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Alcohol

miaxo

Active Member
Messages
32
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Its said that alcohol lowers glucose levels but i just cant see how? Can anyone provide any more insight? How does alcohol affect your levels and how long after drinking does it begin to affect you?
 
For me the hardest thing about diabetes is controlling blood sugars while drinking alcohol. When you drink it, the alcohol can inhibit the liver’s ability to release glucose into the blood so that's why is alcohol so dangerous.
I usually drink beer and i bolus for it, because my sugars are rising very fast and i usually bolus 2 units for 3 glasses (330 ml), but i often feel hypo next morning or during next day.
When I drink whiskey or vodka i mix it with coke, and one glass i mix with normal coke and the other with diet coke, because especially vodka lower my sugars. I often eat something with this combination.
Whatever you drink, you should check your sugars more often than usual and have glucose tabs or something to treat hypos
 

Ahh I thought for us type 1's our liver didnt store glucose anyway so thats why i was confused maybe. An thanks for sharing, its unusual you still go hypo. Im not a big drinker but my levels only lover slightly :s
 
Nope, we still store glucose in muscles and the liver. A glucagon shot that you may have for emergencies causes the liver to dump its glucose into the blood stream.

The tricky bit is if you have a sugary drink that raises your blood glucose, but then later on the alcohol lowers it. Makes it difficult to take insulin for.
 
Ahh right i get you and yes that is trick. I usually just wait and see how much it affects levels before i act upon it
 
hi, think everyone is slightly different. I am type 1, I find that if I drink whisky slowly over 4 or 5 hours after I have eaten I don't need insulin to cover my meal and my blood glucose doesn't rise. how ever the serious down side is if I found my levels dropping for whatever reason like exercise I would be unable to raise my glucose levels without a shot of glucagon.
 
I've also heard a lot about alcohol increasing the risk of hypos, but for me I never have a hypo when drinking. Like Amar, I bolus for my beer but I don't find my BG levels lower after drinking. Maybe it's different for different alcohol. I tend to only drink beer
 
shannonspiersx said:
Its said that alcohol lowers glucose levels but i just cant see how?
Click to expand...


When dealing with alcohol the liver can't multi task so it slows down or shuts off its production of glucose, so as you still have basal insulin on board that is meant to deal with the slow trickle of glucose from the liver this can lead to lower blood glucose levels and even hypo's, that is why they say to eat extra carbs and or reduce your insulin doses when enjoying a few drinks.

Sorry not a great explanation.
 
The danger of alchohol in excess or just a glass is that medics and public would just assume you are drunk.
Some people display drunk symptoms when hypo and this would be the first thought of the diabetic (oh I'm drunk-not, oh I'm hypo) and medics and the public.
 

This actually happened to a mate of mine with a heart murmur history when he collapsed outside a pub we were at with chest pain... While he was suffering on the pavement a drunk guy started kicking him shouting "yah drunk bessard!"
When the paramedics arrived. I told em he did have a pint but was not drunk... It turned out to be acute indigestion at the hospital in the end...
 
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Do you research before doing any drinking with diabetes!

As mentioned above the issue arises when the liver is forced to handle alcohol, it sort of sees the alcohol as toxic and puts all of its other duties on hold to deal with this. Doing this means it no longer puts out glucose, or much less of it, and since our pancreas can't adjust the insulin levels for us our normal basal injection is too much insulin and we go low. If you are on a pump you can lower this basal rate to match, but on injection you cannot.

So now your liver and pancreas are pretty much out of the picture, anything you eat wont do much to raise your sugars if you still have alcohol to process. Many people find that even the following day your liver still isn't back to normal and they go low many hours after drinking.

If you eat and inject while drinking / drunk you may find that your normal I:C ratio is out of whack and you end up going low because the insulin will still work as per usual, but the liver wont process the carbs as you expect it too.

Drinking more then 2-3 drinks is something i have yet to master, and after the first failed attempt doubt i will try again until i get a lot of experience with my pump..
 
I'm a type 2 diabetic and alcohol always lowers my levels. Can drink a fair bit to be honest usually but had a bad experience at the weekend - have changed lifestyle increased exercise etc. went to a party - had a really decent meal about 3pm and got to party about 8. Plenty of food but want hungry and was dancing all night - handful of Pringles about 11ish and then about half one I just went down - not sure if I passed out first or knocked myself out as I went down. Was out for a couple of minutes and when began to come round was emotional (signs of hypo) and was fed chocolate milk and breadsticks!! I don't remember going or feeling hypo but started to acknowledge what was happening whilst munching on a bread stick! Blood sugars when I got back to hotel were 7 so I suspect I did hypo and didn't realise it. Need to be much more careful in future me thinks - eat more or dance less! Got the cuts and bruises as a reminder of that party!
 
Obviously drink is bad for anyone, and yes there are more risks with diabetes..depending on what you drink will determine how high/ low your sugars will go for instance beer,ciders,Smirnoff ice and wine have sugar in them, I choose to have vodka and diet lemonade which is easier to handle because spirits (not all) but vodka has no carbs/cals in it..I used to be a cider drinker but my partner didn't like me having it due to the sugar! Now I actually prefer it..I will warn you although your sugars can rise they can also drop, especially the morning after I find personally/following day, or even during so just make sure you have something on you incase.. It's took me a good 10 years or so to try take control of this particular matter! Wish you luck
 
"So now your liver and pancreas are pretty much out of the picture"
Hi Diamatic.
Nice explanation. I wonder how quickly the liver cuts down glucose production after drinking alcohol?
Also have you any idea how long it takes to process a given amount of alcohol before it can get back to producing glucose?
 
@Diamattic, that's not strictly true. If you eat something that your gut extracts the glucose from into your bloodstream (chips, glucose tabs, burger buns, etc) your liver isn't involved so the rest of your body can process those carbs without the liver creating glucose.

It's when these are exhausted that you run into issues (usually ~3hrs after eating). This is when glycogen is not converted into glucose by the liver and basal is still in effect.

The simple answer is to push you bg to a level that is higher than you would normally so that basal has something to work off when the carbs are digested, especially if you are going to bed.

What you also find is that on the following day, even with only a couple of glasses of wine, your liver may still be processing alcohol and your basal is therefore more effective than you expect due to this same process.
 

Tims got the answer you're looking for lol

So I'll say ~3 hours, but that depends entirely on the rate in which your drinking. I doubt 1 drink per hour would lower sugars as that's the rate that would keep you above the 'drunk' limit.

I think the worry is mostly in 'getting drunk' rather then having a couple beers (which usually raises my sugars)
 
I heard alcohol is a type of anti-glucose, it has a similar effect to insulin, except its the liver producing it rather than the pancreas, however you are damaging your liver if you are using it in place of insulin as a long term solution.

Some alcoholic drinks have exceptions such as fruit spirits, sweet wines, ciders etc.
 
Last time I drank spirits I was high. Untill 2am in the mornjng where I started crashing I started at 20 in 20 mins I'd dropped to 10 took glucose tablets about 6 of them . 15 mins later I was 5.2 . Took a tube of glucogel 15 mins later I was 4.1 . Took another tube and a bowl of cerial . 5.4 then started going up and woke up high. It was an unplesent and panic invoking experiance . Which is pretty much why I gave up drinking
 
Hi I find that a small amount of cider or lager will raise my sugars about 1-2 pints leaves me even although it does raise inbetween- just don't panic If I have more than 2 pints then I need to eat also as it will drop. Just have to find out for yourself - whwile learning don't mix your drinks.
 
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