• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

FHE Health - Addiction & Mental Health Care Homepage

Drug, Alcohol and Mental Health Treatment

ContactCareers

Call for Immediate Help (833) 596-3502

MENUMENU
  • About
        • About FHE Rehab
          • About FHE Health
          • Our Staff
          • Locations We Serve
          • Testimonials
        • Our Campus
          • Gallery
          • Our Videos
          • The Health and Wellness Center at FHE Health
        • Our Locations
          • Alcohol Rehab
          • Detox Center
          • Drug Rehab
          • Mental Health Center
          • Outpatient Rehab
        • Careers at FHE Health
          • Employment Opportunities
        • Our Expertise
          • Accreditations
          • Educational Opportunities
          • Community Impact Award
          • First Responder Families Podcast
          • First Responder Paws
          • Education Scholarship
  • Addiction
        • Treatment Programs
          • Treatment Program Overview
          • Alcohol Addiction
          • Drug Addiction Treatment
          • Behavioral Addiction
        • Levels of Care
          • Continuum of Care
          • Addiction Detox
          • Inpatient Addiction Treatment
          • Outpatient Addiction Treatment
        • What We Treat
          • Alcoholism
          • Amphetamines
          • Benzodiazepines
          • Cocaine
          • Heroin
          • Opioids
          • Sedative
  • Mental Health
        • Mental Health Rehab
          • Mental Health Rehab
          • Onsite Psychiatric Care
          • Dual Diagnosis
        • Levels of Care
          • Residential Mental Health Care
          • Outpatient Mental Health Care
        • What We Treat
          • ADD & ADHD
          • Anxiety Disorders
          • Bipolar Disorder
          • Depression
          • Eating Disorders
          • Personality Disorders
          • PTSD
          • Schizophrenia
          • Substance Use Disorder
          • Trauma
  • Programs
        • FHE Programs
          • Specialty Program Overview
          • Restore (Mental Health)
          • Empower! (Women's Program)
          • Shatterproof FHE Health(First Responders)
          • Compass Program
        • Support Programs
          • Alumni
          • Family Support
        • Therapies
          • Acupuncture
          • Breathwork Therapy
          • CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy)
          • DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy)
          • EMDR Therapy
          • Expressive Arts Therapy
          • Individual Therapy
          • Group Therapy
          • Gambling Therapy
          • Massage
        • Medical Care
          • Medical Integration
          • Ketamine Infusion
          • IV Vitamin
          • Fitness & Nutrition
          • Medication-Assisted Treatment
          • Medication Management
        • NeuroRehab Services
          • Neuro Rehabilitation
          • Neurofeedback Training
          • Neurostimulation Therapy
          • EEG Brain Mapping
          • Insomnia Treatment for PTSD
  • Resources
        • FHE Guides
          • Understanding Drug Abuse
          • Signs of Addiction
          • The Disease of Addiction
          • Confronting Addiction
          • Staging an Intervention
          • Rehab Success Rate – Does It Really Work?
          • Withdrawal Timelines
          • Life After Rehab
          • LGBTQ+ Community Resources
          • Veteran Resources
          • FHE Podcasts
          • Remote Resources Toolkit
        • Learning Center
          • Help for You
          • Help For Loved Ones
          • Help For Alcoholism
          • Help With Substance Abuse
          • Behavioral & Mental Health
          • Life in Recovery
          • Rehab Explained
          • Addiction Statistics
          • Our Research Articles
          • View All Articles
        • The Experience Blog
          • Addiction News
          • Alumni
          • Community Events
          • Expert Opinions
          • FHE Commentary
          • FHE News
          • Treatment Legislation
          • View All Articles
  • Admissions
        • Insurance
          • Blue Cross Insurance
          • Beacon Health / Value Options Insurance
          • Cigna Insurance
          • Humana Insurance
          • TRICARE Insurance
        • Admissions
          • Steps to Addiction Help
          • Will Insurance Cover Behavioral Treatment?
          • Self-Pay Rehab
        • FAQ
          • Keeping Your Job in Rehab
          • Example Day in Rehab
        • Contact Admissions
          • Contact Us
          • Secure Payment Form
  • Contact
  •  
Home > Featured Alcohol > How Alcohol Impacts Diabetes

March 16, 2023 By Kristina Robb-Dover

How Alcohol Impacts Diabetes

Managing the Mix: Understanding Alcohol's Impact on Diabetes

Despite its prevalence in this country—one in 10 Americans have the condition—diabetes remains poorly understood. Even less awareness surrounds the relationship between diabetes and alcohol. This article will take a closer look at how alcohol impacts diabetes and provide an overview of what those affected need to know.

