Before I was diagnosed with Type 2, I would go out on friday nights with my friends and have a few drinks and some shots and have a grand ole night. Now I am not sure about drinking. I don’t want to stop, but at the same time I don’t want to do anything that will screw up my sugar levels. I mean, can I still get drunk? My friends are being real great about it. One even got me a shot of diet coke so I could throw back with them. It was funny.
Anyone have any suggestions?
Here are a couple of items from the past few weeks that may be of use:
http://tudiabetes.com/profiles/blog/show?id=583967%3ABlogPost%3A7149
and
http://tudiabetes.com/profiles/blog/show?id=583967%3ABlogPost%3A2490
Rebecca,
I can relate. I used to be a full fledged alcoholic many moons ago and loved my everything alcoholic. Then came the big D. The body converts alcohol into sugar and thus is a no no.
However, everything in moderation. I grab aglass of wine every now and then. D is no fun.
I think it is good that your friends are great about it. You need that support.
Cheers,
Jack
The medication that I am on (metformin, glipizide) warn against drinking alcohol due to the increased risk of dangerously low blood sugar. While I am aware of the concept of moderation, when it came to alcohol I had trouble practicing it. I liked drinking beer and wine, and I loved drinking bourbon! Three drinks a night were a common occurence. I decided to give up alcohol, sugar, etc.(5/2006), and so far I have lost 40 pounds. I feel a lot better, especially in the mornings, and my memory about what happened the previous evening is a lot better! ; ) .
Hey…no harm in drinking one or two glasses of wine!
The only thing I can tell you is that I was told never to drink. I’m a Type 1 though. Years ago the peds Dr I had told me that it would at first lower your bg then after a few hours cause it to rise.That’s just what I was told Since then I haven’t drank alot in my life. Good Luck!
Hey, as I usually say, the key is moderation! 
I’ve never been a hard alcohol person so I can’t comment much on that, but I drink wine and don’t have any issues with it. Every once in a while I’ll have a beer and I need to give myself a little insulin for it, but not for wine. I think different people react to alcohol differently so it’s a matter of figuring out what works with your body.
No, alcohol does not convert into sugar.
Here’s the gist (keep in mind, this mostly applies to just type 1s, not sure how it translates to type 2):
Alcohol stops the body’s release of glucose in your liver (a.k.a. why you wear the pump 24/7). Without that glucose because your liver is occupied with the alcohol, the normal amount of insulin you take, your blood sugar will drop. Sometimes it can happen at 2 hrs, sometimes as long as 8-10 hrs. after.
Now this doesn’t take into account all the other crap you mix into alcohol to make it something you would want to consume. Mixed drinks have sugar. Sugar makes your blood sugar go up. Beer has sugar (about 15 g.).
Now, for some people, the sugar cancels out the alcohol so you don’t need to do much. For me, I take some insulin for the sugar, and then lower my basal much later for the alcohol, because the effect of the alcohol hits at about 5 hrs. It’s important to eat while you drink, because for most people, the carbs from beer might not do very much, and the alcohol will keep the liver occupied for several hours, which means you need to have some food in your system to substitute for the liver.
The best way to know what to do is to test. You can drink with diabetes, but you need to take care of yourself if something happens. Test before you drink, about every hour, about an hour after you’re done, and when you wake up. If you can, test in the middle of the night.
Hope that makes sense! Took me forever to figure it out.
pablo, how does wine affect you? im realizing that my red wine habit makes managing my sugars harder sometimes. do you have any special tricks?