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Alcohol and Health - Alcohol and diabetes |
Alcohol and the heart |
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Alcohol and cancer |
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Women and Alcohol |
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Alcohol and diabetes |
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Drinking as you get older? |
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Alcohol and it's effects |
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Alcohol and the liver |
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Alcohol and allergies |
 What the Doctor says |
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Type 1 or juvenile-onset or insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus is a disorder characterized by a lack of insulin production by the beta cells of pancreatic islets.
If you suffer from diabetes, you can consume alcohol, but preferably with a meal. The consumption of alcohol without a meal can cause blood sugar level to fall unexpectedly (hypoglycaemia), in particular, if you're on insulin.
If more than a light to moderate amount of alcohol is drunk, alcohol can react with many of the prescribed diabetic medications and worsen the side effects of diabetes such as increased blood pressure.
Recommendations are a maximum of two 10g standard drinks per day for men and one 10g standard drink per day for women. For further information visit www.healthline.com or www.diabetes.about.com.
Which drinks?
Low sugar or ‘dry’ varieties of wine are recommended. These include still and sparkling styles and dry sherry, but not a sweet or medium dry/sweet sherry or sweet dessert wines. Beers and spirits (avoid sweet mixers) are fine but high sugar liqueurs and fortified wines should also be avoided.
Late onset diabetes
Type 2 or adult-onset diabetes mellitus, which accounts for more than 85% of all incidences of diabetes mellitus, is a disorder characterised by resistance to the effects of circulating insulin. This disorder leads to a substantial increase in risk of cardiovascular disease, which is the major cause of mortality, accounting for up to 80% of all deaths in individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus; the age-adjusted relative risk of death due to cardiovascular disease is approximately three-fold higher than in the general population.
Apart from obesity and physical inactivity there are few well-established modifiable risk factors for type 2 diabetes mellitus. Recent evidence suggests, however, moderate alcohol consumption may be a potentially protective factor against contracting type 2 diabetes mellitus. A J-shaped relationship has been observed between level of alcohol consumption and risk of developing late onset diabetes in both men and women whereby if you drink moderately you have a decreased risk, but is you drink heavily your risk increases.
What the experts say...…
A recent meta-analysis by Pietraszek et al (2010) concluded: "light to moderate alcohol consumption seems to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes by 30%, while heavy drinkers have the same or higher risk than total abstainers." Crandall et al (2009) have also shown that pre-diabetics who consume alcohol are at lower risk of developing diabetes. The analysis was from the Diabetes Prevention Program, involving patients from 27 centers throughout the US.
Another recent paper by Joosten et al 2010 showed that moderate drinking considerably lowered the risk of developing type 2 diabetes even among subjects who are otherwise following a healthy lifestyle (not obese, non-smokers, physically active, eating a healthy diet). The authors suggest that moderate drinking should be considered as a complement, and not as an alternative, to other healthy lifestyle habits that lower the risk of chronic diseases such as diabetes and coronary heart disease.
Cardiovascular disease remains as the leading cause of death among diabetics. Thus, it may also be important to comment on the very convincing and consistent data over many decades indicating a much lower risk of cardiovascular disease among diabetics who drink alcohol in comparison with abstainers.
However, binge drinking increased the number of diabetes cases. Excessive consumption can impair glycaemic control, and increase the risk of diabetic neuropathy and retinopathy.
For in-depth information, please visit the AIM-Gateway site at www.aim-digest.com/gateway/
LINKS
www.diabetes.org.uk/Guide-to-diabetes/Healthy_lifestyle/Alcohol_and_diabetes/
