wife, assaulted six of my customers, me, two of my staff and several police officers who showed up to arrest him. Only later did we discover what the problem was; at the time there was no way of telling the difference between drunkenness and a hypo, it certainly didn't slow him down. A distressing experience for all concerned.