Living with diabetes is not an easy thing, you have to be very careful with what you eat and you must ensure that you keep your sugar levels under control. Being a diabetic is not at all easy. There are so many changes that you have to do with your lifestyle so that you can manage your condition well. When it comes to drinking alcohol there are a lot of misconceptions that diabetic cannot drink alcohol. Well, the fact is that you can drink even if you are a diabetic, provided you have it within a particular limit.
The most common questions asked to doctors
One of the most commonly asked questions that a lot of doctor’s face when a patient gets to know that they are diabetic is, if they can have alcohol or not. This is something that is natural especially in the cases where a person is used to drinking regularly. The reality is that it is purely based on the patient’s health status and glucose levels. It is also based on how well you manage your condition with the medications prescribed.
Precautionary measures that diabetic patients have to take before bedtime
People who are diagnosed with diabetes have to make sure that they take all the necessary precautionary measures to manage their condition. They need to ensure that they keep a track of their sugar levels. For this, they need to test themselves regularly before they go to sleep. The test should be done before they brush their teeth to get the right readings. To stay on the safer side, they can also have a light snack with a combination of proteins, carbs and fat or even bread and cheese.
Precautionary measures to be taken the day after consuming alcohol
For diabetics, there is a 24-hour window after consuming alcohol. This is not about having a hangover but even if you just have one peg the day before, you need to ensure that you test the sugar levels regularly throughout the day after, and keep a track of the readings. You can also consider having a little carbs but make sure that it is in limited quantity. While occasional drinking is fine, but people who drink regularly and have diabetes should be really careful.
Let us look at some other considerations you need to keep in mind if you are a diabetic and love to drink alcohol.
Your health, body and appearance can easily be affected due to the alcohol.
The ingredients in alcohol can make you feel very dehydrated, this is why you need to ensure that you keep yourself hydrated as much as possible. If you end up drinking too much, you can have a hangover. You can have a glass of lemon juice, or even black coffee and lemon with a little touch of honey if needed.
Be sure that you exercise regularly; this is because due to too much of alcohol consumption, you can end up putting on weight. This can be very dangerous, especially if you are a diabetic.
If you are a diabetic, you should try not having alcohol on empty stomach. This is because the chances of the hypo increasing are more. This is even more in drinks like ciders, ales, etc, which have huge carbohydrate content. On a short-term basis, the levels of sugar can go up after consuming such drinks. On the other hand, moderate intake of champagne, dry wines and spirits is fine.
You need to ensure that you do have too much of alcohol since that keeps your liver busy and flushes out the alcohol in the system. To manage your sugar levels, your liver needs to be able to look after the sugar levels. This is the reason why it is recommended that you should not have too much of alcohol especially if you are diabetic.
Diabetics who have also been diagnosed with certain nerve damages also have to ensure that they take a lot of precautionary measures. This is because their condition can worsen and the symptoms such as numbness, tingling, pain etc can worsen due to the consumption of alcohol.
Conclusion
Even diabetics can enjoy a drink occasionally as long as they learn how to keep their sugar levels under control. They need to ensure that they take all the precautionary and preventive measures to avoid their sugar levels from going out of control. Regular testing, eating something while they have a drink and avoid drinking too much of alcohol is recommended in order to help in diabetes management.
