Should I drink alcohol?

Each alcoholic beverage takes about 1-1 ½ hours to finish processing in the liver. So, if you have 2 drinks, you double that time to 2 to 3 hours that you are at risk for low blood sugar. The more alcohol consumed, the bigger the risk for serious low blood sugar.

Publication types

It was not possible to include only articles thath adjusted for the same factors. The sensitivity analysis in which the most fully adjusted estimates were used resulted in a relationship similar to that drug addiction found in the main analysis. This consistency of results adds weight to the validity of our findings. Nevertheless, it would be wise for GLP-1 users to remain careful with alcohol. Drugs in the GLP-1 family, including semaglutide and tirzepatide, are known to provoke vomiting — just like excessive drinking.

Can people with diabetes drink alcohol?

Skeletal muscle represents the largest body depot responsible for IMGU 130,131. Direct evidence for the suppression of muscle IMGU by acute alcohol was also reported in humans using the A-V difference method 52. In further support, an alcohol-induced decrease in insulin-stimulated glucose disposal by skeletal muscle has been diabetes and alcohol consistently detected in rats using radiolabeled 2-DG 12,14,117,118. In contradistinction, as described above, the alcohol-induced hepatic insulin resistance is more prominent in Long-Evans vs. Sprague-Dawley rats.

Diabetes Food Hub

In one study of 275 originally potent diabetic men, heavy drinkers were significantly more likely to develop impotence during the 5-year study period than were moderate drinkers (McCulloch et al. 1984). Based on assumptions regarding the alcohol content of the beverages mentioned in the study, “heavy” drinkers were defined as those who ingested 29 grams of alcohol, or approximately two to three standard drinks, per day. Abnormalities in the levels and metabolism of lipids are extremely common in people with either type 1 or type 2 diabetes and may contribute to those patients’ risk of developing cardiovascular disease (Durrington 1995). Alcohol consumption can exacerbate the diabetes-related lipid abnormalities, because numerous studies have shown that heavy drinking can alter lipid levels even in nondiabetics. Numerous studies have investigated alcohol’s effects on the control of blood sugar levels in diabetics. Two additional medications—metformin and troglitazone—are now being used to treat people with type 2 diabetes.

Second, diabetics who have consumed alcohol, particularly those with type 1 diabetes, experience a delayed glucose recovery from hypoglycemia. Detailed analyses demonstrated that although the glucagon and epinephrine responses to hypoglycemia were unaffected, the growth hormone and cortisol responses were reduced after alcohol consumption. Glycogen is a large molecule that consists of numerous glucose molecules and serves as a storage form of glucose in the tissues, particularly the liver.

• This effect is typically observed with moderate consumption, which can enhance insulin action and reduce blood glucose levels.
• Chronic excessive alcohol consumption alone can also cause nerve damage called alcoholic neuropathy.
• Drinking too much alcohol, especially when taking metformin, can cause a buildup of lactic acid.
• Talk with your doctor before drinking alcohol to make sure alcohol won’t reduce the effectiveness of your medication.
• Being tipsy has another downside, making it easy to mix up your medications or to forget to take them entirely.
• Timing may also be an issue, as hypoglycemia can strike hours after your last drink, especially if you’ve been exercising.

Dr. Pinsker served as a physician in the United States Army in both Active Duty and in the California Army National Guard for more than 20 years. He completed a combined seven-year BS/MD program with Union College and Albany Medical College in New York. Dr. Pinsker is board certified in Clinical Informatics, Pediatric Endocrinology, and General Pediatrics. For those who are trying to manage their weight, it is a good idea to cut down your alcohol intake as it is high in kilojoules. View a list of calories and carbohydrates in popular alcoholic beverages on A Look at Your Liquor. Emergency glucagon kits work because glucagon is a hormone that tells your liver to release a large amount of stored glycogen.

3.1. Skeletal Muscle Insulin Resistance

• Emergency glucagon kits work because glucagon is a hormone that tells your liver to release a large amount of stored glycogen.
• Acute alcohol intoxication also produces whole-body insulin resistance in rats 12,116 and the alcohol effect appears to be dose-dependent 117,118,119.
• It may be wise to set an alarm on a phone to wake up and check glucose for several hours after going to bed.
• Despite the potential health perks of drinking alcohol, there are some cautions as well.
• But when you drink alcohol, the liver is busy breaking the alcohol down, so it does a poor job of releasing glucose into the bloodstream.

Thus, hyperinsulinemia refers to higher than normal insulin levels in the blood, whereas hypoglycemia refers to lower than normal glucose levels in the blood. Several mechanisms may contribute to alcohol-induced increases in triglyceride levels. First, alcohol likely stimulates the generation of VLDL particles in the liver, which are rich in triglycerides. Third, alcohol may enhance the increase in triglyceride levels in the blood that usually occurs after a meal.

• For many people with diabetes, a food choices play an important role in preventing blood sugar spikes.
• Best-fit curves were assessed using decreased deviance compared with the reference model.
• Dr. Jordan Pinsker has served as our Chief Medical Officer since November 2023 after joining the Company as Vice President and Medical Director in April 2021.
• In one case, due to ambiguity over a suspected misprint, the authors were contacted via e-mail for clarification (16).
• We used fractional polynomials in a meta-regression to determine the dose-response relationships by sex and end point using lifetime abstainers as the reference group.
• Our analysis confirms previous research findings that moderate alcohol consumption is protective for type 2 diabetes in men and women.
• The first is related to the possibility that alcohol can decrease gastric motility and emptying which may inhibit glucose absorption 25.

The effect of each potential confounder was controlled for one at a time. We then looked at the set of health and lifestyle variables and the set of psychosocial variables, respectively, in the same model. Always consult with a healthcare provider about any changes to diet or lifestyle so they can help monitor the body’s response. People with diabetes should be honest and realistic with their healthcare provider about what they enjoy drinking and how much alcohol they typically consume. Information from a healthcare provider will provide the best advice on how to drink alcohol safely. Although many of the human studies described above included men and women, none had sufficient statistical power to discern the presence of any sexual dimorphic response of alcohol on whole-body glucose flux.

Drink in Moderation

For example, GLUT4 protein in the plasma membrane fraction of the gastrocnemius, but not in whole muscle homogenate, was reduced in alcohol consuming rats 14,57. Similarly, in vitro incubation of differentiated myotubes with alcohol acutely inhibited insulin-stimulated GLUT4 translocation 70 and this response is dose-dependent 56. Recruitment of GLUT4-containing vesicles to the cell membrane is dependent upon activation of AKT and the downstream phosphorylation of AS160 135. https://ecosoberhouse.com/ An alternative mechanism has been posited by Wan et al. 118 who reported that chronic alcohol feeding increases the mRNA and protein in muscle for the GTP-binding protein Gs-α, which in other conditions impairs IMGU 137. Using similar animal models and methodological approaches as described in the preceding section, acute alcohol either does not change or decreases basal in vivo-determined cardiac glucose uptake 12,51.

In addition, certain non-diabetic medications do not mix well with alcohol. A 2015 meta-analysis reviewed 38 cohort studies to determine whether alcohol is a risk factor for diabetes. It found moderate consumption appeared to offer some protection against the condition in women and Asian populations, while heavy consumption raised the risk in almost all groups.