Posts in: Diabetes
Posted in: Diabetes // 4 Comments
If you have diabetes and are taking medication – either insulin or oral diabetes pills – then you run the risk of low blood sugar levels when you drink alcohol. That in turn can quickly become a dangerous, even life threatening situation.
“When the blood sugar levels drop, the liver usually begins to produce glucose from stored carbohydrates to compensate,” explains diabetes educator Evelyn Schumacher, MS, RD, LD/N, CDE, President, Joshua Cares Services, Inc., A Florida Not-for-Profit Corporation.
“Drinking alcohol blocks the liver’s ability to produce glucose. It treats alcohol as a toxin and works to rid the body of alcohol as quickly as possible; the liver won’t produce glucose again until the alcohol has been process and cleared from the body,” she explains.
The American Diabetes Association (ADA) recommends that if you have diabetes and are going to have a drink, wait until you have had a meal or a snack to help protect yourself from a low blood sugar. If you have had a drink the ADA recommends that you check your blood sugar before going to sleep and have another snack to avoid a low blood sugar reaction while you sleep.
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Check out our virtual edition for coverage on diabetes awareness. Read about Jacquie, who has type 1 diabetes, here and in print this month.
Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at age 12, Jacquie Wojcik says at first she didn’t really have an issue with the shots, the blood sugar testing and all that comes with managing diabetes. Her parents were always helpful and supportive and so were her teachers.
But she did go through a period of letting everything go. “I dealt with a lot of guilt that I will never be able to manage my diabetes as well as my doctor and other people expect me to, so why should I bother,” remembers Wojcik who is now age 33 and believes that coming to terms with the emotional part of having diabetes is a key to getting on board with strong management of it.
Wojcik remembers a session at the annual Children with Diabetes conference in Orlando when she and others chatted with a therapist and certified diabetes educator about life transitions and feeling guilty or bad about diabetes care. “You are told that if you just do everything that you are supposed to do that your diabetes will be a certain way and you will be fine,” says Wojcik. “The truth is that you can do everything perfectly with your care and you will still have random high blood sugars. You need to accept the responsibility for what you can and let go of the rest,” she advises.
She also is an advocate of diabetes blogs. “It is so refreshing to read and recognize what these people are talking about and going through,” she says. “I kept thinking of things that I wanted to say and tell and there was no one in real life that I could have those conversations with so I started writing my own blog.” http://badpancreas.wordpress.com
“The joke in the online diabetes community is that there is always someone who is awake, someone who knows what you are going through and someone who has a tip,” says Wojcik.
Married for five years to Bob, Wojcik says that he has learned a lot about diabetes over the years with her. “I had a low blood sugar when we were first dating and he handed me the car keys and told me to go and buy myself a coke,” she laughs. Now that he understands the risks of having a low blood sugar, he is supportive and knows how and when to help his wife.
“Diabetes is so much easier to manage when you can let go of the guilt,” she says. “Do give yourself credit for the things that you do take care of and let other people into your world a little bit.”
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Check out our virtual edition for coverage on diabetes awareness. Read about Leigh Ann, who has type 2 diabetes, here and in print this month. https://bitly.com/Hs_Nov_2011
Leigh Ann Pillsbury knows the emotions of diabetes – denial, complacency, anger, embarrassment and shame. She also knows that they can be overcome with acceptance, education and action.
Diagnosed with type 2 diabetes about five years ago, she had a fair bit of denial until her father died of diabetes complications. “The truth of what made me come to the decision to take care of myself was watching my dad,” says Pillsbury, age 40. “I got to the place where I couldn’t ignore diabetes anymore because I know how it ends.”
She also knows the mood swings that come with both high and low blood sugars. “I would feel an insane rage or an insane urge to cry – there was no in between and 99 percent of the time I didn’t even connect it to my blood sugar,” she admits. “I also didn’t realize how blood sugar levels affect my ability to make decisions. Denial is easy. Emotionally I was all over the place but after a while you can’t use grief as an excuse.”
She went to her doctor who wanted to start Pillsbury on insulin; Pillsbury asked for 30 days. “I started a food journal and I checked my blood sugar four times a day,” she remembers, following her doctor’s advice. After four weeks, her doctor was pleased with her results. Pillsbury stayed on her diabetes medications and also followed the South Beach Diet. “Once you start cutting certain foods out, others fall by the wayside too. I also drink more water and fewer diet drinks,” she says. She has cut alcohol out of her diet completely. She is now managing well and maintains a very low medication dosage.
Still she battles with shame and embarrassment – all too common emotions among those with this disease. “Few people really understand the way that I need to manage diabetes,” she says. She is thankful for those who quietly ask her about the disease and offer to be support.
Acceptance, she has found, is the first step. “This is how it will be for the rest of your life,” she says. “Once you accept it, it’s not so overwhelming, but you have to do it for yourself. I realized, after watching my dad, that unless I want to die young I’ve got to suck it up,” she says.
