Day 14-

As Jaime Fox would say “Blame it on the a-a-a-a-alcohol.” That’s right; that ever so fun drink that makes you all warm and fuzzy. So you ask, what does alcohol have to do with T1D, well, it gets a little crazy. You see straight alcohol, clean and clear will actually make your BG drop, like a stone.. or can make it drop slowly for a while, or drop over and over again for hours, or can make it drop hours after you have finished your drink if you have T1D. Why? Great question! So when anyone drinks alcohol their liver identifies it as a toxin and then the liver stops doing its regular jobs to break down the alcohol until it has been removed. One thing the liver stops doing while it is concentrating on the alcohol is releasing glucose into the blood stream. So if you have T1D and your BG is dropping, you liver won’t release that normal little dose of glucose so then you can go into hypoglycemia. This gets super dangerous because sometimes a T1D can be assumed to be “sleeping it off” and really they passed out from low BG and if nothing is done to revive them, like getting them to drink juice if they can drink, a Glucagon shot, or calling 911, they can die. This can happen and does happen. Oh and there’s more. So say I decided to have a nice sugary drink, which I don’t because ewww! But let’s say I do. The carbs in the drink will cause my BG to shoot wayyyyy up, because I can only eat 6, yes 6, carbs without insulin. Most sugary drinks, say a large 32oz margarita, has 122 carbs. A 122 CARBS!! That is almost as much as I eat in a day, like a whole day. So after my BG shoots up, then it comes crashing down, maybe 5 hours after the drink, maybe while I am sleeping and still drunk, maybe the next day… the point is you never know exactly when it will happen. If I were to drink a clear liquor like gin, and yes I actually like gin, there are very little carbs in gin, so it would just make my BG drop, unless I were to add tonic. But tonic is chuck full of sugar so I don’t. Yes, I drink gin on ice, straight. Wine is a whole playing field of pain-in-the –ass. If I want to have wine, I have to drink a very very veeerrry dry wine because after all wine is make of grapes which are very high in carbs. So for instance I can do Pinot Grigio, Champagne, Cabernet Sauvignon, or Shiraz. Also the higher alcohol content, higher than beer is what I mean, can make my BG drop quite nicely. That leads us into beer. As we all know beer is chuck full of carbs. Except for the low carb beers of course, but I really think they taste like piss water. Sorry if you don’t agree, but you can have mine so we will both be happy! Sure beer has alcohol but not very much and even though it can make my BG drop a little, the carbs overcompensate for it. Unless you are drinking a Russian Imperial of course, which I did by accident, it was yummy, but wow! I like beer, real beer, dark beer, so I usually only drink one or a half of one. So sad right? But as I think you have figured out by now, when you have T1D drinking is just a pain in the ass and exhausting. So I really just don’t much anymore. Also most of the time I am so tired, if I do have a drink I just want to go to sleep. I have talked to quite a few other T1D friends and they feel the same way. I am not saying I never drink, just not very often, but when I do I make sure it is a good quality drink. If you can only have a little, you’ve got to go with the good stuff; top shelf, craft beer, and good wine.