Alcohol and hypoglycemia

[FM001]

When I was first diagnosed at 18 years old, my dsn warned me about the effects of alcohol and its ability to reduce blood glucose over the following 24hrs. At this time I was going out drinking 3-4 times a week and drinking beer, and sure enough I always had a hypo the following morning, so much so that I would always ensure I ate a high carb snack mid-morning to prevent the hypo occuring.

Last night whilst sitting and enjoying a glass of red wine I tried to remember the last time I had a hypo brought on by alcohol consumption, and I reckon this must be more than 10-15 years ago, and the reason for this must be my drink of choice.......Red Wine! When my youngest son was born I stopped going out to the pubs and acquired a taste for wine at the same time, now I very rarely drink beer and only have the occasional pint with my bar meal when eating out, so I can only assume that red wine does not have the same bg lowering effect in myself than when I drank ale, has anyone else had a similar experience?

 

[newbs]

I don't hypo after drinking although I usually only have a couple of glasses of wine or bacardi, whereas my brother (also Type 1) does and he's a beer drinker.

 

[PhoebeC]

Good point, wine never made me hypo, but then i does make me sick haha its all swings and roundabouts 🙂 x

 

[lingy16]

i never have a hypo after drinking!" infact its usually the other way round! i drink vodka and slim line

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Hi Toby

My sky high BGs this morning seem to suggest otherwise for me. We were invited round to some friends last night for a meal and while the food was uber-d friendly I did have a glass or two more than usual.

Apparently I was tossing and turning a lot last night and woke to a 15.8 from a 10.30pm reading of 6.2. We ate around 6pm and there was nothing delayed-spike-worthy in the meal so I can only assume my restless night was due to a hypo that I slept through, with the subsequent liver-dump causing this morning's errant BG.

I'd say alcohol always needs to be treated with caution... sometimes I get a drop in BGs, other times I don;'t at all. The thing I do find red wine has in its favour though, is that having far fewer carbs per glass (15g or so in a pint I think) I don't get the double-whammy of an initial spike followed by a potential bg crash 🙂

M

 

[tracey w]

My drink of choice is wine, rarely do i drink beer.

I find 1 or two glasses have no effect on lowering bg levels.

But if i have 3 glasses i always lower my breakfast ratio or i will hypo. I dont tend to have to snack in the evening or spike with alcohol either. I mainly go for red wine too.

 

[Ellie Jones]

Apparently I was tossing and turning a lot last night and woke to a 15.8 from a 10.30pm reading of 6.2. We ate around 6pm and there was nothing delayed-spike-worthy in the meal so I can only assume my restless night was due to a hypo that I slept through, with the subsequent liver-dump causing this morning's errant BG.


M

Err you wouldn't have a liver dump, as unlikely anything left in the liver store to dump into the system!!!

The reason why alcohol gives us so much grieve, is because the liver can not multi-task... So while it is processing the alcohol it can't not process any carbs into gluogen to replemish the stores which are depleted, it takes an adverage person 1 hour to process 1 unit of alcohol!

Me, well I can't stand the smell of alcohol anymore, not since I allowed a friend to pour my baccardi and diet coke for me.. I got slaughtered that night, I slept where I fell on the lounge floor spent 2 days getting over a major hangover attempting to avoid hypo's which wasn't pleasent treating with Jelly Babies after being sick😱

Now even a wiff makes me urge

 

[bigpurpleduck]

I've tried every type of alcohol to find something which doesn't affect my BG too much, and I've found wine is by far the best.

With beer, cider and spirits my BG spikes to stupid numbers on the night of drinking, and plummets to stupid lows the next day. Wine still affects me but nowhere near as badly. Only slightly elevated on night of drinking and slightly reduced the following day.

As a result I don't really like the taste of spirits or beer, but looooove wine 🙂

 

[Estellaa]

i was drinking vodka and diet coke last night, now i admit i had about 4 glasses.
which to me isnt that much, however i had a hypo in the night?
so who knows.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Thanks Ellie, though I'm always cautious of 'never's 'always's 'must have's and 'couldn't possibly be's relating to diabetes. Everyone's experience seems very different. I was told recently that I 'must have gone hypo' while waiting over an hour and a half for rapid-acting insulin to start working and prevent a post-breakfast spike. It was an experimental day when I was testing approx every 30 mins and my levels were steady or rising while I waited. My liver it seems has a wicked sense if humour at times.

 

[bigpurpleduck]

I'm always cautious of 'never's 'always's 'must have's and 'couldn't possibly be's relating to diabetes. Everyone's experience seems very different. I was told recently that I 'must have gone hypo' while waiting over an hour and a half for rapid-acting insulin to start working and prevent a post-breakfast spike. It was an experimental day when I was testing approx every 30 mins and my levels were steady or rising while I waited. My liver it seems has a wicked sense if humour at times.

Ditto on all counts! 🙂

 

[FM001]

Hi Toby

My sky high BGs this morning seem to suggest otherwise for me. We were invited round to some friends last night for a meal and while the food was uber-d friendly I did have a glass or two more than usual.

Apparently I was tossing and turning a lot last night and woke to a 15.8 from a 10.30pm reading of 6.2. We ate around 6pm and there was nothing delayed-spike-worthy in the meal so I can only assume my restless night was due to a hypo that I slept through, with the subsequent liver-dump causing this morning's errant BG.

I'd say alcohol always needs to be treated with caution... sometimes I get a drop in BGs, other times I don;'t at all. The thing I do find red wine has in its favour though, is that having far fewer carbs per glass (15g or so in a pint I think) I don't get the double-whammy of an initial spike followed by a potential bg crash 🙂

M

Mike, I would put your morning bg down to a night-time hypo too. Much like yourself, I find that red wine has no impact whatsoever on my blood glucose, and the couple of brandy's to finish the night off has no impact on my bg either, but some spirits do contain little or no carbs so no surprises there. I woke to a 16.8 about 2 weeks ago whilst adjusting my levemir dose, felt absolutely crap the rest of the day like I was hungover, don't tolerate hyper's or hypo's very well nowadays, one time I could brush them off quite easily! Toby.