Booze!

[VanDamage]

i plan on drinking tonight,any kind of alchohol i should choose to be best? like how bout those low carb beers etc?ill try anything but scotch omg yuck!

[Gangrel]

Well, I would stick with regular beer, or rum and coke and not diet coke.
My theory always was it's better to come home with a high blood sugar then a low one........

[Oradev]

Beer doesn't agree with me. My sugars go everywhere. I have the best luck with Wine or Rum/Jack and Diet Coke. Make sure you eat something so that your BS stays up.

[travis]

Gotta love this condition, whereelse can two people have the exact opposite response...Beer -- I drink heavy lagers and ales -- with food has very little effect on me, but a couple glasses of white wine send me right to the realm of bad numbers.

[kk5483]

My First Time Post I Perfer The Low Carb Beer Or Bacardi And Diet!!

[Mick]

Rum & Diet Coke, Gin & Diet Tonic, a DRY white or red wine, or my personal fave, white zinfandel (much to my wife's disgust!), a Bloody Mary, or a Lite Beer--Corona Light is, I think, the best... Most of these WILL lower my glucose under MOST circumstances, but it is often mere guesswork. I was so uncertain of how alcohol would affect my sugars that I didn't drink at all as a college student or young adult--Really not until I was well into my 30s, and had much more experience with my diabetes--like 20 years' worth! But--and this does seem especially true with drinking--YMMV!!!

Michael
T1 since 1965

[am1977]

I am not a big drinker, only do it once in a while, but for me I've noticed that I'll spike initially but then later on my blood sugar will fall. I think it's hard to predict how alcohol affects a person, it's not the same for everyone, obviously. I would just suggest that you test a little more frequenly when you are drinking and be aware of your levels.

Have fun :cheers: (but be safe!)

[Erin]

My philosophy is make diabetes fit into my life, not the other way around. So I drink what I like, and make it work.

I like dark beers, like stouts and ales and stuff. These tend to make me go high (especially if i drink quite a few of them) and then I'll drop over night. This means of course that if I take insulin for the high I end up crazy low. I will only take insulin if I am significantly higher than i should be... Like 350 or 400, and then I take about half what i would normally take. This makes me wake up with a perfect reading every time.

I also drink red wine, which I find has a steeper drop than the beer, so I barely ever take insulin for it.

Back in my younger days I drank hard stuff mixed with juice (vodka and cranberry was MY drink). That had a steeper incline (more sugar) and a steeper decline (more alcohol) so I'd try to eat something and bolus a bit extra at the start of the night, and then eat something without a bolus at the end of the night. Hard stuff, however, was just as hard on the rest of my life as it was on my diabetes, so I stopped drinking that a long time ago.

[Gangrel]

Back in my younger days I drank hard stuff mixed with juice (vodka and cranberry was MY drink).

Younger days? And you're 23? Man, you know how to make a guy feel old at 30.... :)

[DeusXM]

As the resident binge drinker, I decide on my choice of tipple according to taste rather than BG. In other words, anything except stout.

There are some other threads on the board about diabetes and drinking which have lots of helpful comments from other members - have a search and you'll find plenty to give you food (and drink) for thought.

[sbuff28@charter]

well... Im a new type 1 and its good to hear that you guys still do this every once in a while and it will make me feel more comfortable if i decide to again in the future to not be afraid to have a few.

My question is how much do you guys drink on average and over how long a time period?. i would be interested in you guys giving me some numbers so i know exactly from first hand expeirence whats good to go and whats not.

[DeusXM]

My average used to be about something like 25 pints a week, although now I'm no longer a student that's reduced down a lot - more like 10 a week, and that's on a busy week.

Oh, and we're taking European lagers here - 4-6% alcohol, as opposed to the 3% you seem to have in the States.

In my experience there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to booze because it's totally dependent on the type of drink and a few other factors. There are several good threads you should probably have a look at:

http://www.diabetesforums.com/type-one-diabetes/6586-student-type-nights-alcohol.html?highlight=alcohol
http://www.diabetesforums.com/diabetes/5299-alcohol-diabetes.html?highlight=alcohol
http://www.diabetesforums.com/diabetes/5644-drinking.html?highlight=alcohol

[Erin]

Younger days? And you're 23? Man, you know how to make a guy feel old at 30.... :)

I was a BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD teenager, and even worse 20-21 year old.

Now, I feel like the oldest 23 year old on the planet. :hypocrite

Man, it was fun tho!

[Erin]

well... I'm a new type 1 and its good to hear that you guys still do this every once in a while and it will make me feel more comfortable if i decide to again in the future to not be afraid to have a few.

My question is how much do you guys drink on average and over how long a time period?. i would be interested in you guys giving me some numbers so i know exactly from first hand experience whats good to go and whats not.


I think I rival Deus as a lush... I just talk about it a bit less.

St. Patty's day '02 (last time I decided it would be fun to remember how much I drank)
1 gallon of beer,
4 shots (vodka and tequila)
1 mind eraser
I think that was a 5 hour thing? something like that
Mind you I'm female, and 120 lbs.

A typical Friday night
1-2 pints per hour (Guinness)

A typical MONDAY night (summer)
4 hours playing flip cup
If you've never played flip cup, you're a lucky duck. But suffice it to say you spill more beer than you drink, and you drink a lot!

