Alcohol and Diabetes

[commit]

Hi hi was wondering about the effects of alcohol on the body of a type 1. I feel like knowing that drinking alcohol in moderation or avoiding it in general is not enough. I will admit that I do love alcohol (but not to an addict’s extent) so Im trying to see how I am able to enjoy it again. Thanks

 

[helli]

Throughout the day, our liver drips glucose and our basal insulin "mops up" this glucose.
Livers find alcohol to be toxic and focuses on getting rid of it. And, when I say "focus", I mean, livers stop doing other things until they have got rid of that poison. Amongst the things that it stops doing is dripping glucose.
As a result, the basal we last injected has much less to "mop up" which could result in a hypo.

This does not mean we have to give up alcohol but we need to be aware of this and try to run our BG a little higher, especially during the night after drinking.

To confuse this further, many alcoholic drinks contain carbs so we may need to bolus for these.
Wine and spirits (if drunk alone or with sugar free mixers) are generally ok but beer, cider and sweet alcopops will push your BG higher.
So, you need to balance the rise due to the sugar in your drinks with the fall due to your liver dump stopping. This may take some trial and error to get right for you. I find the first pint and a half of beer needs a bolus but any more does not.

 

[nonethewiser]

Only have a drink on a weekend, red wine which don't bolus for as it has no effect on my bg, strangely enough never seem to have low bg afterwards so it's my drink of choice.

Like anything else it's trial & error to find what works best for you.

 

[Chelseagirl]

I too am a dry red wine drinker. Used to be lager until I was staggered to see what my BG did!

 

[Inka]

I see you’re only 18. You might feel pressured to drink more than you planned to, so I’d have a plan before going out. I have a max of two or three drinks usually. I intersperse the alcohol with soft drinks if necessary.

Beer and cider might need a small amount of bolus, but normal dry wine and spirits don’t. What do you usually drink @commit ?

 

[eggyg]

I’m only a social drinker generally and on the odd occasions do go out I drink dry white wine. I am a lightweight and don’t drink much usually but if I have a lot more than usual it never seems to touch my BGs high or low. Mind you four glasses is a lot for me! As has been said pretty much suck it and see.

 

[SB2015]

I stick to white wine most of the time, and usually only at weekends (or we are watching a programme that was recorded at the weekend!!!). With the white wine I find I don’t need any bolus and I don’t get hypos after two glasses (which is my limit)

If I have cider or beer I tell my pump about half the carbs in order to balance out the impact of the alcohol. (Sorry @adamrit Iforgot to mention that in the other post - another occasion for telling the pump less carbs)

 

[mashedupmatt]

I love a beer (or two) and regularly have a one (or two) in the evening and have found it doesn't affect my BG that much (although I do use a higher carb/insulin ratio for dinner to compensate) - If you've had a particularly heavy (good) night you may need to have a few carbs before bed as (as stated before) your liver will not be any help at all as it's sorting out the alcohol

 

[Bloden]

I had to stop drinking completely because of the effect it has on my BG - alcohol drops my glucose like a stone, while I’m having a drink and all day long the following day. But everyone’s different @commit. As @nonethewiser says, it’s trial and error, but I’d advise moderation while you find out the effect alcohol has on your glucose. Got to stay safe!

 

[SimonP]

I see you’re only 18. You might feel pressured to drink more than you planned to, so I’d have a plan before going out. I have a max of two or three drinks usually. I intersperse the alcohol with soft drinks if necessary.

Beer and cider might need a small amount of bolus, but normal dry wine and spirits don’t. What do you usually drink @commit ?

Or you may do what I used to as an 18 year old and keep drinking until the bars/clubs closed. In this case (pre-MDI and pre-CGM) I would significantly reduce my evening meal insulin (I was doing mixed doses, but if I were doing it nowadays I would bolus 1/4 - 1/3 of what I think I'd normally need for supper, always erring on the side of taking less insulin as walking around in the evening and dancing also use up glucose.)

I'd invariably end up going low during the evening so a quick half of OJ or full fat Coke was usually on the cards towards the end of the night (make sure you actually get to the bar before they close if you do need this as otherwise walking home while hypo isn't much fun; ah yes, take an emergency snack - skittles minipack would be my choice now, back them I just winged it, I don't think minipacks were even a thing. Learn from my mistakes! 😉).

I'd also run low overnight so would need a hefty bedtime snack (bowl or two of cereal) and munching through whatever else was lying around (crisps, biscuits, left over pizza) when getting home was never a bad call (none of this with additional insulin). If I were doing this nowadays I'd reduce basal considerably (I split my dose morning and evening.)

I don't drink much these days, but when I first got a CGM and used to still go on occasional all-night nights out, I'd find red wine did very little immediately (but still required bedtime snack), white wine perhaps a slight rise in BG (but not enough to really worry about), beer was fine after a few pints, but cider, no matter how many I drank would always drive me really high (and give the most awful hangovers too!) - I was never a cider drinker while a student (normally beer, then cocktails) now I remember why 😉

P.S. Moderation is of course the best way, but you should be able to work out a way to do whatever you and your friends want to do.

 

[commit]

I see you’re only 18. You might feel pressured to drink more than you planned to, so I’d have a plan before going out. I have a max of two or three drinks usually. I intersperse the alcohol with soft drinks if necessary.

Beer and cider might need a small amount of bolus, but normal dry wine and spirits don’t. What do you usually drink @commit ?

I love liquors like whiskey and gin. Sometimes we occasionally drink some yuzu sake. Also, I only drink socially so I don’t drink alot (at least I’ve never blacked out before). I hate drinking to get wasted and Im comfortablr enough to reject my friends when they offer me those last few cups that I know I wont be able to down.

 

[Inka]

Whisky and gin should be fine. I’m not familiar with yuzu sake (it sounds nice!) but rice sake doesn’t affect my blood sugar any differently than spirits like gin or vodka. The main risk is hypoglycaemia, so it’s wise to always be aware of that. I often eat some carbs (without insulin) when I drink.

 

[SimonP]

The other risk is mixers, if you don't drink these things straight (you may well do, but for the record) - you'll end up the same conundrum that cocktails used to bring me if we started on those early in the evening (cocktails were significantly better alcohol-value-for-money than beer for nights out in Switzerland.)

I used to not care too much, knowing I'd go low later on irrespective and not being able to easy monitor what was happening (pre-CGM and I didn't tend to take a blood tester out much either, back in the days of being able to feel what BG was before I succumbed to the CGM 😉) if I did it again I might think about dosing a little bit to take the edge off (as long as I had a fast acting snack to hand to fix things if needed), but it's a tricky one to get the balance right and still live a reasonably normal life.

P.S. Of course some mixers are sugar-free, certainly much more nowadays.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Alcohol can be a real pickle.

Especially is the drink has significant carbs (hello beer, cider, lager, cocktails, some spiced rums, liqueueueueuers - never sure on the number of vowels needed there, so I included some spares). But then the alcohol itself has the capacity to dramatically drop BGs. But this capacity / effect seems to vary from person to person. And to an extent from day to day.

So you might get a big BG spike. But then an auto-crash later.

The upshot being… that if you’ve had one or two too many you will be:

• less able to notice any hypo warning signs (and less attentive to them)
• be less able to think-through treating any low BG
• have impaired your body’s ability to process fast carbs / hypo treatment
• potentially behaving ‘extra drunk’
• smell of alcohol, so those around you (security staff / police) may simply assume drunk, not life-threatening medical emergency

Moderation is a much safer bet. 😉