What are realistic drinking parameters for a newly diagnosed healthy college stu

[JCrudup11]

I am a 19 year old college student who has just been diagnosed with diabetes.  I am in otherwise great health and actually comptete in division one college tennis for the college of charleston.  Before now I had been drinking at college as does almost every other college student.  But, I am a good student (4.0) and consequently I dont drink near everynight, and with all my school work, it pretty much just boils down to the weekends.  But when I did drink on the weekends, it was nice to be out with my friends and I did drink fairly heavily.   I was hoping maybe I could get some realistic comments on the level to which I would be able to drink and hang out with my friends in the future.  Any comments would be appreciated, especially those who had been through this.

[JDRF-Team-LRS]

Hello JC,
So sorry it's taken me this long to answer your question.  I must have missed it when I was checking this site.

Now, on to my response.

Alcohol, by itself, can tend to lower one's glucose and can result in very severe hypoglycemia is one is drinking heavily.  The reason for the risk of severe hypoglycemia is that, normally, over livers will help out when we're low -- The liver will cause glycogen stores to be converted to glucose in an attempt to raise our blood sugar.  When we have alcohol in our systems, however, our liver will first deal with that "toxin" ... since the liver "sees" alochol as a poison to get processed out.  As long as our liver is processing alcohol, it will NOT dump the glucose we might need -- no matter how low we go.  That's the big added risk to drinking.

Having said all that, and remembering well my college days, I'd encourage you to think about these approaches.  Clearly, you're a very bright person (4.0 plus athletics is tough to achieve!), so I hope you'll consider these ideas carefully.  Never drink alone and never drink without food.  There are plenty of low-carbo beers and spirits and nursing one can last a long time.  If you drink a mixed drink, be very aware of the carbo content in the mixer (juices & reg. sodas have loads of carbos) since you can also cause very HIGH blood sugars.  Consider a drink "budget" both within a day/night and within a given week to help avoid binging which has killed college & high school students around the nation.  Having a diet cola in a class with a "mix straw" can give folks the impression that you're having a mixed drink (if it matters to you what they  might think) while you protect your health.

Finally, now that I'm on the other side of college (I'm a college prof) I also encourage you to be very cautious about yoru surroundings when/if you choose to drink.  There are lotsa horrifying cases of young (mostly women) students being harmed by having something "slipped" into their drinks.  This type of thing rarely happens when folks just are out having a beer & pizza with pals.  Rather, it's large "parties" that draws out such evil.  Of course, don't drink 'n' drive and don't ride with someone who's been drinking.  It's really NOT cool ;-)

Anyway, I've had diabetes for 35 years including much of my teen & college years.  It is easier now to "budget" responsible drinking since I've learned the impact it has on my blood sugar and my overall well-being.

I hope this is helpful for you.  What do you think of these ideas?