I learned something new tonight. Whenever I have a large/fatty meal/high carb meal, I always struggle with delayed spikes that hit me in the middle of the night, but one thing I never thought about was the effect of alcohol, which I thought helped with blood sugar. I’m often drinking wine or a few glasses of scotch when these delayed spikes happen. Tonight I didn’t eat carbs but just had a steak, vegetables and too much wine. I took 3 u of R which usually does the trick, but went low pretty quickly which was unusual. Now at 3 in the morning I am running high, and decided to look this up:
I will say I think alcohol would tend to lower my blood sugar when pumping, but I don’t see the same effect on MDI and usually have the opposite problem. It could be because I’m older and don’t drink nearly as much as I used to, but I’m wondering if using rapid-acting insulin as a basal is more affected by alcohol than Levemir.
Interesting article! I often have the same experience where I go high 3 or 4 hours after I eat. I never noticed whether there was a connection to alcohol intake though, and I do sometimes have a glass of wine with dinner. Last night I had a large salad with shrimp, and one glass of wine. Sure enough 3-4 hours later my BGS climbed. I associated this climb to be caused by the shrimp. I guess I now need to test that without the wine, not as enjoyable a meal, for sure!!
I guess it’s time for another FUD experiment…and I volunteer!
Seriously, though, fat definitely affects my BG (butter chicken!!!) and wine with any meal usually means I need less insulin (or more carbs) the next morning to avoid a low.
That is the spirit. I think it calls for 4 meals. Two normal to low fat, two high fat, and wine with one of each type, perhaps to be augmented by additional research on the number of glasses of wine. And then that scotch test sounds inviting as well.
I have been a Type 1 diabetic for over 50 years. Years ago a Doctor told me that alcohol will initially make your blood sugar drop and then breaks down to sugar and makes your BG spike! Makes sense!
