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Type 1: Does alcohol effect blood sugars

D4rren2016

D4rren2016

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Good morning I have a quick question as google is giving conflicting answers. I've recently started practicing carb counting so been monitoring my blood sugars closely. Anyway I had a few pints of strong bow last night and I noticed my blood sugars go up. Can alcohol affect blood sugars. Is it advisable to take more insulin to tackle this.
 
It isn't so much the alcohol, but what is with it.
Cider (alcoholic fruit juice) is a very high carb drink, followed by most beers, wine is low carb and sprits very low if any at all

HTH
 
Once Alcohol enters into the bloodstream the body will treat this as the priority and try to dispose of it before dealing with blood glucose levels. Alcohol therefore slows down the effectiveness of dealing with B/G raised levels.
The tendency is to take more diabetic medicatios (Insulin/Tablets) but this can be dangerous in that once control starts to work on the raised blood glucose level after drinking, the fall in B/G levels can sometime be dramatic and effectively create a rebound hypo before establishing safe levels.
It is best to limit Alcoholic consumption , eat something with the Alcohol, and spread the consumption of Alcohol over a greater time. Also if you can, see what drinks best suit you - Beer isn't always the best choice and a short measure might in this instant proove better.
 
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I don't know about cider, but a couple of glasses of red wine each night with my meal has no effect on my blood glucose level :):). I am lucky that at the moment I'm not on any medication, just the LCHF diet (or more accurately way of life).
 
The OP is talking about insulin so I assume type 1. Cider is possibly the worst thing you can drink alcohol wise, better off with a spirit and diet mixer but make sure yopu have some carbs generally at the end of the night to avoid a hypo.
 
D4rren2016 said:
Good morning I have a quick question as google is giving conflicting answers. I've recently started practicing carb counting so been monitoring my blood sugars closely. Anyway I had a few pints of strong bow last night and I noticed my blood sugars go up. Can alcohol affect blood sugars. Is it advisable to take more insulin to tackle this.
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Did you carb count for the strongbow? Myfitnesspal is telling me 1 pint of strongbow has31g of carbs (you might wanna check the accuracy of that). It's not alcohol that raised your bs, it's the carbs. But if you considering covering those carbs with a bolus, just bear in mind that your liver can't multitask. If over night your liver is busy processing alcohol, it won't be doing the usual glucose trickle/dump over night, so you might find you drop low in the night/morning after drinking.
 
if one only take 1 drink without any carbs in it usually lowers the blood glucose untill about 1 mmol at the most...

if one drinks more it is another case.. and works different in type 1 and type 2 the last most often has a very over active liver..and doen´t get ow as easy as most type 1, but there are exceptances, and also type 2 on insulin needs to take care not to get dangerously low...like type 1
 
@D4rren2016 I find I often need to eat a few carbs if I drink alcohol away from meals as it can push me low. I drink wine and spirits and on an empty stomach would always have a few carbs with them.

If I were to have more than a couple of drinks, I'd also set an alarm to,test in the night in case I was going low.
 
azure said:
@D4rren2016 I find I often need to eat a few carbs if I drink alcohol away from meals as it can push me low. I drink wine and spirits and on an empty stomach would always have a few carbs with them.

If I were to have more than a couple of drinks, I'd also set an alarm to,test in the night in case I was going low.
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I find the same as azure. If I drink wine I will always have a little snack with it even if it's just some nuts. Haven't figured out how to deal with things like lager so I just avoid it.
 
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