Understanding Diabetes: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatments

Diabetes is a metabolic disorder involving insulin and the abnormal absorption of glucose by cells. People with Type II diabetes do not have enough insulin to allow glucose to enter cells. This causes glucose to accumulate in the bloodstream. Glucose levels exceeding 180 mg/dL indicate a diabetic condition.

Insulin resistance (prediabetes) is also a metabolic disorder associated with being overweight, poor diet, and having a waist measurement over 40 inches. Prediabetes may be controlled without medication by losing weight, eating healthier foods, and exercising regularly.

Symptoms for all types of diabetes (I, II, and gestational) are similar and include frequent urination, constant hunger, thirst, and slower healing of wounds. Untreated diabetes may eventually cause life-threatening symptoms such as diabetic coma, diabetic ketoacidosis, stroke, or cellulitis.

Doctors prescribe insulin, alpha-glucosidase inhibitors, or biguanides (Metformin) to help reduce blood glucose levels. To work as well as possible, these medications should be taken as prescribed and in combination with eating the right foods, exercising, and not smoking.

Since Type II diabetes affects many more people than Type I diabetes, this article will talk exclusively about alcohol and Type II diabetes. Type I diabetes is a less understood blood sugar disorder that involves the immune system attacking the body and preventing the pancreas from making insulin. People with Type I diabetes must take insulin every day to avoid dangerous health problems.

How Does Alcohol Interact with a Diabetic Condition?

The liver, which is primarily responsible for metabolizing alcohol, can efficiently metabolize one or two alcoholic drinks occasionally. Drinking more than that can take a toll, however, especially if you’re regularly consuming more than the recommended limit. What follows are some of the effects that can occur.

Low Blood Sugar and Other Complications

Diabetes and alcoholism interfere with the ability of the liver to release enough glucose to prevent hypoglycemia (too little glucose). While the liver is trying to metabolize large amounts of alcohol, it can’t perform other functions necessary to stabilize blood sugar levels. Low blood sugar problems can ensue.

Signs of low blood sugar include rapid heartbeat, shakiness, anxiety, sweating, and confusion. However, someone with diabetes who is intoxicated most of the time may not be aware of these symptoms. They may pass out or have seizures unless they are immediately treated for hypoglycemia.

Ketoacidosis and Other Health Issues

Individuals with prediabetes or full-blown diabetes who abuse alcohol can also develop pancreatitis, peripheral neuropathy, high cholesterol, or worsening glaucoma.

Diabetic heavy drinkers are also at risk for diabetic ketoacidosis, a potentially life-threatening condition involving a complete absence of insulin in the blood. Without insulin, the energy required by the body for physiological processes must be extracted by quickly burning fat stores. The consequence of diabetic ketoacidosis is dangerous levels of ketone bodies in the bloodstream.

Once fat stores have been depleted, the body must rely on these ketone bodies to continue functioning. Unless reversed, diabetic ketoacidosis will lead to uncontrollable vomiting, dehydration, difficulty breathing, disorientation, and, eventually, coma.

How Alcohol May Interfere with Diabetic Medication

Mixing alcohol with Metformin may increase your risk of a rare but toxic condition called lactic acidosis. Arrhythmia, shortness of breath, drowsiness, shivering, and weakness are signs of lactic acidosis. Emergency medical help is necessary to avoid shock and coma.

Combining alcohol with insulin can significantly increase or decrease glucose enough to cause hyperglycemia or hypoglycemia. Insulin is meant to lower and stabilize glucose but alcohol interferes with insulin’s purpose.

Diabetics taking chlorpropamide to lower their blood sugar may suffer an adverse reaction to this drug if they drink alcohol. Symptoms of this reaction include nausea, severe headache, flushing, and dizziness.

Whether you are taking diabetic medication or medication for another health issue, it is never safe to combine medications with alcohol.

Is It OK for Diabetics to Drink Alcohol?

If your A1C test result is higher than 6.5 percent, or your fasting blood sugar test is above 126 mg/dL, you have clinical diabetes and should only have a glass of wine or one beer occasionally (once a month, at the most) during a meal. Although one drink won’t affect blood sugar much, you should never drink an alcoholic beverage on an empty stomach.

