Drinking and Type I

[miks]

Hello everyone, I am a 29 year old insulin dependent diabetic and have been living with diabetes for 13 years. My controls are generaly quite good, my Hba1c is below 7, and I am on 4 shots a day (Lantus and Humolog) My diet is restricted to complex carbs white meat, veggies and fruit, and I eat at regulated times. My main vice so to speak is alcohol, I drink around 5 times a week and heavily (8 drinks plus) on the weekends. While i check my blood sugars regularly and havent found too much fluctuations when drinking(I mainly drink vodka and whisky) I was wondering if there are any long term complications with associated with alcohol consumptions even if sugars are maintained. I've heard various opinions from doctors/nurses etc that who have given my different weekly limits, however I'm not convinced.  I would like to hear your thoughts on this..

[JDRF-Team-LRS]

Hello miks,
You may know that we're volunteers here and not physicians, so be sure to review what you read here with your medical team.  They know much more about your particular health history and details, AND they have earned medical degrees :-)

Having said that, here's what I've learned about alcohol and diabetes.  Alcohol in moderation (not what you describe) can be associated with helping folks unwind and there is some evidence of health benefits.  It's very risky to be a heavy drinker and a diabetic, miks.

If you need help to cut your alcohol consumption, do ask for help.  AA and other groups provide wonderful support for folks who realize they want to change their behaviors.

Here is an interesting article with citations from a number of medical journal articles. http://www.jrussellshealth.com/alcdiab.html

Good luck.

[JDRF Team SGG]

If you do much research about alcohol consumption and diabetes, you will read that the primary concerns when a person drinks heavily is that they may not be as aware of high or low readings. Alcohol consumption prevents the liver from dumping emergency sugars that the body needs when glucose levels start to drop because the liver is busy processing the alcohol instead. So a person can have a very severe hypoglycemic episode and not be able to recover because the liver is not doing its proper job. This is made more complicated by the fact that being in a drunken haze blocks the awareness of warning symptoms of both high and low sugar levels.

[prothberg]

Hi there I have had 13 years of dealing with IDDM and have found that initially  alcohol lowers blood sugar but later as the ethanol is converted into glucose , BSL rises usually whilst asleep after drinking. Spirits are better than beer as beer has too many carbs. However dry wine I feel is the best. Here in Australia we are advised that 4 standard drinks should be the limit but most people say that if 4 is OK then 6 or 8 must be even better!!Good luck .

[quatlox]

I have been a diabetic since I was 14.  I am now 48 and in better shape than most non-diabetics even tho I also have high chlorestrol and High blood pressure.  I have been drinking since I was 18. I drink Beer on weekends, sometimes as many as 8, but try to stay in the six pack range.   Beer has a big reputation of giving us a "beer belly", you might not have that problem with whiskey.  I found a new Budweiser beer called "select" that only has 3 grams of carbs per 12 oz beer plus it still has 5% alcohol.  I don't have any trouble drinking, but have found that beer raises my blood sugar when I first drink and then over a couple of hours it will lower my sugar.  So I always eat when I am drinking to stay away from the lows as mentioned above.  Oh, wait a minute, there is one problem that needs to be noted. After a night of drinking with my buddies, I might wake up with a hangover, but usually I get over it by lunch time and I'm ready to go at it again.  Be very careful of the unexpected lows that can come from alcohol.  When I was about 15 there was a guy across the street that was a diabetic (35 years old and looked 60) that was an alcoholic, but I don't think he took care of himself, I don't know for sure, but I bet he died before he reached 40 because alcohol really aged him.