Drinking alcohol can be damaging to your wellness no matter who you are, but if you’re diabetic, your wellbeing could be even more at jeopardy. Anyone with a chronic medical condition such as type 1 diabetes is especially susceptible to the adverse effects of alcohol, and may not be aware of its dangers. According to the American Diabetes Association, alcohol can cause blood sugar levels to drop dangerously low for people on blood sugar-lowering medications for as long as 12 hours after their last drink.
Cynthia Zuber, an American college student with type 1 or insulin-dependent diabetes, didn’t realise how badly an alcoholic binge would mix with her use of insulin. When she was 18 she went to a fraternity party: ‘It was a party of upperclassmen, and my friend and I, both freshmen, felt very young and out of place’ and so she started to drink beer ‘to deal with the discomfort’. Zuber got herself refills, and other people brought her more drinks throughout the night. She didn’t know her blood sugar levels, because she didn’t test them during the party and she admits ‘I had no idea how many beers I had’.
Zuber explained that things quickly ‘got out of control’ and took a turn for the worst: ‘when we went to leave I had to be carried to the car and into my dorm’. Because she didn’t test her blood sugar levels, Zuber doesn’t know whether it was the beer that made her vomit throughout the night, though she guesses this was the case. She passed out at some point in the night, and was still vomiting when she woke the next day.
The problem was that she could not drink water, or eat food, without vomiting and after testing her blood sugar; Zuber knew it was low enough that she’d have to eat something or she would quickly be in serious trouble. She was taken to the hospital and was ‘actually slapped’ across the face by her doctor, ‘not hard, but to get my attention’. The doctor then explained to her a number of ways that alcohol could cause serious problems, or even death, for someone with type 1 diabetes, and Zuber recalled ‘I was so oblivious to the danger I’d put myself in’.
Zuber is now 36 and admits that it took her a while to give up drink completely. Straight after the incident she cut down on drinking and never had to go to the hospital again for alcohol-related reasons, but she says now she just feels better if she doesn’t drink. The American Diabetics Association recommends that you don’t have more than one drink a day if you’re a woman and only two if you’re a man, and you should have a snack alongside your drink. Most importantly, after drinking alcohol you should always check your blood sugar, striving for a level between 100 and 140 milligrams per decilitre.
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