Diabetes and Alcoholism

[AlisonM]

I've been doing my volunteering thing today and we had a call from one of the outreach centres asking for any information on the effects of excessive drinking on insulin dependent diabetics. Interesting question. I spoke to a DSN who says it's complicated, but on the whole, apply the same rule as everyone else. Anyone come across this problem before?

 

[Steff]

Yeah I had a freind who got diagnosed and unfortunetly did not listen to any advice given he carried on boozing the way he used to he one day ended u getting gout had to have his foot off but this still did not open up his eyes he sub sequently died aged 39 and his family are still very angry with him.Trouble was he was a dart player and thats the way his lifestyle was always around the drink etc.

 

[katie]

Just ask me and Rossi! 😉 ehem back to be being serious...

All I can say is that the combination is REALLY dangerous. An alcoholic on insulin is likely to be high a lot of the time and then also have lots of hypos (probably night time hypos). Not good.

 

[rossi_mac]

Just ask me and Rossi! 😉 ehem back to be being serious...

All I can say is that the combination is REALLY dangerous. An alcoholic on insulin is likely to be high a lot of the time and then also have lots of hypos (probably night time hypos). Not good.

You got there before me! I was paying for a home delivery of some rouge!!😉

Boozing isn't great and I can go on, I wish they'd ban ALL advertising, but thas another discussion!

I guess the booze meesses up you liver and kidneys too, which put extra stress on things, sorry not very technical, someone will be along in a bit!

I guess the risk is the hypos from dropping low from the alcohol, thats why I munch!!

but yes it's seriously not good, my uncles not on insulin, but is on special brew, and he's not doing well either, he is T2.

Does that answer anything? I don't know.

Anyway I need a drink after the day I've had...


drinkaware.do

 

[randomange]

My mum's ex boyfriend was a type one diabetic and he used to drink a lot. He would drink to excess, then shove a load of insulin in to cover the sugar in the alcohol, but not eat anything and then go to bed. I'm sure you can guess how well that went... In the three years he was living with us, my mum had to call ambulances two or three times a year because he was so low he was having a seizure. I had long been diagnosed by that time so my mum knew what he was doing was wrong, but he wouldn't listen. That was about ten years ago, and I heard last year that he's on the waiting list for a kidney transplant because his kidneys are shot.

I also know quite a lot of people who have suffered with alcoholism and are now recovering alcoholics, and I think in the case of a diabetic who is drinking to excess, the problems with diabetes that result are just a knock-on effect, and the underlying drinking is what need to be sorted out first. However, I think it's also true that you can't help someone who doesn't think they have a problem, so it's a difficult situation. Just my opinion though!

 

[scotty]

I am a binge drinker, at the weekend though dont class myself as alcholic. Although my dad did die from alchohol at the age of fifty. must of been the scottish blood in me. I have cut down from drinking, from giving up smoking though because i think i will give in to temtation when drinking.

I think my serious lows i get on a sunday are drink related.

 

[Northerner]

I imagine part of the problem is being badly controlled BG wise, so fluctuating sugars affecting mood, thirst etc. I was a major drinker before diagnosis but when diagnosed I stopped and didnt drink for months. In retrospect it was a lot to do with thirst as I would drink strong ice-cold cider. When I wasn't drinking booze I was drinking gallons of milk - now I know why, but thought it was the booze that had made me thirsty!

Mood can be a big driver in drinking - a lot of people with depression 'self-medicate' by drinking, but it just tends to make things worse.

Since diagnosis I have found I can drink quite a lot without hugely wandering BG and rarely hypo afterwards, but we are all different - I think most people are less fortunate.

 

[falcon123]

I think there are two main problems when diabetes is combined with alcoholism. First alcoholics tend to lead fairly chaotic lifestyles which lead to problems with control and increase the chances of complications. Secondly if they go hypo in their sleep they may not notice this and the liver will not cut in to up blood sugar levels.

Jeffery Bernard was a alcoholic journalist who developed diabetes as a result of an attack pancreatitis. I use to follow his extremely humorous columns in the late eighties and early nineties. There are two extremely enjoyable books about him; ?Reach for the Ground: The Downhill Struggle of Jeffrey Bernard? and ?Just the One: The Wives and Times of Jeffrey Bernard 1932-1997?. His death nearly passed unnoticed as it occurred a few days after Lady Diana?s fatal accident.

 

[Caroline]

Used to work with a chap who was a diabetic alcoholic, it killed him in the end, he wouldn't get hlep for the alcoholism and wouldn't take his medication.