- If you have diabetes, drinking alcohol will cause your blood sugar to rise.
- Alcohol may cause you to put on weight and can affect your overall control. Heavy drinkers are often overweight and have high blood sugars.
Effects of Alcohol on Diabetes
Here are some other ways that alcohol can affect diabetes:
- While moderate amounts of alcohol can cause blood sugar to rise, excess alcohol can actually decrease your blood sugar level -- sometimes causing it to drop into dangerous levels.
- Beer and sweet wine contain carbohydrates and may raise blood sugar.
- Alcohol can interfere with the positive effects of oral diabetes medicines or insulin
People with diabetes who drink should follow these alcohol consumption guidelines:
- Do not drink more than two drinks of alcohol in a one-day period if you are a man, or one drink if you are a woman. (Example: one alcoholic drink = 5-ounce glass of wine, 1 1/2-ounce "shot" of liquor or 12-ounce beer).
- Drink alcohol only with food.
- Drink slowly.
- Avoid "sugary" mixed drinks, sweet wines, or cordials.
- Mix liquor with water, club soda, or diet soft drinks.
Diabetes and Smoking
- Smoking can seriously shorten your life, if you have diabetes and you smoke, your risk for vascular problems, kidney disease, retinopathy and other complications of diabetes increases dramatically.
- Smoking can cause a number of diabetes complications
- Smoking is now proven to be an independent risk factor for diabetes, and amongst diabetics it increases the risk of complications.
- Diabetes complications already include heart disease, stroke and circulation problems. Smoking adds to the risk of developing all of these things.
- Smokers have a harder time controlling their blood glucose levels, because insulin resistance is increased by smoking.
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