What are the effects of alcohol on diabetes?

  Alcohol behaves the same in the body of a person with diabetes and it does in persons without. The body gives alcohol priority treatment over most other nutrients or food. Alcohol is metabolized, or broken down, by the body very quickly, passing through the body into the blood stream without being digested. About 20% of the alcohol can be absorbed directly through the walls of an empty stomach and can reach the brain in about a minute.

Once the alcohol is in the stomach there is a dehydrogenase enzyme that begins to break it down. This enzyme reduces the amount of alcohol entering the blood stream. Because women produce less of this alcohol dehydrogenase enzyme than men is why they get drunk on less alcohol. And is one of the reasons why the recommended daily drink allowance for women is less that of men. It is really just simple biology.

This breaking down reduces the amount of alcohol that enters the blood by around 20%. Another 10% is passed through the body in urine or your breath.

Next, the alcohol is rapidly absorbed in the upper part of the small intestine. From there it travels through veins and capillaries of the digestive tract. This alcohol laden blood now effects nearly every cell of your liver.

The cells in your liver are the only ones that can produce enough of that alcohol dehydrogenase enzyme to oxidate alcohol at any acceptable rate.

Alcohol gets priority here  ...over any fatty acid body fuels whose excess are packaged as triglycerides. So when you drink, the liver cells lets the fatty acids accumulate so it can handle the alcohol. This process of metabolising alcohol changes the cell structure of the liver.

A persons liver can metabolize about a half an ounce of alcohol per hour depending upon their body size and food intake among other factors. Your liver behaves the same whether or not you are diabetic.

    Why diabetics need to be careful
when drinking alcohol:

Effects of alcohol on diabetes.

How does your body work?

Basically how it works is when you drink your liver is busy dealing with the alcohol so its ability to release glucose decreases. Hypoglycemia,  or low blood sugar,  becomes a risk because the glucose production is shut down especially if you have just taken insulin, any other glucose-lowering oral meds or are consuming alcohol on an empty stomach, this is not good. And because it can take at least a few hours for a single ounce of alcohol to metabolize or leave your system the risk of experiencing hypoglycemia can continue long after you have stopped drinking.

This is why drinking alcohol for Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes patients can be a bad combination. You just do not have the glucose in your body to allow your liver to do other work.  Planning ahead to  manage your diabetes you, along with your diabetes management professional team, can assure no complications from an occasional indulgence.