Question:
Does anyone have any information regarding the signs, sysptoms and effects of
alcoholism and diabetes??
Answer:
are you asking about the signs "symptoms" of these separately or are
you asking if alcoholism will cause diabetes?
There are tons of valid web sites giving info about alcoholism. Stay
away from any of the Jack Trimpy sites. This guy is only out to make
a buck, but if you want to buy into his franchise go for it.
Also keep in mind that one does NOT have to be an catholic to have
their diabetes affected by alcohol.
If one is already diabetic and chooses to drink they must keep in mind
that certain oral diabetes meds warn the patient NOT to drink alcohol
while on those meds because of a very real chance of lactic acidosis.
Also the liver processes alcohol first and while it is occupied doing
that it cannot process the food you eat properly which can lead to
sudden severe low blood sugars at unexpected times. This is not a
problem for most people when drinking only a couple of drinks.
However the amount is different for each person. Also, many of us
have found that drinking when our BG is already low or at the low end
of normal reduces the amount of alcohol required to intoxicate us.
Both of these situations can be very dangerous for type 1s if they are
going low BG because 1. low BGs can be mistaken for drunkenness by
friends and family and police, 2. because the liver cannot react to a
low BG as it is supposed to because it is processing the alcohol and
injected insulin is in the system there is nothing to prevent the BG
from dropping so low that the diabetic can go into a coma or worse.
Injected insulin does not stop working until it is used up. 3.
because the low BG allows a smaller amount of alcohol to intoxicate
the individual, alcohol poisoning occurs at a much lower blood alcohol
level. There are many cases of diabetics dying in drunk tanks because
the police did not know the diabetic was in need of medical help or
that the person was even a diabetic to begin with. 4. Some diabetics
when experiencing a low BG will become irritable and even belligerent
when someone is trying to help them. If a police officer thinks this
is due to drunkenness, that person will be treated like a violent
drunk. None of the above requires the diabetic to actually be an
alcoholic.
