Welcome to 2010 everyone! I’m sure most of you are on holiday or actually trying to avoid getting on the computer (it’s a beautiful day out there in Auckland at least).
There will be some of you, undoubtedly who are feeling a little sorry for themselves after indulging a little (or a lot) too heavily in the ’spirit’ of the celebrations last night (I would normally probably be one of those people, however the fact that I am not keen to feed my two and half month old son booze via breast milk saw me drink just three drinks over the course of six hours).
Hopefully even if you read this post in retrospect when you get back to work, you’ll be compelled to comment. I’m interested in hearing how alcohol affects your diabetes. Do you find certain types of alcohol more forgiving (in terms of diabetes ill effects) than others? Do you find you go hypo some hours later after a night out on the tiles? How do you combat this? What are your tricks of the trade?
Personally I’ve never noticed any dramatic effects really. I don’t bolus for booze (I’ve always found I go low pretty soon after even if I carb count) and I can have a serious drinking session without worrying I’ll hit a huge hypo in the early hours of the morning. When I was a teenager first diagnosed with diabetes I was told I’d go low after drinking alcohol so I’d purposefully eat biscuits out of the cupboard before a night out to ensure I was nowhere near a low blood sugar.
For me the worst thing is probably more the potential to eat foods I wouldn’t normally eat that night, or to indulge in loads of rubbish the next day when I’m feeling a bit hungover.
Tell me more about how you get on, please!
Posted in Community, Hypos & Hypers
Tagged as alcohol
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PEnny wrote
I used to have terrible problems going high as a teenager after alcohol. I was less choosy though about what I drunk and usually the high times were after things like baileys!. (and the time when I drunk red bull not knowing what it was – oops). I don’t eat now before going to bed but used to as a teenager following recommendations from my docs at the time which did not help the highs either. Beer and wine tend not to give me any problems although I will usually be on the lower side when I wake up. This New Year went swimmingly.
Ali wrote
I can have great nights where drinking goes smoothly with no issues but other nights I’ll end up testing every 30-60 minutes balancing highs and lows. I think the trickiest thing is staying in tune with how you’re feeling (hypo signs etc) while the alcohol’s working it’s magic.
Alison wrote
Nice to hear people enjoy a drink like I do. I love wine and beer, especially wine, they don’t cause me any problems. I do try to make sure my blood sugar is about 6.5 or more before falling asleep, mainly cause I exercise quite a bit too and don’t want the effects of exercise and alcohol to combine while my pump feeds me insulin.
Recently I’d had a few runs, then a really hard one on a Friday morning. That evening we went to neighbours and had a couple of glasses of wine and nibbled at chips, I kept thinking I must test my blood and have some insulin but didn’t get round to it. We got home and had some more wine and dinner (home made pizza!) and I forgot to have insulin. I woke up in the morning and thought I hadn’t had any insulin – checked my pump – my last bolus was 4pm on the Friday – I tested my blood – it as 4.7!
Thank goodness I didn’t have the insulin.
I went to a cocktail party years ago, about a year or 2 after being diagnosed and it was a nightmare – just for my nerves. I kept testing my blood and having bits of insulin. Managaed to keep it under control but would have been a lot more relaxed and have enjoyed it more drinking wine – I just didn’t want to be a drippy diabetic explaining to everyone – next time I’d just drink the wine. Just say I’m diabetic or don’t like cocktails, whatever.