Drinking???

[SydneyLoo]

Hey everyone-

I'm new to this site. I was diagnosed in 2004 at age 20. I'm on a sliding scale and take a couple of shots a day. I have not drank a single drop of alcohol since then because all the doctors make it a point that you should not drink. I was just wondering if you could'nt drink at all or just not let yourself get hammered. Are you just not supposed to drink for the rest of your life? Also I still don't get how alcohol is supposed to drop your blood sugar. You would think it would make it sky rocket.

Can anyone help me understand this better?

Thanx,
Sydney

[duck]

Welcome to the forums...I'm tired and getting ready to go to bed, so this will be brief. There are many members here who have been known to imbibe from time to time. Approach it with some common sense! As a diabetic you probably know better than to try a new dish and not test your sugars afterwards, and the same with drinking.

Pure alcohol drinks (ie, shots of liquor) can indeed lower your blood sugars because the action of alcohol supresses the liver's function to secrete glucose. Whether or not you realize it, your liver is constantly releasing glucose into your blood stream, and if you suddenly shut that off and were not accounting for it, you will obviously have issues.

Each diabetic is different, and whereas some go very low due to alcohol, others don't--you need to figure out how it affects you by testing testing testing while drinking. And wade in carefully, don't go and binge because some guy named 'duck' on some forum somewhere said it was safe--that is not what I am saying. Even if you were not diabetic, alcohol has calories and ...alcohol... which needs to be dealt with as well.

Also, use the search function here, you'll get some decent hits on older threads about this.

[DeusXM]

http://www.diabetesforums.com/showthread.php?t=5299

Basically your doctors are lying, unless they have a reason other than your diabetes to say you should stop drinking. You can drink, and you can even drink to excess if you want to - god knows, I've done it enough times.

The important thing is though that you need to know how to control your diabetes well, and you need to be able to spot warning signs and know exactly what will do what. So don't get fitshaced straight away, and have a read of the thread I've linked to.

[Belinda]

Welcome to the forums...ROTFLMAO..I was going to suggest you get in touch with Deus....he does seem to have the knowledge about this one. As for me....I still drink but test often when I do.

[Del]

I haven't changed my habits on this at all. Doc flipped but I still have my glass of wine whilst cooking dinner and my glass of wine whilst eating dinner. But that's the extent of it nowadays. No more partying through the night or anything.

They forbid you from doing everything else- This is one of life's little pleasures I ain't gonna let them take away from me. :smile:

[Cielo]

Hey, you can definitely drink, you can do everything you could do before you were diagnosed, just do it with more care. We had a pump trainer come out to the house this weekend and she said that she always suggests that you drink an alcoholic beverage and you don't bolus for it, just so that you can see how your body reacts to it. Beer can send your sugars up...other types of alcohol may send them down. Who knows, it's different for everyone. So you may want to experiment a little and drink a beer and see what happens to your sugar. Just be sure to be proactive with your testing throughout this delightful experiment!!!! :cheers:

[birds_eye]

Hey Sydneyloo, if you feel like a drink, go ahead, but as has already been mentioned - take care. I've found that 2 or 3 glasses of Red wine or whiskey have no effect on my sugars, but experiment with what works for you. and remember - always have something to eat beforehand....

watch out of course for the sweetened alcholic drinks like breezers and spins, they'll wreak havoc.

Have fun experimenting, and let us know how it goes! :ridinghor

[DeusXM]

As an extra bit of advice, I personally would never bolus for beer or cider - I'd rather run slightly high for a bit than run the risk of getting a hypo while drunk that might be misinterpreted.

[Cielo]

Oh yea, the trainer also said that you should always eat when you drink. The body sees alcohol as a toxin so the liver focuses on metabolizing it to get it out of the body. If you go low, the body is too busy to release sugar to stabilize you b/c it is working to get the alcohol out. So be sure to eat something while drinking. :eating:

[DeusXM]

Just make sure it's not a kebab on the way home.

You know you're old when kebabs start losing their appeal. :puke:

[Godisgood]

is it not true that dry white wine has fewer carbs than red? does that make it better for us folks???

[notme]

I have not given up drinking on occassion. White wine, red wine or sugar free margaritas.....I never bolus for them. I just ride high for a while and then my blood sugar drops like a rock.

Baja Bobs sweet and sour (sugar free) makes the best margaritas on the planet!

Nancy