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Insulin and alcohol

  • Thread starter Thread starter Anonymous
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Hi I never go mad with alcohol but when I do have some I am not sure if I should inject for it. I know alcohol rises your bg and then you can drop later on that's why I don't like taking insulin for it because then I think I could go hypo. After I have had a few drinks my bg does rise quite a bit and I always eat something after I have had a drink and I take my lantus insulin before I go to sleep but when I have woken up the next morning after having a few drinks my sugars do seem to have dropped quite a bit from the bg reading before bed. Not sure if I am doing the right thing. Should I still be taking some quick acting insulin?
 
This is always a hard one for me to answer as I don't drink!

But the reason why your BG drops overnight and you are more suspectable to hypo's the next day, is because alcohol has to be processed by the liver, while it's carrying out this process it can not process/store glucogen/glucose.. So as you start your drinking your liver will continue to deliver glucose into the blood stream until it's store is empty..

It takes the liver on adverage about an hour to process 1 unit of alcohol, and it won't start replenishing the liver glucose store until it's finished and then when it does start it takes it's time doing a full replemish as it will start dribbling glucose into the blood stream first..

My husband does drink if he's drinking beer he will inject to cover some of the carbs but not all, then he ensures that he has some slow acting carbs before retreating to bed.. He also ups his monitoring both while drinking and throughout the next morning..

You need to work out what suits you, but just follow some safety rules, such as ensuring that you don't drink alone, that your friends know what to do and what to tell an paramedic as while you are dirnking and recovering the next day, you have lost your safety net, and a glucogen shot won't dump your liver store as there is very unlekely to be enough there if any to pull you out of an hypo..
 
Hi,

I think you are doing the right things when you drink. When i was on mdi's I never had any fast acting insulin, i had something to eat and my lantus. Just be a bit aware of what you are drinking like using diet mixers etc (which im sure you already know).

Josie
 
I have the exact same issue at uni. For me, if I drink things like largers, cocktails or sugary mixes they raise my BG quite a bit. Saying that, I always have something to eat afterwards. If you have a night where you do drink quite a lot do eat before you go to sleep but only take quick acting insulin for what you have ate.

I'd be interested to see what things other peeple have to say because I haven't been out drinking very often with this new insulin

nb. Diet mixers make you go low quickly
 
Hi,

i think it depends what you drink, if you are drinking beer or alcopops or a mixer with normal coke/lemonade then it's likely to make your BG shoot up quite a bit and like you've noticed as the body is too busy getting rid of the alcohol it doesn't release any glucose into your body so you tend to drop later on.

I personally stick to spirits and a diet mixer. As i use an insulin pump i also temporarily lower my basal rate from when i start drinking to the next morning. When i was on MDI i ALWAYS had a hypo in the night when drinking because i just couldnt get it right. So i stopped drinking for a while because it just wasn't worth it.

I also make sure i have something to eat before i go to bed, if i'm eating i still have quick acting insulin, but i work with a 1:10g ratio, my normal ratio is over double this so really i'm only taking half the insulin i would need to normally.

But this is from trial and error, i've worked out from what i drink that this works for me, usually i wake up in the 7's after drinking, and along with my reduced basal rate and i like to bop around when i'm out drinking too so i've worked it out that's what's best for me :)

It's quite common to reduce your basal insulin before you go to bed if you've been drinking, as Jopar says the body takes a while to clear out the alcohol, so it can affect you long after you've stopped drinking, especially if you've gone to town :)

I always always test alot when i'm drinking too as the last thing i want is to exit the pub via ambulance!!
 
Ricey - i have to say that using diet mixers does not make my sugars go low at all. I usually find that if i am drinking shorts and diet mixers i am fine my only problem when im drinking is lager.

josie
 
josie38 said:
Ricey - i have to say that using diet mixers does not make my sugars go low at all. I usually find that if i am drinking shorts and diet mixers i am fine my only problem when im drinking is lager.

josie
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That's interesting. I try to stay clear of them because of this or at worst have like half regular mixer and half diet mixer :/

So, it possibly varies on what insulin you may be on or diet?
 
Ricey,

I am T1 on a pump and use apidra. When i used MDI's mixers never affectd my bs then. I can drink diet tonic water and things like that without alcohol and they dont affect my bs

Josie
 
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