Alcohol Question

[astbury1]

Hi am going to a party on Saturday and this will be the first time since starting MDI.

I have been told not to bolus for alcohol as lowers BG. Carby tea before go and eat some carbs before bed

Although I used to be the classic binge drinker I do realise that this has to be toned down alot. I have decided to limit myself to 4 drinks, but which?

2 concerns and choices

Was thinking 4 pint lager or bitter/ale as not overly carby but am wondering whether this will send me too high? Especially with eating before bed? Or does this matter on a one off

Or 4 glasses of dry wine, however this concerns me that this does not raise BGs much at all, meaning more potential to go low?( I know I am going round in a what if vicious circle in my head!)

What are anyones opinions? Go high with the lager and know that it will drop or do the wine thing?

I did go to a festival just after being diagnosed and the meter just said HI before bed and still ate something although newly diagnosed and was on insultard so this brought me down in the night

What do other people do? Would any of those drinks make me drop low really quickly? How often should I test blood suagr through the night?

Do I have to be careful the next morning? ie blous a little less for food?

I do realise that some people might come back with te answer you should not have more than 2 drink, but to be honest that aint going to happen!

 

[DeusXM]

Here is my advice on drinking: Go for it.

Here is some more constructive advice: Go for it, but don't drink enough to make you pass out, and carry glucose tablets or something similar to prevent hypos. Also, try to eat something once you've finished drinking for the night. It's not absolutely essential to do so (I've managed to get away with it myself a few times), but it's the single best piece of advice I can give you, because eating something starchy will help soak up the booze and reduce your hangover, and will also help stop you going low whilst asleep.

Alcohol does make your bg drop, but to say this is somewhat misleading. Drinks such as lager or cider will in fact raise your bg for a while after consumption, and obviously alcopops and the like, which are basically just alcoholic sugar water, will definitely raise your bg. Wine will probably raise it a bit too. However, the effect of having alcohol in your system is that it keeps your liver occupied. This means your liver is far too busy filtering out the the alcohol to worry about releasing glycogen into your blood, which is why you will probably have a drop in bg levels a few hours after you've been drinking. My advice would be to go to bed having eaten something with slightly elevated sugars - you really don't want to have a hypo in your sleep when your liver's unable to do anything to help you.

As a practical tip for drinking on a night out, it can be helpful if the people you are drinking with know you're diabetic and that if you do pass out, they should take you to hospital and not just put you to bed. Another tip, which I've found very useful, is to vary your drinks. If you're drinking a spirit and a diet mixer, that's great because it's low in calories and won't jack up your blood sugar. However, every 3 drinks or so, have a spirit and regular mixer, or even just the mixer. This will raise your bg levels a bit and compensate for drops in bg, and it doesn't mean you have to stop the fun.

Alcohol in itself can actually be a good treatment for diabetes - in fact elsewhere I've suggested that a small alcoholic drink before going to bed might help prevent the Dawn phenomenon. Basically though, the important thing to remember is that alcohol will lower your bg at a time when you are probably less able to deal with it, so make sure that you prepare beforehand. When you go to bed after drinking, assume that you are going to have a hypo at some point in a few hours, and therefore do whatever you would do to prevent a hypo normally.

And it goes without saying, check your bg when you can.

 

[delb t]

Hi - others will know more than us- but we have had to trial this with a teenager - so far what we have done is a carby tea - say 4/5 bottles of beer(say corona) at the do with a diet coke along the way too-handful of crisps in total throughout the eve no injections -then a sandwich with half a dose before bed- has worked up to now but more experienced party goers may have more knowledge than us- enjoy your do

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Good so far - though the extent (and timing) of any BG drop will be personal to you and you'll need to suss out general apporaches etc that suit you.

Personally a half or three quarters of a bottle of red would not cause any apparently significant rise or fall in BG levels - but others may find they would need to 'top up' to counteract it.

Beers/lagers tend to weigh in at 20g CHO a pint, so 4 pints is 80g CHO. Again you will need to establish for yourself how much dip you get to know whether you get a rise-and-crash or rise-and-return or just rise-but-not-as-much-as-you-might-expect.

And yes... some people find the next day can be fraught with lows. But others dont!

Unfortunately for you, the only way to really get the hang of what happens in your case is lots of practice 😉

 

[astbury1]

Am liking all this advice! Sounds all good to me! I suppose just very wary. My friends are sensible and so is my husband and they know to keep an eye on me and I now know I cant really go totally crazy. To be honest am likely to eat too much in the fear of a hypo

If am drinking for eaxmple til about 2am will I then have to watch the following day?