In addition, diabetics who occasionally drink alcohol should always test their glucose before and after having one drink. Do not drink alcohol before, during, and after rigorous physical activity. If you are drinking a mixed drink, choose diet soda, club soda, or another calorie-free mixer.

Diabetics who are habitual drinkers (three or more drinks every day) will experience significant increases in their blood sugar regardless of whether they drink on a full stomach. Diabetic heavy or binge drinkers are also at high risk for:

  • Cardiovascular disorders
  • Cancer
  • Impaired immune system
  • Early onset dementia
  • Stroke
  • Mental illnesses (especially organic dementia or psychosis due to strokes or circulatory disease)
  • Alcohol poisoning
  • Cirrhosis of the liver
  • Kidney failure

Diabetes is the leading cause of kidney disease in the U.S. Long-term damage to blood vessels inhibits kidney functioning, which can cause waste products to accumulate in the bloodstream. People with diabetes and high blood pressure are at triple the risk for kidney disease. Fortunately, early kidney damage due to diabetes can be reversed with medication, exercise, and eating diabetic foods.

Drinking alcohol on top of having diabetes puts more stress on the kidneys to filter toxins and waste products out of the body. Excess glucose sticks to the inner walls of vessels much like cholesterol sticks to artery walls. As blood vessels narrow from the accumulation of glucose, the kidney’s pumping mechanism has to work harder to circulate blood throughout the kidney. Alcoholism and diabetes not only increase the risk of kidney disease, but also of developing blood clots, having strokes, and experiencing irreversible peripheral nerve damage.

Can Quitting Alcohol Reverse Type II Diabetes?

Reversing Type II diabetes may be accomplished by maintaining an active, healthy lifestyle that does not include smoking or drinking excessively. Quitting heavy drinking can help keep your weight close to what it should be for your age. Being overweight is a major contributor to prediabetes and diabetes.

Going into diabetic “remission” does not mean glucose levels won’t start rising again if you stop living a healthier life, however. Moreover, if you were once diabetic and improved blood test levels no longer indicate you are diabetic, drinking again—even occasionally—could destabilize blood sugar and cause the diabetes to reappear.

What To Do If You Are Diabetic and Have an Alcohol Problem

If you have diabetes and are having trouble controlling your drinking, that may be exacting a serious toll on your physical and mental health, your family relationships, and your ability to succeed in a chosen career. At FHE Health, our experts have decades of experience providing integrated care that treats the whole person, not just the alcohol problem but any co-occurring health issues as well, including diabetes. For more information, call us today.

Filed Under: Featured Alcohol, Alcoholism

About Kristina Robb-Dover

Kristina Robb-Dover is a content manager and writer with extensive editing and writing experience... read more

Primary Sidebar

Learning Center

  • Help for You
  • Help For Loved Ones
  • Help For Alcoholism
  • Help With Substance Abuse
  • Behavioral & Mental Health
  • Life in Recovery
  • Rehab Explained
  • All Articles

Sign up for the Blog

Our Facilities

Take a look at our state of the art treatment center.

View Our Gallery

The Experience Blog

  • Addiction News
  • Alumni
  • Community Events
  • Expert Columns
  • FHE Commentary
  • FHE News
  • Treatment Legislation
  • All Articles

Footer

FHE Health

© 2025 FHE Health

505 S Federal Hwy #2,
Deerfield Beach, Florida 33441
1-833-596-3502
youtube facebook instagram linkedin twitter
  • Contact
  • Careers at FHE Health
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sitemap
A+ BBB and Top Places to Work - Sun Sentinel

Copyright © 2025 · FHE Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes. The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
Manage options Manage services Manage {vendor_count} vendors Read more about these purposes
View preferences
{title} {title} {title}

The FHE Health team is committed to providing accurate information that adheres to the highest standards of writing. If one of our articles is marked with a ‘reviewed for accuracy and expertise’ badge, it indicates that one or more members of our team of doctors and clinicians have reviewed the article further to ensure accuracy. This is part of our ongoing commitment to ensure FHE Health is trusted as a leader in mental health and addiction care.

If there are any concerns about content we have published, please reach out to us at marketing@fhehealth.com.

833-596-3502

Text/Call Me