I would like to have a glass of wine on that rare occasion. I am also planning a vacation soon and would love to treat myself to a mai tai!!! How do you handle alcohol and insulin? I definitely wouldn’t have a drink on an empty stomach.
I usually give myself a bolus at the beginning of alcoholic beverages to handle the initial hit, but once your liver gets saturated your need for insulin goes way down.
Just eat!
That is an excellent question!!!
I think the best thing to so is make sure you have food with your beverage of choice. I am a known beer drinker, I don’t hide that fact. I recently went thru a drug study at Vanderbilt and on New Years Eve I got an email from one of the nurses giving me some suggestions on how to handle it.
Here’s what she wrote:
Remember to eat carbs at bedtime with no insulin bolus if you've been drinking. Set an alarm to check blood sugar in middle of your sleep night for safety.
My problem, as I'm sure with a mai tai, is that it contains carbs. So at some point I do have a BS spike from that. I asked it I should bolus a fraction of the amount (like a 1/4) to cover those carbs and I was told no. Too much of a risk of a low.
Another thing you can do, if your on a pump, set a temp basil. That was a suggestion from my hometown diabetes nurse after she had a client that would drink himself into a low on karaoke nights.
I hope you have a wonderful vacation and get to enjoy a mai tai (or two, but maybe not back to back)
I would have asked this question before the holidays; but, I had a surgery that could not be put off until the beginning of this year. I’m very hypo aware–getting shaky atround 70. I’ve experienced a low of 46 and don’t want to go anywhere near there accidently! As I would more likely have that drink at dinner, the idea of a bedtime snack sounds like a good one. I also always have that middle of the night call of “nature” and often check BG levels then…no problem there.
I am on an insulin pump. I don’t thik that it’ll be necessary to set a temporary “drinking” basal though.