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Can you drink safeley

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Well.... um.... Yes. And no. I suppose!

I guess it depends what you mean by 'a good drink', what medication you are taking if any, and what you mean by 'safely'!

Many popular alcoholic drinks are quite high in carbs (especially beers, ciders, lagers and spirits with non-diet mixers). They are also pretty hefty in calories if you are trying to lose weight.

Added challenges can come in if you are taking insulin (and/or other hypoglycaemic meds), because alcohol interferes with the liver's ability to process carbohydrate and release 'background' glucose, which can mean that your BG levels spike initially and then crash later.

High BGs from rapid carbs in food and drink and also massively varied BG levels - spiking and crashing - are not really good for us. And in the long term are likely to cause damage to eyes, kidneys, blood vessels, heart, nerves blah blah blah...

It's not that it's a complete no-no of course, you just have to be a bit aware, and take things a little easier than you would have done without diabetes in your life. Having said that - many of us are probably drinking too much these days, especially going by the new '14 unit' guidelines.

It might help for you to have a BG meter so that you can see what happens to your blood glucose when you drink, and try to choose the ones that you like which suit your BG better?

Moderation in everything etc etc 🙂
 
As I take hypo causing meds, on the very rare occasion I do have a drink I do have to be careful as alcohol causing me to go hypo. The first time it happened just thought I had one to many, got home and checked my levels and I was well down in the hypo levels, not a good combination.
 
I enjoy a few glasses of red once a week but stay well within the guidelines and eat alongside. I don't drink lager or beer as it spikes my bgs.
 
If you read the info leaflet in your metformin it does tell you in there about the risk of drinking alcohol whilst taking. I drink about once or twice a month and only have 2 pints beer at the most.
 
Depends on what you mean dangerous spike, anything above 8.5 I don't like and would love to see all my figures below this. With me around 10.0 and above and I start noticing the pain due to nerve pain damage increasing. Any in the teens is not good for ones health, in the high teens and 20's is defiantly is not good depending on the meter they stop showing numbers and just show high around 33.0, which in my case lead to the nerve damage as was constantly in the 20's.

From my experience of the docs and DN's they say the odd high is acceptable, at a guess I would say many of us have had the odd high in the teens. What docs and DN's don't appear to appreciate is that regular highs can and do cause damage.
 
Ok bloody hell they caught mine early it was 11.1 after the glucose drink looky or what thanks again pav hope all goes well
 
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