A daily cocktail or two may improve blood glucose (blood sugar) management and insulin sensitivity. If you have diabetes, it may be best to avoid drinking alcohol. Check your blood sugar before and while you’re drinking and then again before you go to bed. Choose foods that contain carbohydrates so that you have some glucose in your system (meaning, you will be at lower risk of having low blood sugar).
Alcohol can cause hypoglycemia
- Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease—that is, a disease in which the body’s immune system attacks and destroys not only foreign molecules or organisms but also some of the body’s own cells.
- Those on the opposite ends of the spectrum—people that drink heavily and those that don’t—have a greater risk.
- That increase in prevalence was most apparent in patients with a disease duration of less than 4 years.
- The same mechanism might occur in chronically drinking diabetics and thus account for the deterioration of blood sugar control observed in those patients.
- As you mull these ideas, keep in mind that much remains to be learned about how alcohol affects people with diabetes.
Talk to your doctor about your drinking habits and they can provide you with tips and tricks for how drink in a way that works for you. Given that drinking can make you lose track of what you’re eating, calories (and pounds) can add up quickly. Unlike protein, fat, or carbohydrate, alcohol doesn’t require insulin to provide energy to the body. There’s another reason drinking can be challenging. Timing may also be an issue, as hypoglycemia can strike hours after your last drink, especially if you’ve been exercising.
Health Conditions
Thus, whereas type 1 diabetes is characterized by a complete lack of insulin production, type 2 is characterized by reduced insulin production plus insulin resistance. At that point, when a deficit in insulin secretion is combined with a state of insulin resistance, the person develops type 2 diabetes. In fact, insulin-resistant people have higher than normal insulin levels (i.e., are hyperinsulinemic1). People with type 2 continue to produce insulin in early disease stages; however, their bodies do not respond adequately to the hormone (i.e., the patients are resistant to insulin’s effects). Type 2 diabetes, which in most cases develops in people over age 40, has a somewhat different pathophysiology than type 1.
Among diabetics, the prevalence of neuropathy with obvious symptoms (i.e., symptomatic neuropathy) increases with increasing disease duration. Diabetes and alcohol consumption are the two most common underlying causes of peripheral neuropathy. The mechanisms underlying alcohol’s impact on blood pressure have not been fully elucidated. This protective effect results at least partly from a process called reverse cholesterol transport, in which HDL particles carry cholesterol from blood vessel walls and other sites back to the liver, where it is broken down and subsequently eliminated from the body. Those observations suggest that the reduced levels of vitamin E in alcoholics actually may have harmful long-term effects.
- Avoid chronic heavy drinking and binge drinking.
- High-carb drinks may sound like the smart option when you’re at risk for hypoglycemia, but it’s a bit more complicated than that.
- On the other hand, if you have lots of food and then drink too much, your blood sugar can get too high.
- Heavy drinking (i.e., more than 140 grams of pure alcohol, or approximately 12 standard drinks, per day) can cause alcohol-induced hypertriglyceridemia in both diabetics and nondiabetics (Chait et al. 1972).
- Your liver will choose to metabolize the alcohol over maintaining your blood glucose, which can lead to hypoglycemia.
It does this between meals and while you sleep to help maintain healthy blood sugar levels. You may want to talk to your doctor to see if drinking alcohol is safe for you and get guidelines based on your specific health concerns. Excessive or binge drinking is defined as having more than five alcoholic beverages in a two-hour time span for men, or four for women.
Risks of Alcohol in Type 2 Diabetes
With all of this in mind, the risks of drinking alcohol when you have type 2 diabetes may outweigh any benefits. But even those who have type 2 diabetes who take medication may be vulnerable to hypoglycemia unawareness, even though their blood sugar levels are more likely to skew high than low. It addresses some of the risks as well as some of the benefits of drinking alcohol when you have type 2 diabetes. Within a few minutes of drinking alcohol, and for up to 12 hours afterward, alcohol can cause your blood glucose level to drop. When you drink alcohol, your liver has to work to remove it from your blood instead of working to regulate blood sugar, or blood glucose. Occasional episodes of alcohol consumption generally do not worsen blood sugar control in people with diabetes and may even have beneficial effects.
Test Your Blood Sugar
Adding alcohol to the mix could make it worse if you already have nerve damage from diabetes. Chronic excessive alcohol consumption alone can also cause nerve damage called alcoholic neuropathy. High blood levels of ketones may cause dangerous side effects like confusion or trouble sleeping.
This happens when the body doesn’t produce enough insulin or does not respond to insulin as it should. Hypoglycemia can mimic being drunk, so wearing a diabetes identification necklace or bracelet is important. It can bring it too low if you’re taking medications to treat diabetes. A drink serving is 12 oz of beer, 5 oz of wine, or 1.5 oz of hard liquor such as scotch, gin, tequila, or vodka. This process releases ketones into the blood. This can include glucose (sugar) tablets, 4 ounces (oz) of fruit juice or soda, or 1 tablespoon (tbsp) of honey, sugar, or corn syrup.