When I was in college?
you name it man, I drank it. Jungle juice, vodka shots, anything!

The key is starting small, only have one or two the first time you drink, to better be able to see how alcohol effects you. Don't go out on an empty stomach, and TEST, TEST, TEST.

[Gangrel]

I was a BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD teenager, and even worse 20-21 year old.

Now, I feel like the oldest 23 year old on the planet. :hypocrite

Man, it was fun tho!

Hmmmm, i think you got me beat from the sounds of it. I do wonder how much $$$ i spent on booze over the years tho............

[Harold]

By the time I was 21, I was so Pickeld, I was actually bored with drinking and totally gave it up for a few years. It was nothing to go out and spend 70 to 100 dollars in an evening for drinks and that was in the late 60's, not at todays prices.

[tyrice]

Wow! This thread and the others listed were a great helping of info. I like to drink ciders mostly if I'm not looking for that buzz feeling. If I want to get a little tipsy I down 2 Long Beaches at the same time. Thats usually right when I get to the night club. Then I'm dancing the rest of the night. By the time 1:30 hits I'm back to normal. I've had one incident where I took a shot of Jaeger before going home..I felt fine all the way home and went to sleep. Woke up a couple hours later and felt really groggy. I assumed it was from that final shot. Apparently I was incorrect. So I went back to sleep. When my alarm clock went off, I awoke and found my mobility was less than satisfactory and I couldn't speak. Fortunately for me I was at my moms house and we both had nextel phones. After fumbling off of my bed to get my phone, it took me a good minute just to alert her. It was obvious there was something wrong since I was radioing her from within the same house. She came in and took care of me. It was probably about another 45 minutes before I could even stand. Thats the second time I'd eve expereinced a low that bad..the only other time was when I was still in high school. I'm A LOT more careful needless to say. Especially since I'm a single parent with 2 kids. We've already had the discussions on what to do if I'm goofy or am unresponsive. I just need to get them to some classes now for a better understanding.

[VanDamage]

well i thank everyone for their responses. i went out and had michelobe ultra and it only has 2.6 carbs a beer and had 11 beers and hung around 90 - 100 all night tested like 3 times andthen woke up with a 114 b.s :)

[Erin]

Just be wary of the 4 am hypo!

If i went to bed at 100, after drinking 11 beers, they'd be scraping me off the floor the next morning.

But good job with those numbers!

[sbuff28@charter]

DAMMMMNN Van.... thats pretty freakin good, u give me hope, props to you

-Steve

[VanDamage]

i just want to understand this im supposed to be type 1 and im on the honeymoon,and it seems for me to get high #'s i have to really pig out and drink like reg soda and stuff but im lost on the booze part cause i thought alchohol drops your bs then increases it after 90 mins or was that 90 mins after your last beer,cause i see so much talk about hypo's i think i misunderstood what beer does i quess.

[Erin]

just thank your lucky stars that you have to try hard to get high numbers!

Beer has carbs, so like other carbs it causes blood glucose levels to increase.

Beer has alcohol. Alcohol causes a drop in blood sugar because of how it effects the liver. (this drop is usually delayed... like lows occurring in the wee hours of the morning)

So, lots of people, like myself, experience an initial rise in blood glucose because of the carbohydrate, and then a significant drop in blood glucose because of the alcohol. But I must emphasize that alcohol effects EVERYBODY differently, so it's best to observe how it effects you before deciding how to treat your diabetes while drinking.

[jdstein11]

Glad to say that my boozing days are behind me now that I'm a family man... ;)

I do remember two things from college though:

1) 100 shots of beer in 100 minutes = "A Centinel"
2) 100 beers in 5 days DURING CLASSES

# 2 was tough; we had to keep extra beer in our cars and pour then into sippers so we could bring them into class.

As for now, I notice that Mike's Hard Lemonade / Berry / etc. raise my bg, while wine usually drops it, but not by much. Realize, though, that I'm talking about a single drink at night, not a night on the town. I haven't been drunk since I've been dxd, but I think that has more to do with my lifestyle than with having diabetes.

As for beer, I try to drink Amstel Light or Corona Light to avoid the calories and carbs while still being able to tell that I'm drinking beer. Enjoy!

[Clint]

i am going to have sum rum & coke tonight.. :)

[PeptideBong]

Nice to see that I'm not the only type I that likes to drink and get wasted. When I was diagnosed 1.5 years ago I laid off the booze for a month or so. I only dink beer and dry red wines and this was before I was diabetic. Once I started drinking again I was still honeymooning and didn't have any insulin for beer. I could have 10-15 beers in a night and not need any insulin, now that isn't the case.

Now when I drink I usually eat and just add the carbs on to what I eat and take a couple less units of insulin. And of course, test test test. Sleeman makes a low carb beer that has 2.5 grams of carbs in it and I can drink as much as I want and not worry about my BG. It's like the amount of sugar in it is just enough to counter act the amount the alcohol brings your BG down.

Since I am not in school any more I just go down to the local pub but in Uni I used to go out dancing and binge drinking. Not sure what I would do if I were to go out clubing and hitting the dance floor. I guess I would dial the insulin back even more because I like to cut a rug.

[VanDamage]

ok been drinking for 4 hours and i tested at 95 ate a ton of chips though and some spare ribs hope i never lose the honeymoon!