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Dr Mehta: Alcohol abstinence lowers insulin resistance

Interesting - I know when I have a couple of glasses of wine with my meal my blood sugar is lower at the time and before bed but then I spend a couple of days at a slightly higher level - in the low fives rather than the high fours - not enough to stop me drinking though lol
 
Makes sense as most insulin restiance in type2 is due to liver fat, and alcohol is converted to fat by the liver if the body does not need more glocuse. Fructose works in the same way, and remember that normal suger is 50% fructose.

So what lowers BG is the short term may increase it in the long term, yet the NHS will not do the tests to measure and track changes to our inslin restiance.
 
Prem51 said:
Dr Mehta has been conducting research which indicates that abstaining from alcohol for a month can reduce insulin resistance by up to 20%:
https://www.metro.news/lab-why-you-should-try-going-dry/1059965/
Click to expand...
I'm not sure about that.
I don't drink now and it's made no difference. In fact I'd say the opposite.
It raises blood pressure and gives energy to dance or do more energetic things. More importantly it helps with liver dumps and alcohol is known to lower bgs.
 
ringi said:
Makes sense as most insulin restiance in type2 is due to liver fat, and alcohol is converted to fat by the liver if the body does not need more glocuse. Fructose works in the same way, and remember that normal suger is 50% fructose.

So what lowers BG is the short term may increase it in the long term, yet the NHS will not do the tests to measure and track changes to our inslin restiance.
Click to expand...
Changes to IR are minute by minute. Any result would be a snapshot. Bit like hba1c but more variable. It would be accurate at that time of blood taking but only hours later it would be inaccurate.
 
I did give up alcohol after diagnosis. I only had one glass of wine in three months. My HbA1c had fallen from 49 to 44 at my 3 month retest, though this was also due to spartan eating regime, only one small meal a day and losing 23lbs.
I do like a couple of drinks in the evening so I think I'd find it difficult to give it up again completely, but I might give it a go for one month as my fbgs have been getting higher recently.
 
Interesting study.
They chose moderate to heavy drinkers (average 30 units/week, which is double the recommended amount)
Who then went dry for a month.

Which is perhaps not typical.

I would be very interested in seeing the figs on IR for a group of people who drink the recommended amount, or below, because I suspect that there will be a big difference in the starting point and finishing points between heavy drinkers who abstain completely for a time, and moderate drinkers who become lighter drinkers.

And yes, as @ickihun says, IR varies from day to day and throughout the day, so even time of testing could influence the results, with exercise, carb intake, stress and medications all having additional effects.
 
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