So what about alcohol and diabetes? What will alcohol do to your blood sugar levels?
It has a different effect in different people.
It might make blood sugar go up while you’re drinking (there are some carbohydrates in alcohol), but generally blood sugar will drop later.
Drinks such as spirits, which have a high alcohol concentration and little carbohydrate, can drive blood sugar levels down quickly and profoundly, especially when taken on an empty stomach.
Should you drink low sugar drinks then?
Not a good idea... They sometimes have a high alcohol content, so you get drunk quicker and could go hypo.
If you usually know when you’re hypo, is there a problem?
Yes, there could be... When you go hypo, you recognise it BUT that’s when you’re sober.
When you’ve been drinking, the feeling of alcohol can be the same as going hypo, so it’s easy to get confused. Another thing is that when you go hypo, your liver helps out by making sugar. However, when it’s busy dealing with the alcohol (even a couple of gin and tonics), it doesn’t work as well so hypos can be more sudden and severe.
If you want to go to an all night party, you can... speak to your parents or get some advice from your diabetes team. It’s better to get some expert advice rather than get drunk, go hypo and get embarrassed in front of your friends.
If there are carbohydrates in alcohol, should it be counted as an evening snack?
No. Even though blood sugar may go up a bit at first, the overall effect will be for it to go down, so you need to eat before you drink, while you are drinking and afterwards. Having a couple of bags of crisps with your drinks and some cereal or toast when you get home isn’t any different from what your friends will be doing. Alcohol puts their blood sugars down too so they’ll be hungry as well.
Is it true that if you have a breath test, you may get arrested for being drunk, even if you are not?
Diabetes has no effect on breathalyser testing with alcohol. However they can register ketones (it’s best to get advice from your doctor).
What can happen is that you can go hypo and become confused. If the police find you, they may think you are drunk and take you to the police station.
The way to avoid this is to eat while drinking and carry some ID that says that you have diabetes.
It’s a good idea to tell your friends that you have diabetes and make sure they know where to find your emergency supplies of sugar or glucagon.
