Diabetes and alcohol

[Vytautas]

Here is a topic i didn't notice here. There is one in a Lithuanian forum (a very big comunity there but it's in my native toungue so i guess no one will understand that )

Ok.. So most of you are grown up (if not all of you) and i believe you do drink once in a while... At parties for egzample So here are a few questions:
1) How does alcohol affect you? (diferent alcohol (wine, beer,vodka) diferent affection i guess)
2) What's the safe ammount of alcohol a diabetic can use?

Ok.. I'll be first:
1)Since i'm still young i drank only on a few occasions... Our country makes very good beer so why not? :laugh: I've noticed that vodka realy goes on the sugar level... The next morn i had a 3mmol/l (though i went to bed with 16 (ate at the party too you know)). A few days back me and my friends went to a little forest after school and i drank 1 bottle of beer (5dgr, 0.5l). After that i had a perfect 5.7 all day (though the headache caught up with me by the night :laugh: )
2) I think that a diabetic has to take very good care when drinking alcohol. The most i drank was ~1L of beer and a few glasses of vodka and it droped my sugar level by 13mmol/l!!! So i do not suggest drinking a lot... In fact i do not suggest drinking a lot to anyone :lol:

Ok.. waiting for replies and maybe we can make a disscusion out of it.

[Blair]

Vytautas, it depends on the percentage of alcolhol a drink contains?

[Blair]

Vytautas, it depends on the percentage of alcolhol a drink contains?

[Vytautas]

I'm not sure but i believe it does... Here is why i think so (i might be wrong though):
Beer contains carbs which should normaly raise your sugar levels, but for some reason it does the opposite. So that means that there is something that overpowers the carbs that are in this drink. There is a matereal called (if i remember correct) ethaline. It is what gives the effects of alcohol drinks. Now in the organism i believe that there is a burning reaction (don't know how to translate) and it needs something to completely dissolve. For this it might use the gluckose in the blood wich is why, i believe, even normal people pass out after drinking too much. F.E: the time i drank beer my sugar levels fell but not that much. when i drank vodka which has fewer or no carbs (didn't have writen on it) my sugar level droped dramaticaly though i ate a lot...

The higher the percentage, the more ethilene or (some say it is pure alcohol (spirit)). I'm in 11th grade and i didn't take an advanced biology and chemistry course, so this is just a hunch. I would like to hear other opinions or a specialist for i still have to ask one...

[richard]

It could cause some serious problems while having alcohol by the person who are diabetic. In my opinion diabetic persons should leave their habit of having alcohol.

========================================
richard
Alcohol Rehabilitation

[Blair]

Vytautas, I must have overlooked your above response that time. Sooo sorry :blush: To me that explanation makes perfect sense! That would explain it then.

Richard welcome to the forum

[Vytautas]

Welcome to the forums richard,

to adress the topic of alcohol it's enough to say that anyone should drop a habit if they have one of drinking alcohol. But If you drink in normal quantities like an avarage healthy person, diabetes has very little impact.

When you have diabetes you have only 1 more thing to worry about while drinking alcohol and that's the controll of sugar levels which get's a lot more difficult. But as for other more sensitive effects, let's say to the organism just because you have diabetes, I can responsibly say that there will be no aditional problems.

I've read an article about alcohol and diabetes. Not one of those you can just find on the internet, but I've gotten my hands on one of those meant for scientists that go more deep into the details. Sadly the article was strictly about the alcohol effect on the organism. The conclsion of the article was that when cells are weakened by diabetes, they do not become more vurnarable to alcohol.

And for a final example: what is a habit of drinking alcohol? I go out to drink with my friends once every 8-10 days and every time there is an occasions (F.E. in a 5v5 football tournament my team took 2nd place... a good reason to get a beer with my team, friends and fans).

I wouldn't be a physisist if I didin't say: everything is relative... :lol:

PS: you don't have to apologise Blair <br><br>Post edited by: Vytautas, at: 2008/10/27 19:37

[LINDA]

Hi Vytautas,
I've been out for awhile but just read your note. I too just drink occasionaly in social situations and I've found that alcohol that is not mixed with anything sweet (like juice and/or soda) will in fact greatly lower your bg. Even wine (which I will sometimes have with my dinner (just one glass) will lower my bg. I just have to watch my levels before going to bed to make sure that I don't have a low glucose reaction. This has happened to me on several occasions long, long ago before I was smart enough to figure it all out.
Regards,
Linda

[Vytautas]

Hi, Linda

Thank you for your response.

It is highly propable that the way your organism reacts depends on the person. Some of my friends did show this trait, that their bg droped significantly and sometimes didn't come back up witouth help. But others, like me, somehow gather enough carbs from what's left in the liquid and they are later compensated by ether (I think that's the name for alcohol, my chemistry knowledge is rarely used :lol: ). I think that this chemical is what mainly brings down the sugar level since when i've learnt about it in school it's affects on the human body were very similar to those of a hypoglycemia and thus the theory: alcohol brings anyone to a semi-hypoglycemic state from which most people can recover by themselves and in a diabetics case the real deal (hypoglycemia).

Sorry but I drink wine to rarely to speculate on that enough, but as for most strong alcohols i'd say that the greater the ether percentage the lower it will punch your bg. Experimenting further (carefully though) is needed. A lot of things need to be investigated. For egzample: how does alcohol affect our ability to take in carbs.

Post edited by: Vytautas, at: 2008/11/04 17:43<br><br>Post edited by: Vytautas, at: 2008/11/04 17:43

[LINDA]

I'm always on a diet (like most women) so try to stay away from carbs. When I drink alcohol (again not that often!!)I load up on protein. Of course I do eat carbs but in very limited amounts. A typical meal would be vegetables, bbq anything (chicken or beef) and thats it. Thats why my bg is affected so much by acohol I'm sure. Carbs would probably help to stay "normal". And as you said - everyone is different and age certainly has lots to do with that as well I suppose.:laugh: