To understand why alcohol and diabetes make a Molotov cocktail and do not go together, one first needs to understand about diabetes. This disease is caused by abnormal increase in levels of blood sugar and it can be detected by either a blood test or a urine test. Sugar levels in a normal person range between 80 and 140 when measured, and this has to be maintained at all times. However, since one tends to eat sweetened foods, sugar levels in one’s blood naturally rise up and cause complications like stroke or heart attack in a person without warning. There are many other reasons as to why alcohol and diabetes do not go together and a few of them are explained in detail below.
Effects of alcohol on diabetes
Alcohol and diabetes feed off each other as alcohol functions like sugar and fats in one’s body and slowly pushes into one’s system causing blood sugar levels to shoot up to dangerous levels. In certain people, an over indulgence of alcohol causes his blood sugar level to plummet to very dangerously low levels and causes dizziness and other associated diseases. Alcohol and diabetes have one more reason to remain enemies and this is because as alcohol levels continue to rise in one’s blood, it causes one to get hungry and to ward off this hunger, a person naturally tends to eat well. This in turn accumulates as extra fat and adipose tissues and causes a person complication like high levels of cholesterol in one’s blood.
What are some ways one can strike a balance?
Not everybody is a teetotaller and this fact is influenced by age, culture and country of residence as well. In many countries drinking wine after a meal is not an occasion but an integrated part of dinner as well. In such cases, one can be sure that a person’s blood sugar level is on a high after a meal. When presented with such situations, one must take additional effort to strike a balance between alcohol and diabetes. This can be done if one cuts down on other sweet meats and indulged in very little amounts of wine or port after a meal. Even this has to be taken with advice from a diabetician as alcohol and diabetes do not go together and alcohol interferes with the effectiveness of medicines taken to combat diabetes.
A few rules to stay safe when alcohol and diabetes are present
If a person is a diabetic, there are a few rules to be followed so that any alcohol that he may consume with his meal does not hamper his medication for his disease. The first point to remember is that he should not exceed his quota of 2 glasses of drink as this immediately acts on his medication. The second point to remember is that it is better to mix alcohol with large amounts of diet soft drinks or water. This softens impact of alcohol in one’s system and the third way is simply the best way and this is to nurse one’s drink for a very long time. That way alcohol and diabetes can cohabit and one will not be in danger of having consumed more than his amount of alcohol.