High blood sugars and feeling down

MrsBaz37

Newbie
Messages
3
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
So after getting some very helpful advice on here, I’ve been looking at Diet Doctor, logging my foods with My Fitness Pal and have bought a glucometer. It seems however that even after waking my blood sugars are high (over 7.5) and it feels very disheartening. I’ve been on holiday recently so alcohol will have had an impact. Last night we saw friends and I drank Prosecco and I’ve also noticed I feel a lot worse the next day since lowering my carb intake in general.

I’ve made a decision to ditch booze for a while especially with the results I’ve been recently given. I know I have complete control over making positive changes but I’m just feeling a bit sorry for myself. My blood sugars aren’t in normal ranges when I test and I really hope these can come down by. How long does it take for things to start normalising? I’ve read that with alcohol the liver concentrates on detoxification rather than dealing with glucose so levels can remain high.
 

KennyA

Moderator
Staff Member
Moderator
Messages
3,403
Type of diabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
So after getting some very helpful advice on here, I’ve been looking at Diet Doctor, logging my foods with My Fitness Pal and have bought a glucometer. It seems however that even after waking my blood sugars are high (over 7.5) and it feels very disheartening. I’ve been on holiday recently so alcohol will have had an impact. Last night we saw friends and I drank Prosecco and I’ve also noticed I feel a lot worse the next day since lowering my carb intake in general.

I’ve made a decision to ditch booze for a while especially with the results I’ve been recently given. I know I have complete control over making positive changes but I’m just feeling a bit sorry for myself. My blood sugars aren’t in normal ranges when I test and I really hope these can come down by. How long does it take for things to start normalising? I’ve read that with alcohol the liver concentrates on detoxification rather than dealing with glucose so levels can remain high.
Hi and welcome

If you're just getting started morning readings of over 7.5 are par for the course. they will probably be the last to come down, as they are generally set by your liver and aren't influenced directly by what you eat. Livers are slow learners, and will do their best to keep us at whatever levels have been most common, so if you've been a bit high for a while, they will try to keep it that way.

Alcohol is complicated. yes, there are carbs in some alcohols. A white wine like prosecco (particularly a dry prosecco) isn't all that bad but it depends on wjat the rest of your diet looks like. Spirits are zero carb, but many mixers are often very sugary. Beer is around 18g a pint. I've found my alcohol tolerance in general is much reduced on a low-carb diet.

The thing about alcohol and livers is that the liver prioritises dealing with the alcohol first. Alcohol has 7kcal per gram (carb is 4.9 kcal per gram)so is a significant source of energy. That might make it more likely for any carbs being eaten to be stored as fat. Secondly what the liver stops doing, while it's dealing with alcohol, is adjusting your blood glucose up and down in response to what it thinks you need. This means that blood glucose levels might not rise as much as expected, or even fall, after a carby meal, and you may be fooled into thinking that your system is coping with the carb.

Early on post diagnosis I had a pretty good but very carby meal with a fair bit of chianti and grappa, and came out with a lower BG reading at +2hrs than I had when I started. Thought I'd cracked it. Nope. Just alcohol suppressing my liver. Carbs still went in, got converted to glucose, and presumably wound up stored as fat. So it is possible to see a significantly lower BG than expected if you drink alcohol, rather than higher. It just hides the real impact of the carb eaten.