What do people think of alcohol and diabetes?
It is delicious!! It has worked out ok for me because I test a lot. I don’t hesitate to test my BG in bars, before we went onstage when I was in rock bands, in line for roller coasters or anywhere else. Whatever I’m doing, I’m testing so, if I run into an 8 pack of Guinness (9G of carbs/ draft can…), I will certainly share it with my local leprechaun. I think that it can be worked in as “carbs” and has not caused me too many particular problems. So far.
similar experience here. if i’m getting hammered (like 5-8 drinks or whatever i can tolerate these days) i text my girlfriend (so she can call a couple hours later to make sure i’m alive) and make sure to eat something with fat and carbs in it before i pass out. i am glad that i was diagnosed after my college years, when avoiding catastrophic and hilarious injuries was hard enough given the amount of alcohol it was normal to consume.
really, it’s fun and it’s just one more thing to learn how to manage.
oh c’mon, we know why you are txting yr girlfriend after u have 8 drinks… ;-)!!!
I think if you are careful it is okay to have a bit. You need to only ever drink on a full stomach. If you do not want to eat say before a meal, but you need to have something in your stomach before you start a drink, then it would be best to have a glass of milk to help line your stomach.
You need to keep checking and pace your drinks too. Keep eating. Reason being that oddly enough, though wine or spirits may taste sweet and probably are, for some reason alcohol drops your blood sugar levels (hence the shakes with a hangover that so many non-diabetics get!) and for the observer, who does not know about diabetes, it is difficult to tell the difference between drunkenness and a hypo!
When you go to bed, have lots of water and a high carb snack.
I had to stop because my reactions to alcohol were so bad. And I do not miss it. Best thing to do would be to talk to your doctor about it and follow his advice, since we are all individuals and it can affect us in different ways.
I’ll drink to that
Everything in moderation man! That’s our code to live by. In college, there were a few nights of no moderation and I was in the emergency room the next day getting re-hydrated from not being able to stop throwing up. Bad stuff!
“Cheers!” 
I’m a drinker. I just make sure to test. I also stick to wine & liquor, because that’s only got the lowering effect, which makes life simpler. I’d have to bolus for beer.
Plus I like martinis better than beer anyway. 
I’m the same way, my heavy drinking days are far behind with my college days, but when I do drink, I do it in moderation and I test more often. I find that for me, alcohol drops my BG levels, so that’s another excuse to keep eating and be able to go over my carb limit, specially if it’s something that I’ve been craving for a while.
thanks for the replies. I am a drinker too but sugar level goes really high if I stick to beer. Ofcourse I have to give myself a bolus if I do drink beer but I usually stick to wine or scotch and my sugars levels are just fine.
Thanks for all your support. I thought I might get some negative remarks here that I shouldn’t be drinking and its bad for you and so on. This really helps to know that there are others who are in the same shoe:)
As summer (slowly) approaches, I have to think Beer ‘n’ Bolus. For anyone else who has Celiac Disease, I recommend Daura, a lager beer from Spain. They use barley but have found a way to remove the gluten in the brewing, so it actually tastes like beer.
Tnx… its good to knw that guinness has only 9g of carbs in one can. Once summer is here I will be buying guinness…
what do people think of alcohol and diabetes?
alcohols great, diabetes not so much.
Hmmm…my mouth is watering right this very moment for some pizza an ice cold beer!!!
def still trying to get used to the change from college drinking to responsible drinking, surprise surprise their is a huge difference even without the d
that forsure is right but u continue with your life. I am just glad to have a pump that supports my life
u sure must be living in a warm climate. The last time I had that I remember I had to suck tons of insulin in my body
After 10 years in the Navy I figured I had drank enough for 3 people so I just don’t drink alcohol. At first it was wine or a brandy but as I have gotten older alcohol isn’t important anymore. Now this does not mean that if at a special occasion I won’t have a drink. this year I will have been married to the same woman for 45 years if I make it to 50 years I may have a drink. I am very lucky to have survived my time in the Navy and even luckier that my wife stuck with me.
u bought a tear in my eye… I am sure u will celebrate 50 yrs and more… Diabetes is a killer but if we take care of our sugars we can survive a long way… thats what I am hoping~