Health News
Alcohol can have a rapid blood sugar-lowering effect, which is slowed if there’s food in your stomach. Avoid chronic heavy drinking and binge drinking. Switch to a non-alcoholic drink, such as sparkling water, for the rest of the evening once you have had your drink.
Consequences of Alcohol Use in Diabetics
However, Lin and colleagues (1995) reported that the LDL cholesterol in alcoholics exhibits altered biological functions and may more readily cause cardiovascular disease. First, alcohol likely stimulates the generation of VLDL particles in the liver, which are rich in triglycerides. Several mechanisms may contribute to alcohol-induced increases in triglyceride levels. Abstinence from alcohol generally leads to normalization of the triglyceride levels, unless the person has an underlying genetic predisposition for hypertriglyceridemia. In fact, from a practical what is mdma national institute on drug abuse nida standpoint, heavy drinking should be considered as a possible contributing factor in all patients with hypertriglyceridemia.
Interestingly, the risk of retinopathy was independent of the men’s ability to control their blood sugar, suggesting that alcohol may directly damage the eyes or related structures. Because high blood pressure is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease, those results also suggest that moderate alcohol consumption can have beneficial effects for cardiovascular disease risk. Studies in alcoholics found that the levels of HDL, and particularly of HDL2 and HDL3, were elevated after a period of chronic drinking and returned to normal levels after several days of abstinence (Taskinen et al. 1982). LDL cholesterol levels tend to be lower in alcoholics than in nondrinkers (Castelli et al. 1977), suggesting that chronic alcohol consumption may have a beneficial effect on cardiovascular risk.
The liver often makes this choice when you drink without eating food—so consider snacking while you sip. It’s one drink a day for women and up to two per day for men. But what exactly is moderate drinking? Take a look at the numbers and you’ll find that only moderate drinkers have less cardiovascular disease. Here’s what you need to know about drinking and how to do it safely.
The two other patients died as a result of complications indirectly related to their hypoglycemia-induced neurological changes. For the study, the participants were hospitalized for 7 days and received a standard hospital diet. The reasons underlying defective insulin secretion and insulin resistance, which are still under investigation, are complex and beyond the scope of this article (for a review, see DeFronzo 1997). For example, obesity, inactivity, and cigarette smoking may worsen genetically determined insulin resistance. Because insulin is a key metabolic hormone, insulin deficiency leads to major impairment of the body’s regulation of carbohydrate, lipid, and protein metabolism. As a result of the immune system’s attack, the beta cells can no longer produce insulin.
Eat Before You Drink
Those doses are equivalent to approximately 2.5 to 5 standard drinks.3 Interestingly, studies of acute alcohol exposure in nondiabetic people have yielded quite variable results, noting decreases, increases, or no changes in glucose levels. Accordingly, these medications help control blood sugar levels without causing hypoglycemia. The actions of insulin and glucagon must be finely balanced, because both lower than normal blood sugar levels (i.e., hypoglycemia) and higher than normal blood sugar levels (i.e., hyperglycemia) can have deleterious effects on the body. Conversely, long-term alcohol ingestion in diabetics who are not adequately nourished can lead to dangerously low blood sugar levels. For example, long-term alcohol use in well-nourished diabetics can result in excessive blood sugar levels. Your liver will choose to metabolize the alcohol over maintaining your blood glucose, which can lead to hypoglycemia.
Consequently, both of the body’s mechanisms to sustain blood sugar levels are inactivated in people who consume alcohol but do not eat, resulting in profound hypoglycemia. In the fasting state, as a first line of defense against hypoglycemia, glycogen is broken down into its constituent glucose molecules, which are secreted by the liver into the blood to maintain normal or near-normal blood sugar levels. Conversely, research has indicated that long-term (i.e., chronic) alcohol consumption in well-nourished diabetics results in increased blood sugar levels (i.e., hyperglycemia). In fact, some studies have indicated that isolated episodes of drinking with a meal may have a beneficial effect by slightly lowering blood sugar levels that tend to rise too high in diabetics (Swade and Emanuele 1997).
It’s important to keep in mind the size and amount of calories in different drinks. Talk with a healthcare provider or diabetes educator about how to safely weigh the risks and benefits. The decision to include alcohol in your life with diabetes is a personal one. Your body uses the food for energy since the liver is breaking down alcohol.
Liquid sugars are quickly absorbed by the body, so those carbs won’t be much help in preventing or treating a low that may occur hours after you drink. It’s also the body’s detoxification center, breaking down toxins like alcohol so the kidneys can easily flush them away. After all, other aspects of moderate drinkers’ lives may be behind the link. But if you don’t drink regularly, this doesn’t mean you should start. You’ve probably heard that alcohol is good for your heart.
No alcohol is completely off-limits for people with diabetes. On the other hand, if you have lots of food and then drink too much, your blood sugar can get too high. When this happens, your blood sugar can drop too low, which is known as hypoglycemia. Drinking alcohol can reduce your liver’s ability to regulate the release of carbohydrates into your bloodstream. This will help reduce the risk that your blood sugar will drop too low. Drinking too much alcohol can increase triglyceride levels (fat in the blood) and your blood pressure.