Alcohol and type 2 diabetes: effects of drinking

Medicine is always against the use of alcohol, especially if such addiction develops against the background of serious diseases, such as diabetes. Regardless of the type of the disease and the characteristics of its course, it is important to exclude alcohol from your diet, but there are some nuances.

Alcohol and diabetes of the first type

If a person suffers from this form of diabetes, then a moderate and insignificant dose of alcohol causes excessive insulin sensitivity, which leads to an improvement in the ability to control blood sugar.

If the patient resorts to this method of treatment, then no positive effect can even be expected, alcohol in diabetes will not only negatively affect the level of sugar, but also have a deplorable effect on the liver.

Alcohol and diabetes of the second type

If we consider the second type of diabetes, the patient is obliged to remember that alcoholic beverages can be combined with the disease only in the case of the minimum amount of their consumption. With the careful taking of alcohol can occur almost fulminant decrease in the concentration of glucose in the blood.

If we say in other words, then a patient with diabetes of the second type needs to know the mechanism of the effect of alcohol on his body and internal organs. If the patient is completely dependent on taking insulin, then there can be no talk about any alcohol. In the opposite situation, the vessels, the heart and the pancreas can be very seriously affected, and alcohol with diabetes mellitus can be extremely dangerous.

What about wine?

Many diabetics may be concerned about the possibility of consuming the products of winemaking. Modern scientists believe that one glass of wine is not capable of causing harm to health, but only if it is red dry. Every diabetic should remember that in his condition alcohol is much more dangerous than for a healthy person.

Wine from red grapes has a healing effect on the body and saturates it with polyphenols, which are responsible for controlling blood sugar levels, which is very good for diabetes, in addition, for diabetics in certain quantities, grapes are not prohibited.

When choosing this sparkling drink should pay attention to the amount of sugar in it, for example:

  • in dry wines it is 3-5%;
  • in semi-dry - up to 5%;
  • in semisweet - 3-8%;
  • other types of wines contain from 10% and higher.

Summing up, we can say that people with diabetes should opt for wines with a sugar index below 5%. For this reason, doctors advise to consume dry red wine, which is not able to change the level of glucose in the blood.

Scientists confidently say that drinking 50 grams of dry wine every day will only benefit. Such a “therapy” is able to prevent the occurrence and development of atherosclerosis and has a beneficial effect on the vessels of the brain.

If you do not want to give up the pleasure of drinking alcohol for a company, then you should remember some important points about drinking wines correctly:

  1. You can allow yourself no more than 200 grams of wine, and once a week;
  2. alcohol is always taken only on a full stomach, or at the same time with those foods that contain carbohydrates, for example, bread or potatoes;
  3. It is important to observe the diet and time of insulin shots. If there are plans to consume wine, the dosage of drugs should be slightly reduced;
  4. consumption of liqueurs and other sweet wines is strictly prohibited.

If you do not follow these recommendations and drink about a liter of wine, then after 30 minutes the blood sugar level will begin to grow at a rapid pace. After 4 hours, blood sugar drops so low that it can become a cause of coma.

Diabetes and Vodka

The ideal composition of vodka is pure water and alcohol, which is dissolved in it. The product should not contain any food additives or impurities under any circumstances. All that vodka that can be bought in any store is far from something that a diabetic can approach, so diabetes and alcohol, in this context, are simply incompatible.

Once in the human body, vodka immediately reduces blood sugar, provoking hypoglycemia, and the effects of a hypoglycemic coma are always quite heavy. When vodka is combined with insulin preparations, hormones are slowed down, which cleanse the liver of toxins and break down alcohol.

In some situations, it is vodka that can help a patient overcome diabetes of the second type. This becomes possible if the patient with the second type of illness has the glucose level exceeding all the normal values. Such an alcohol-containing product will quickly help stabilize this indicator and bring it back to normal, but only for a while.

Important! 100 grams of vodka per day is the maximum allowable dose of alcohol. It is necessary to use it only with medium-calorie dishes.

It is vodka that triggers the digestive process in the body and processes sugar, however, at the same time, it disrupts metabolic processes in it. For this reason, it will be imprudent to treat pleasantly to some diabetics with vodka. This can be done only with the consent and permission of the attending physician, and the most ideal option would be simply to abandon the use of alcohol.


There are a number of diabetes-related diseases that preclude alcohol:

  1. chronic pancreatitis. If you drink alcohol with such a combination of ailments, it will lead to a serious defeat of the pancreas and problems in its work. Violations in this body will be a prerequisite for the development of acute pancreatitis and problems with the production of important digestive enzymes, as well as insulin;
  2. chronic hepatitis or liver cirrhosis;
  3. gout;
  4. kidney disease (diabetic nephropathy with severe renal failure);
  5. the existence of a predisposition to constant hypoglycemic states.

Consequences of alcohol abuse

A diabetic patient does not convert too much sugar into energy. In order not to accumulate glucose, the body tries to bring it along with the urine. Those situations where sugar drops too quickly are called hypoglycemia. Those diabetics who depend on insulin shots are especially susceptible to its development.

If there is excessive drinking, the risk of hypoglycemia increases several times. This is due to the fact that alcohol does not allow the liver to work adequately, especially if you drink on an empty stomach.

If there are also problems in the nervous system, then alcohol will only aggravate this serious situation.

Watch the video: Diabetes. Alcohol. (September 2019).