T1D and Alcohol Consumption

[tharris310]

How do you guys balance alcohol consumption and hypos as a T1D? I have cut almost all alcohol out of my life but would be interested to hear from more seasoned diabetics!

 

[Rokaab]

If I go out for a few drinks in the evening (zero carbs drinks - ie spirits + diet mixers - which is what I always have), I normally have some carbs before I head home in the evening, for me one freddo chocolate from the bar sorts me out, but obviously trial and error was required to work this out , if I dont have said snack then my sensor will be beeping very loudly at me probably from about 2am and it will take forever to get sorted

 

[Deleted member 527103]

I don’t see alcohol consumption as something I have to balance with hypos.
I drink beer or wine. i do not bolus for wine but I bolus for beer.
if I drink more than 4 units of alcohol, I reduce my basal insulin to avoid hypos.

 

[Antje77]

How do you guys balance alcohol consumption and hypos as a T1D? I have cut almost all alcohol out of my life but would be interested to hear from more seasoned diabetics!

I know how my body reacts to alcohol, but my body is not yours.
So what about going slowly and do some testing? Have a beer/wine/whatever and see when it makes you rise or drop. Have two or three next time to get a better idea.

As a rule, carbs in your drinks make you rise just like other carbs would, but your liver dealing with the alcohol afterwards prevents it from adding the usual amount of glucose to your bloodstream, which may result in a low.
Do you have a CGM, and do the alarms wake you up usually?

Should you plan on a serious binge, I'd also plan on having a substantial fatty and carby meal before bed just to be sure. Afterwards, you can analyse your CGM graph and have a more educated guess next time, until you get it right, no different from learning how to deal fith foods, exercise or illness with insulin.

 

[EllieM]

I've been drinking alcohol since I was 17 and diabetic since I was 8. No real hypo issues before I moved to a pump 3 months ago when I notice a tendency to early am hypos after alcohol.

My main issue with alcohol now, aged 62., is that my body can't cope with ìt in terms of next day effects, nothing to do with diabetes.

Currently on a boozy but very active holiday with wine every night, seem to be balancing the booze with evening desserts. As am eating quite early am coping ok but will definitely consider @In Response 's lower basal method in future.

I think if you are aware of it as an issue you can plan round it, but since pumping I have had some scary hypos where I had to knock back a lot of glucose.

 

[CheeseSeaker]

I tend to find spirits will cause a crash in BG (maybe an hour or so after) depending on how much - the odd short won't really affect - 'a bit of a sess' definitely will - so snacking required.

For beer and cider - these raise the BG quite quickly and can cause a loop to hit it too fast with insulin (so I set a higher temp target 30-60 mins before), which cushions the blow.

Wine - seems to put it up, then bring it down to about the same level so I don't worry about it.

We are all different (as said in previous posts) so you have to try it and see (terrible work but someone has to do it...)

 

[Juicyj]

When I drink I don't go hypo if that answers the question, as I bolus for beer and avoid sweet alcoholic drinks like cocktails, but drink wine and no insulin, I use my G6 sensor to keep an eye on things but touch wood it has very little impact on my BG levels, dancing to the wee small hours does though so carbs can be vital then, however I don't drink much when I do so am always aware and in control to keep things in check.

 

[Juicyj]

Perhaps we should organise a night out..

 

[Ushthetaff]

I don’t drink alcohol any more but when I did I never tok any insulin , I just let my sugars do what they wanted taking less insulin than normal if sugars went too high , but I sorted them out the following day when everything settled down took a great deal of experimentation , initially when inexperienced I tried to normally bolus , really bad hypo where the contents of my fridge was decimated

 

[Marikev]

Was diagnosed 2 years ago and hospitalised for 5 days, during which time they taught me how to finger stick and inject insulin and gave me 3 very serious talks about the hazards of alcohol consumption, now I was diabetic! I thought the medical staff must have decided I looked like a 68 year old lush.. till chatting to an 18 year old, diagnosed about the same time and hospitalized in the same place…told me he had had the ‘benefit’ of a couple of these ‘talks’ as well! For 2 months I was terrified to drink any alcohol at all…but then I began to experiment. Have my own ‘rules‘ for what BS level I go to bed with, and up that by 2 if I have taken any alcohol.
Have now given up alcohol almost completely due to a dodgy, OK fatty, liver!
An experienced T1 work colleague advised me to not count the carbs in the Prosecco I had at the work Christmas do and he regularly takes significant amounts of beer, but think he has a car by snack after a sesh!
Slightly different drinking culture in Norway to the UK. Hence the ‘alcohol talk’ dished out at the hospital!

 

[SimonP78]

When I used to drink like a student, while I was a student, I wouldn't tend to take insulin for alcohol (unless it was a cocktail night and no dancing), but would always reduce insulin for evening meals (when out drinking) and would always require a bedtime snack and would also tend to be low in the morning. It was certainly partly the alcohol, but also the being out dancing, walking around between bars, etc., has a definite effect on stopping the immediate effects of beer raising blood glucose levels.

I don't tend to drink very often these days, but I'd not bolus for wine (unless it's sweet and lots, yuck) or I'm eating snacky things with it, I will generally bolus something for beer though I usually wait to see what happens after the first pint (as I only drink when out plus beers are different, so BG may decide to go up or just be happily flat). I would definitely bolus for cider.

I don't drink enough to worry about overnight effects these days, but I do have an inkling that my FotF started when I gave up the habitual after work glass or two or three of wine a couple of years back.