Alcohol

[daryop]

Which drinks are we allowed to drink? Rum? Vodka?

thanks

[Funnygrl]

Everything in moderation. You need to test and see how it personally effects you.

[2high]

Be careful of sweet liqueurs... they can send you up through the roof in no time...

I find spirits to be okay, rum, vodka, tequila, bourbon, not really an issue at all. Use "diet" or "zero" mixers with them, of course... you will need to monitor carefully, as sometimes you can go up, then drop a few hours later... Its best not to bolus too much if you do go up a little when drinking. Alcohol seems to cause a bit of a rollercoaster effect in a lot of people.

As FG said, just try things in moderation, and test regularly, you'll soon figure out your own boundaries :)

[Funnygrl]

Last night I had a rum and regular coke and didn't bolus for it though, and it shot me up to like 200, but I didn't bolus, and within a few hours I was bad to 84. I decided to play it safe at first cause alcohol does remove any natural buffer against lows you may otherwise have- it inhibits glycogen release.

[REDLAN]

You're "allowed" any alcoholic drink, it just depends on how it affects you, and it affects people differently.

spirits - whisky, vodka, gin contain no carbs
wine - all the dry whites, and red contain no or very small amounts of carbs.
beers/lagers contain some carbs, around 10g-15g per 500ml/pint
alcopops contain sugar, probably lots, I've never looked it up as I don't drink them

however some people get a bg rise from drinking alcohol - I do. So I have to bolus (a bit) for alcohol. If you do bolus for alcohol (some people don't), then be careful - I think it's better to underestimate than overestimate - the combination of being under the influence and confusion from a hypo is not funny.

the thing to watch out for is when you exceed the recommended daily limits - if you know what I mean (",) - alcohol can impair liver function, and this can cause problems if you get a hypo, because your liver can not release glucose into the blood stream to protect you from the hypo. You can experience sudden and unexpected BG drops after drinking alcohol sometimes quite a time after drinking - I have to be careful about 12 hours after drinking.

If you are drinking heavily (and yes I know it's not good for you, but you know how it is - one drink turns into 2, then 3 then oh what the heck - the joys of being human) then some people have a snack before going to bed to ensure that they don't go hypo in the night. Overdoing it does bad things to your numbers. In the UK we have a tradition called beer and kebab, which you can witness around 11.30pm friday and saturday nights in pretty much every town/city in the UK.

[cheryl]

I was a bad girl back in the days, and just drank mixed drinks, to me they are the best, now that i have no clue how to do them, cause I didn't back then just figured oh well I am gonna be high so whatever, So now I don't drink, but i remember margarita's didn't do too bad, when I was stressed the other night I wanted some but, I give up on it................i miss it occasionally though!!!!!!:(

[thomasb]

I find beers working the best. Tried drinks before, mostly sugrfree ones and they lower me. I can have as many beers as i like, light beer that is( mine has 3 carbs per bottle).
doesn't do much to my sugars. Thank god.

[Cyborg]

After listening to some of the Bernstein CDs, I have come to a better understanding of the effects of alcohol on a diabetic. From what I've learned, alcohol reduces the liver's ability to metabolize protein.

When I drink, I usually eat protein to offset the effects of the alcohol, now I am concerned that the effects of alcohol on the liver are making the protein consumption less effective in avoiding a hypo.

If alcohol also prohibits the liver from producing glucose, then it seems that alcohol consumption becomes even more complicated...

[Injecto]

If alcohol also prohibits the liver from producing glucose, then it seems that alcohol consumption becomes even more complicated...

Which is interesting because as it seems I can't believe that the liver produces enough glucose regardless. If it did, wouldn't the risk of hypos be decreased severely? I'm not being difficult, I just don't understand the whole "liver produces glucose thing" in reality. Perhaps it's better to start that line of questioning in a new thread.

So far I find drinking, something I was scared off from ever doing again, to be quit fine. I don't tend to have more than two in any given night (and I really only drink on very rare weekends). I never seem to go high when I drink, and I just test a little more often. Plus, I set my alarm to wake me up in the middle of the night on drinking nights. It's just one of those things I now "do" in my life. If I don't want to be woken up in the middle of the night then I just don't drink. Simple as that. It sucks, but it works as a life change.

[Cyborg]

That's a good point! When I drink, I change my basal to not account for my DP as I am most likely go low the next morning. Now that I've learned more about how the liver destroys active insulin during DP, I am starting to wonder if alcohol prohibits this destroying of the insulin or whether it inhibits a liver dump... :hmmmm:

[Injecto]

O.K....I suppose I can do that too now that I'm on the pump, lower my sleeping basals to help reduce the risk of a low after drinking. Hadn't thought of that before yet that's what I do during the day for activity...go figure.

[Tyler]

Being in college I drink probably once a week, and usually drink quite a bit.

I stay away from alcohol that has carbs, usually sticking to lite beers and hard alcohol mixed with diet pop if I feel like that kind of stuff.

Lows are the biggest problem, these types of alcohol rarely raise my blood sugar more than 10-40 points over where I start from.

If I plan on drinking, I lower my evening Levemir dose from 11 units down to 6 and make sure that I'm good before going to sleep. When I was on my pump, I'd cut my basal rate back 30-50% depending on my blood sugar.

It's all about being in control of yourself and gaining experience, take it slow at first.

[LancetChick]

If I'm on a real wino-bender, drinking like a sot for days, I find that I have to lower my Lantus more every day until day 3, when it levels off. Dry wine does not increase my blood sugar, but beer and champagne do. If I drink either of those, I bolus with Humalog and decrease my Lantus. Alcohol is fabulous for DP, but you really have to experiment carefully to figure out how it affects your own blood sugar, since it can cause some serious hypos. My non-drinking total Lantus dose is 17u, and my 3rd-day-of-drinking dose is 12u.