Alcohol & Corrections

[mum2westiesGill]

Something I always wonder about after a night out.

What would you do if you had alcohol in your system from the night before and have a high (in the teens ) BG the following morning? Would you correct when you do your fasting test, at breakfast time or wait until lunch time?

 

[LeeLee]

Not sure you'll get a complete and unambiguous answer to this one. Different types of alcoholic drinks affect different people in very different ways. For example, wine and spirits seem to reduce my BG to uncomfortable but not harmful lows - but then I'm a T2 with good overall control.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

I think it's a personal thing - what works for me will probably be very different to you. At the level I usually drink I don't really see much lowering impact on my BGs at all. Anything up to about half a bottle of wine just seems to pass without a BG blip - so if I woke high the morning after I certainly would correct straight away.

On the occasions we go to the pub for a pint or two I find I need to inject insulin to combat the (some of the) carbs in the beer.

Other people though need to reduce basal for many hours after drinking and also need to add in carbs to avoid an alcohol-induced hypo.

All you can really do is test, test and test again and use the results to develop a strategy that seems to work for you most of the time. 🙂

 

[Aoife]

I wouldn't correct a high before bed but I would definitely correct a high in the morning, I figure my liver has had plenty of time to grab any glucose it may need by then!

 

[DeusXM]

I would always correct anything over 10mmol/l straight away unless I'd already had an insulin injection in the last hour. In my personal experience, the lowering affect of booze is extremely overrated and is not particularly significant, although as ever, YMMV. Certainly if I had a BG in the teens in the morning I would correct though, and to be honest I would probably doing a more extreme form of injection to resolve that.

 

[bev]

Hi Whiskysmum,

Obviously Alex (15) hasnt experienced this yet so can only go on what our team and FFL have told us for teenagers. We are told they should not correct under any circumstances whilst drinking - mostly because they are too merry to make good decisions and obviously they havent had enough experience to know what alcohol will do to them!😉They told us that its better to wake up and correct then than take any risks when under the influence. We were also told the majority of deaths in adults is due to a low from alcohol which is scary so dont want them correcting under these circumstances.🙂Bev

 

[Lauras87]

If I'm drinking cocktails & beer, I'll take a little insulin to sort out any highs.

I generally run a little higher than I like before bed (max 10-12mmol) to stop any hypos but on the morning, I take corrective doses but keep a close eye on my sugars

But to be little miss boring I drink water every 2-3 drinks & then drink more before bed

 

[DeusXM]

I definitely agree that corrections 'under the influence' need to be handled with care but once you are very confident in how your diabetes interacts with your booze, they are a necessary risk. I find if I don't bolus for the carbs in my drink, the result is I get far, far sleepier very early on and end up spending most of the night going to the loo, which completely ruins everything. It really is no fun being out with your friends and really feeling unwell and wanting to go home when it's only 10pm. Also, it murders your A1c. But yes, absolutely, you should NEVER correct for booze at the time if you're not completely sure what you're doing.

Practice makes perfect - because I've been independently managing my diabetes since I was a child, blood sugar management is something that's completely instinctive to me. I've been extremely drunk before but weirdly the bit of my mind that responsibly manages my diabetes has (so far) never been out of control. I can be unable to walk yet still have the presence of mind to test my blood sugar, weigh up the variables and bolus accordingly. Maybe I'm just lucky, or maybe I've just had a lot of practice.

But I would always correct when sober(ish) the next day. Hell hath no fury like a hangover combined with high blood sugar. The longer your blood sugars remain high, the worse the hangover too. I've woken up feeling horrendous the morning after, with BGs in the 12s. That Novorapid goes straight in me.

As I said though, practice makes perfect. I know what booze does to my blood sugars and how it interacts with my insulin so I'm able to weigh up the consequences of what I'm doing. If you're unsure, either don't correct, undercorrect on purpose, or correct properly but then stay awake. And in all cases, test regularly to see what is going on with your blood sugar. Information is power.

 

[bev]

If I'm drinking cocktails & beer, I'll take a little insulin to sort out any highs.

I generally run a little higher than I like before bed (max 10-12mmol) to stop any hypos but on the morning, I take corrective doses but keep a close eye on my sugars

But to be little miss boring I drink water every 2-3 drinks & then drink more before bed

Hi Laura87,

I dont think its 'boring' drinking water every 2 - 3 drinks - it is very sensible and will help flush it all out and keep you from getting too merry! For some reason Alex thinks he might drink 'jack daniels' - so not sure what that will do to his levels! I have said to him that whenever he feels like having a small drink I will stay up and test more often than normal to see what happens and help him build up a picture of what it does to him - should be interesting! A few of his friends have already dabbled but Alex has only ever had the odd glass of champagne on birthdays so he doesnt have a lot of experience.😉🙂Bev