Diabetes and Alcohol:
Your Body and Alcohol:
Alcohol moves very quickly into the blood without being broken down (metabolized) in your
stomach. Within five minutes of having a drink, there's enough alcohol in your blood to measure.
Your liver does most of the job of breaking down the alcohol once it's in your body. But it this takes time
depending on your weight. It takes a person who weighs 150 pounds about 2 hours to metabolize a beer
or mixed drink. If you drink alcohol faster than your liver can break it down, the excess alcohol
moves through your bloodstream to other parts of your body. Brain cells are easy targets. When
someone talks about getting a buzz from alcohol, this is what they are feeling.
Diabetes and Alcohol: Do They Mix?
Drinks containing alcohol are a normal
part of social functions. When someone who has diabetes is asked 'What would you like to drink?' how
does someone with diabetes answer?
It depends on your answer to 3 basic questions:
1. Is my diabetes under control?
2. Does my health care provider agree that I am free from health problems that
alcohol can make worse-for example, diabetic nerve damage or high blood
pressure?
3. Do I know how alcohol can affect me and my diabetes?
If you said "yes" to all three, it's OK to have an occasional drink. The American
Diabetes Association defines 'occasional' as no more than two drinks a day if you
are a man, and no more than one drink a day if you are a woman. This
recommendation is the same for people without diabetes.
What Increases My Risk of Having Low Blood Sugar?
Alcohol and any of the following combinations...
- Empty stomach
- Exercise
- Insulin shots
- Diabetes pills
Check with your health care provider to see if it's OK to combine alcohol with
your diabetes medications.
(Low blood sugar when drinking is less of a risk for
those with type 2 diabetes who control their diabetes with meal planning and
exercise alone.)
When Alcohol Is A Poor Choice:
Heavy drinking over time can hurt your liver. It won’t be able to make glucose as well. When this happens,
your diabetes is harder to control.
Alcohol and Low Blood Sugar:
It takes your body long to recover from a low blood sugar after drinking alcohol. If
you have low blood sugar, you may need to treat it more than once as time goes by.
Here are a few very important recommendations:
- Check your blood sugar before you go to sleep
- Eat a snack before you retire to avoid a low blood sugar reaction while you sleep.
- Treat a low blood sugar with a carbohydrate such as oral glucose tablets or gels.
- Never treat low blood glucose caused by drinking with glucagon shots.*
*Glucagon shots treat very severe low blood glucose reactions caused by too much insulin. Glucagon works by getting your liver to release more glucose into your blood. But alcohol stops this process. So you need to avoid letting a low blood glucose level become severe. If you pass out, you will need glucose injected into your bloodstream by a health care professional. If you are asked to take a breath test for alcohol, the diabetes will not affect the results of a test for alcohol, even if you are having a reaction or have a fruity smell to your breath because of high ketone levels. If you are asked to take a test for alcohol and you have a choice, choose a blood test. That way, health care providers can check your levels of glucose and ketones, too.
There are ways to incorporate alcoholic beverages into your meal plan with these simple suggestions:
Wise Drink Choices:
Sugar-free mixers can help keep your blood sugar levels within goal range. A few examples are diet soft drinks, diet tonic, club soda, seltzer, or water. This will help keep your blood sugar levels in your target range.
Light beer and dry wines are good choices. They have less alcohol and carbohydrates
and fewer calories.
Mixing wine with sparkling water, club soda, or diet soda can make a drink last
longer. Try a "virgin" Bloody Mary made without alcohol.
Although an occasional drink may not hurt your blood sugar control, it can harm your eating plan if your goal is weight loss. Alcohol is called empty calories
because it does not give you any nutrients.
Alcohol can make some diabetic problems worse: nerve damage from diabetes in
your arms or legs can increase the pain, burning, tingling, numbness, and other symptoms found with nerve damage, diabetic eye disease, high blood pressure and high levels of the fat called triglyceride in their blood.
