Diabetes & Alcohol Diabetes Education Online

For example, if you’re on shots, take your basal insulin dose before heading out, and if you use a pump, be sure your infusion site is current. Dr. Pettus also points out that an additional challenge of determining carbs and diabetes and alcohol calories in drinks is that there is no requirement for alcoholic beverages to have nutrition labels. Low carbohydrate and low-alcohol drinks may be better than standard alcohol, but the dangers still need to be considered.

What are the recommended alcohol guidelines for people with diabetes?

People who consume those high amounts of alcohol typically have been drinking and not eating for days and/or have vomited or developed other illnesses from drinking. The mechanisms underlying the development of alcoholic ketoacidosis are complex. However, some typical contributing factors result in insulin lack and excess glucagon levels, thereby promoting the development of ketoacidosis. As mentioned earlier in this article, poor food intake can lead to depleted glycogen levels.

Don’t drink alone (eat, too)

This potentially beneficial effect was observed in both men and women, regardless of age. Your liver releases glucose into your blood stream as needed to help keep your blood sugar at normal levels. When you drink alcohol, your liver needs to break down the alcohol. While your liver is processing alcohol, it stops releasing glucose.

The Alcohol and Diabetes Guide

This could be three or four glucose tablets, 4 ounces of juice (a small juice box), or five pieces of hard candy (and not chocolate). All alcohol contains about 7 calories per gram, which is more than carbohydrates (4 calories per gram) and only slightly less than fat (9 calories per gram). Glucagon kits, widely used to treat hypoglycemia in type 1 diabetes, do not work as well if someone has alcohol in their system. Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) unawareness occurs when someone with diabetes has a drop in blood sugar but doesn’t recognize the symptoms. As you mull these ideas, keep in mind that much remains to be learned about how alcohol affects people with diabetes.

Are there benefits to drinking alcohol with diabetes?

• Most diabetes medications work to lower your blood sugar (glucose) levels — and they’re particularly good at the job.
• Moreover, heavy drinking in a fasting state can cause hypoglycemia and ultimately increase diabetics’ risk of death from noncardiovascular causes.
• But if you do drink, know that not all alcoholic beverages are created equal when it comes to diabetes.

Sansum’s Dr. Kerr also worries about the trend of using energy drinks as mixers, as these drinks are actually designed to prompt a rise in blood glucose from their sugar content. They also provide “a transient, but clinically significant, rise in blood pressure,” https://ecosoberhouse.com/ he notes. Pettus urges people with type 1 diabetes to have a “game plan” in place before going out on the town. He suggests having a good notion of the effects of drinks you like, and taking care of any diabetes “business” before you leave home.

• If you’re taking medication, talk with your doctor about whether and how you can safely drink alcohol.
• This may lead to excessively low blood sugar — and even more so if you drink on an empty stomach (2).
• Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas that helps cells absorb the sugar they need for energy.
• Alcohol intake significantly increases the risk of hypoglycemia (low blood sugar levels).
• Certain diabetes medications, such as insulin and sulfonylureas, can increase your risk of hypoglycemia, and alcohol further affects that risk.

Cardiovascular disease continues to be one of the leading causes of death among all Americans and is the leading cause of death in people with type 2 diabetes (Bierman 1992). The relationship of alcohol consumption to cardiovascular disease in diabetic people has not been well evaluated. However, substantial information on the association of alcohol and cardiovascular disease exists from population studies that included an unknown percentage of diabetics. Those findings suggest that alcohol consumption, particularly moderate consumption, may have a protective effect against cardiovascular disease. In people with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes, single episodes of alcohol consumption (i.e., acute alcohol consumption) generally do not lead to clinically significant changes in blood sugar levels.

So if I have diabetes I can drink as usual?

• Alcohol can interact with diabetes medications and impact your blood sugar.
• And if you often have hypoglycemia unawareness, a condition in which you don’t recognize you’re going low, drinking becomes especially dicey.
• However, Lin and colleagues (1995) reported that the LDL cholesterol in alcoholics exhibits altered biological functions and may more readily cause cardiovascular disease.
• Because of the effects alcohol can have on blood sugar control and other aspects of the disease, you face certain risks by drinking alcohol if you have type 2 diabetes that otherwise healthy people may not.

Hypertriglyceridemia is an important risk factor for cardiovascular diseases. Moreover, elevated triglyceride levels can cause severe inflammation of the pancreas (i.e., pancreatitis). In fact, from a practical standpoint, heavy drinking should be considered as a possible contributing factor in all patients with hypertriglyceridemia. Abstinence from alcohol generally leads to normalization of the triglyceride levels, unless the person has an underlying genetic predisposition for hypertriglyceridemia. The hormone insulin, which is produced in the pancreas, is an important regulator of blood sugar levels.

Your healthcare provider will tell you how much alcohol is safe for you to drink. Depending on your health condition, that may mean no alcohol at all. In some cases, women with diabetes may have no more than one alcoholic beverage a day. This may happen because your liver can’t maintain basal blood sugar levels while also metabolizing alcohol.