Dont know if you know when you say alcohol lowers the blood sugar, how much are we talking on average? Drops a few mmol or dramatic like from 15 to 3? (example) I suppose this depends on what you drink but just wondering from peoples experiences?

 

[astbury1]

Thanks you answered at the same time as my last post! ha ha. Sooooo dont want a low!

Good so far - though the extent (and timing) of any BG drop will be personal to you and you'll need to suss out general apporaches etc that suit you.

Personally a half or three quarters of a bottle of red would not cause any apparently significant rise or fall in BG levels - but others may find they would need to 'top up' to counteract it.

Beers/lagers tend to weigh in at 20g CHO a pint, so 4 pints is 80g CHO. Again you will need to establish for yourself how much dip you get to know whether you get a rise-and-crash or rise-and-return or just rise-but-not-as-much-as-you-might-expect.

And yes... some people find the next day can be fraught with lows. But others dont!

Unfortunately for you, the only way to really get the hang of what happens in your case is lots of practice 😉

 

[astbury1]

I take it you bolus for the tea?

Hi - others will know more than us- but we have had to trial this with a teenager - so far what we have done is a carby tea - say 4/5 bottles of beer(say corona) at the do with a diet coke along the way too-handful of crisps in total throughout the eve no injections -then a sandwich with half a dose before bed- has worked up to now but more experienced party goers may have more knowledge than us- enjoy your do

 

[Caroline]

can't offer any constructive advice other than regular testing and enjoy yourself. If yoy plan to drink 4 pints why not have 8 halves and spread it over a longer period? It will hopefully seem like more.

 

[astbury1]

Yes was thinking that! To be honest they might end up shandies (diet lemonade) or spritsers. How regular is regular testing? Every hour or two hours? DOnt wnat to go over board but am new to this

can't offer any constructive advice other than regular testing and enjoy yourself. If yoy plan to drink 4 pints why not have 8 halves and spread it over a longer period? It will hopefully seem like more.

 

[delb t]

yes tea would be normal and a carby one- got the info from nurses-oh dear had to ring them and ask have the dreaded alcohol teenage conversation-heyho

 

[Northerner]

As the others have said, just err on the cautious side - as with everything to do with diabetes, how you react will be quite personal to you, although the guidelines posted here give you a good idea of what to watch out for. 🙂

Personally, I find that beer raises my levels more than lager or cider, and spirits raise them least of all (make sure it's a diet mixer though!). I've learned that I don't usually need a snack afterwards, but I'm a bit weird. What I do tend to find is that the day after a fairly heavy session my levels will be hovering low for most of the day, so watch out for that.

Hope you have a great time! 🙂

 

[astbury1]

I can imagine for a teenager it must be difficult. The diabetic nurses were great in answering the questions apart from what they considered too much drinking! I was trying my hardest to nail them down to an answer but was very vague. I realise that they dont want to tell me to go out and get obliterated and it will be fine but I just wanted a rough safe maximum. I think diabetes is stressful enough without the fun being takn out of drinking too. For the first few weeks I had maybe one drink when went out (very rare) but to be honest watching everyone getting tipsy and having fun was quite depressing! and a litle irritating! lol🙂

yes tea would be normal and a carby one- got the info from nurses-oh dear had to ring them and ask have the dreaded alcohol teenage conversation-heyho

 

[astbury1]

Thanks for the advice. Yes I will definitely look out for the next day! Really dont want my first ever hypo to be when hung over as then I will not really have any clear idea of what my warning signs are, I can see me setting the clock to get up in night to check too. I suppose the best thing in morning then is if high, maybe dont correct just bolus for food? and see how goes through out the day?

As the others have said, just err on the cautious side - as with everything to do with diabetes, how you react will be quite personal to you, although the guidelines posted here give you a good idea of what to watch out for. 🙂

Personally, I find that beer raises my levels more than lager or cider, and spirits raise them least of all (make sure it's a diet mixer though!). I've learned that I don't usually need a snack afterwards, but I'm a bit weird. What I do tend to find is that the day after a fairly heavy session my levels will be hovering low for most of the day, so watch out for that.

Hope you have a great time! 🙂

 

[Northerner]

Thanks for the advice. Yes I will definitely look out for the next day! Really dont want my first ever hypo to be when hung over as then I will not really have any clear idea of what my warning signs are, I can see me setting the clock to get up in night to check too. I suppose the best thing in morning then is if high, maybe dont correct just bolus for food? and see how goes through out the day?

That might depend on how high it is - I'd probably add in a correction with my breakfast bolus if I woke in double figures 🙂