Reaction to vodka

Lemonie said:

I drink once in a blue moon and have turned into a bit of a lightweight. Was at relatives over the weekend and ended up drinking quite a bit of vodka through the afternoon and evening. I drank a shed load of water as well to even things out. I have good control and bloods are usually high 4's to low 5's. I woke up really early the next day and felt a bit wonky and when I checked by bg I was 3.0 and my finger nails were blue. I had a small glass of orange juice and rechecked in an hour and everything was ok but I thought that as I am on no medication that I couldn't go hypo. I have a wedding coming up and am going to be drinking again as was wondering whether to raise my carbs the night before to compensate. Am honestly thinking about not drinking.

Has anybody had anything similar and how do you get around it now?

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Generally, the liver has a one-track mind, and turns off the background blood glucose production factory while it is tending to the alcohol you just drank.

For me that's a good thing - it allows me to eat out more comfortably when I don't have access to accurate carb information. If I think I'm on the high side of carbs, I have a glass of wine with my meal.

But if you are on medications that are likely to give you hypos if carbs are not well regulated (sulfonylureas, insulin), it can be a bad thing.

As to not going hypo because you aren't on any medication - T2 diabetics who are not on insulin or meds that make the body generate insulin at times other than in response to foods are no more likely than anyone without diabetes to have hypos. That doesn't mean it can't happen (because people without diabetes can have hypoglycemic events). It just means it is uncommon, and that its source wasn't the medication.

Alcohol is known to create hypoglycemic events in both diabetics and non-diabetics.

I don't drink a lot either, but my understanding is the lowering of blood score is usually shorter term, then returns to normal.

My bloods are usually low overnight, as demonstrated by both occasional finger prick tests, but also using several Libre sensors.

Obviously feeling a bit wonky isn't ideal, but if you enjoyed sharing a celebratory drink with others, and would ideally like to do it again then perhaps before deciding too much you could do a couple of finger prick tests during the night, should you have, say, a nocturnal loo visit - just to see what the numbers look like without the potential influence of any alcohol. Secondly, or alternatively (your choice), you could have a couple of V&Ts (or whatever) before the wedding and see if there is any recurrence of the wonky feelings etc.

It's completely up to you.

I use Libre so can clearly see the effect of occasional alcohol. A glass of wine after evening meal or a whisky before bed gives a drop of 3-4 mmol starting about midnight and peaking at 2am, about 3-5hrs after alcohol. That usually wakes me up, I get up and BG is back up within 30mins. I find it strange that it is so predictable. Exactly the same graph slopes and times.

As I recall the liver takes 1 hour to process 1 unit of alcohol, which is handy as it makes the maths easy, while it is doing this it stops monitoring your bg levels and releasing glucose into your blood so while your liver is working to clear your body of the toxin (alcohol) your bg levels can be liable to drop.

Now depending on how much you drink determines how long your liver will be out of action so a couple of glasses of red wine may take an hour or two and not have much effect whereas a full on session downing half a bottle vodka or so will take much much longer, so the best bet is to eat a small amount of long acting carbs on your way home or before you go to bed to help keep your bg levels stable overnight, a small slice of pizza perhaps.

Vodka is the only alcohol that does not interfere with my bg levels. I only dring 2-3 when out at a party, so not a big drinker, but any other drink seems to cause a rise in my levels.

Lemonie said:

Was at relatives over the weekend and ended up drinking quite a bit of vodka through the afternoon and evening.

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I'm a T1, a lightweight about alcohol, and I love vodka, but it always tries to kill me.
I will allow myself to have a glass of red wine now and again, but vodka and I have had to become strangers. Alcohol tends to raise my blood sugar very high, then drop it lower than it was before I started. Vodka is the worst culprit, dropping me so low I can't walk or think.
Now, if I drink a glass of wine, it's only with a meal and I check my blood 3-4 times before I go to bed (I tend to have hypos at night).

Morning, I am not type 2, but at the weekend at a county show (Saturday), I tasted vodka samples, but I am not a drinker at all, and I really liked them, my favourite was the raspberry and an orange, these were just tiny amounts, but a few was had and my BS was, much lower and before bed, it was 4.9 As others have said, it does, for most, lower BS.