If you have diabetes, you know that you need to be very aware of your lifestyle; your approach to diet and exercise is impacted by your diabetes. In the same way, you must consider your diabetes when consuming alcohol. As long as you practice awareness, moderation, and good judgment, you don’t have to let diabetes keep you from enjoying a night out.

Recommended Intake

Research shows that a moderate intake of alcohol, one to three drinks a day, probably will not have an impact on diabetes. Moderate drinking is also associated with less heart disease in diabetes patients; however this is not strong enough to suggest that diabetes patients who don’t drink should start.

Risks of Drinking with Diabetes

The main risk of drinking for people who take insulin or other glucose-lowering medications is the possibility that alcohol can make you more susceptible to hypoglycemia. This is condition means that your blood glucose level has dropped down to an unsafe level.

Unfortunately, the symptoms of hypoglycemia are very similar to the effects of too much alcohol, so you and your friends may not be able to differentiate between the two, even if you are already passed out. Some research suggests that drinking in moderation can even decrease your risk of developing diabetes.

Moderation is Key

If you are drinking moderately, you will also be able to retain your sense of awareness. Be sure to pay attention to any early warning signs of something that may be wrong. Don’t let yourself get so drunk that you forget you have diabetes and you start bingeing on late night junk food at the bar.

Keep constant surveillance of your blood sugar levels and remember that drinking is not a vacation from diabetes. Use good judgment and don’t drink to the point where your judgment and awareness are impaired.

Drinking in moderation is also important to diabetics because excessive drinking can cause you to gain weight, which will only complicate your diabetes. If you are dieting and exercising to manage you diabetes, alcohol will only sabotage your progress.

Limit your drinking to 3 a night, and don’t allow the alcohol to impact the rest of your diabetes maintenance. For example, if you’re too hung over in the morning to work out, you have a problem. If you’re too drunk to know that you shouldn’t be eating that late-night sub, you have an even bigger problem.

Beer and Wine are not your Drinking Buddies

Carbohydrate content of beer and wine can pose a problem for diabetics. Hyperglycemia, or too much blood sugar, can result from drinking too much beer and wine without the insulin that is needed to break them down. This can result in the familiar energy-sucked, tired feeling many diabetics experience when their blood glucose level is too high.

If you are diabetic and consuming moderate amounts of alcohol, steer clear of carb-rich beer and wine, as well as sweetened mixers.

If you have diabetes, you can still enjoy alcohol as long as you practice moderation, awareness, and sound judgment.

http://www.battlediabetes.com/beer-and-diabetes/
http://www.battlediabetes.com/drinking-alcohol-and-diabetes/
http://www.annals.org/cgi/content/full/140/3/I-72