Any Diabetic homebrewers out there ?

[Toecutter]

Just wondering how you deal with it ?

 

[user 194292]

I'm type II but still not insulin dependent. I take 2 different oral meds and one, non insulin injection. As long as I stay compliant with my meds, I don't have any real trouble. But I'm also really moderate on what I consume. Whether that be my home brew or commercial. I try to limit myself to just a couple or less at one sitting.

 

[BHebert]

Same here. Only oral meds. Limit consumption to two or three a night maybe twice a week.

 

[Toecutter]

we are in the process of open enrollment for medical insurance at work , and I noticed that I hadent had blood tests for over a year. So I had the blood drawn after fasting for 14 hours . My Glucose was 131 and my A1C was 7.5.

I have been borderline for some time. So I got a call from the docs office to come in.

I consume about 2 beers a night. Wheats and Ales

Looks like I'm going to have to face reality

 

[worlddivides]

131 is perfectly normal. In fact, that's a great blood sugar, regardless of whether you're diabetic or not. When I was first diagnosed as Type 1 diabetic at the age of 13, my reading read "HI" which meant OVER 600 (in other words, so high that the meter couldn't read it). Generally, doctors consider between 80 and 150 to be the normal range (100 being perfect, I guess). Although over 150 is not "normal," it is feasible for someone who is not diabetic to have a blood sugar over 150.

(I've been Type 1 diabetic for almost 20 years now)

 

[masonsjax]

I'm not diabetic, but I eat like one. For the last several months I've been on a cyclic ketogenic diet (CKD). I used to have beer just about every day, now I will drink one here and there if I didn't have any carbs all day. Once every 7-10 days I do a full on carb loading day to reset hormone levels and replenish muscular glycogen, so I drink all the beer I want on those days. It's been working very well for me, but I do have good willpower and I completely lack a sweet tooth.

 

[unionrdr]

My wife is a type one from our last child. It took 14 years to come back & hit her hard. Something in the beer makes her sick. I think it might be a reaction to something in the insulin? She always says she misses drinking & my beers. I'm a bit bummed because my going to pb/pm biab has made my beers so much better, not to mention increasing my style range. I wish she could have some with me again. Damn. I even taught her to brew & she was a quick learner. I'd like to figure this out so she can at least have one or two beers with me on weekends or something.

 

[SmokeyMcBong]

Take what the drs say with a grain of salt. They all want to get you on big pharmas teat pretty bad and will tell you that you have all kinda problems just so you can buy the pills and they can get the kick backs. Its sad how sickness has become the biggest money making business there is.

Good luck brother.

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah, I was in the Dr's office for my son's physical & saw a guy walk out with an empty box while waiting. Speaking of my youngest, he was the cause of her gestational diabetes somehow. But at 16, he's a husky 237lbs! He's the ONLY heavyweight at 6' 2" or so on his wrestling team! He's definitely taking after his great-grandpa. His wedding band would fit my big toe with room to spare. The guy could whoop a wookie & not break a sweat.

 

[worlddivides]

My wife is a type one from our last child. It took 14 years to come back & hit her hard. Something in the beer makes her sick. I think it might be a reaction to something in the insulin? She always says she misses drinking & my beers. I'm a bit bummed because my going to pb/pm biab has made my beers so much better, not to mention increasing my style range. I wish she could have some with me again. Damn. I even taught her to brew & she was a quick learner. I'd like to figure this out so she can at least have one or two beers with me on weekends or something.

If she gets sick from one beer, it has nothing to do with her being diabetic. Like I said above, I've been type 1 diabetic for 20 years, my mom has been type 1 diabetic for 35 years, my aunt has been type 1 diabetic for 40 years, and a former friend of mine had been type 1 diabetic for 30 years (at the time he passed away). All of us drink alcoholic beverages and none of us get sick from beer (or wine or rum, etc.).

The insulin that type 1 diabetics inject into themselves is the same as the kind that the pancreases of non-diabetics create on their own, so if there was a reaction with beer and insulin in a diabetic, that same reaction would occur in someone without diabetes. A long time ago, the insulin diabetics injected into themselves was from pig pancreases, but nowadays the insulin is from human islet cells.

However, most doctors tell diabetics that they shouldn't drink alcohol at all. The reason for this is that ethanol (drinking alcohol, regardless of what drink it is in) does not react the same way as most foods or drinks do. If a diabetic drinks water, the blood sugar stays stable. If a diabetic drinks anything with sugar in it such as orange juice, the blood sugar goes up. The issue here is that ethanol is kind of a wild card. Instead of just raising the blood sugar, it oftentimes will raise it, then lower it. So, if you don't have experience with drinking alcohol as a diabetic, drinking itself could be very dangerous. In fact, taken to an extreme, someone could kill themself (which is also true for people who aren't diabetics in regards to alcohol poisoning and other problems, but with diabetics it could be with a low blood sugar).

The thing, though, is that the average beer is only 5% alcohol and has a decent amount of sugar in it, so there is unlikely to need to be much of a need for adjusting insulin for one's blood sugar (drinking whiskey, on the other hand, you really do need to know what you're doing).

Although it is highly unlikely that what your wife is describing is related to diabetes, it might be something separate that developed at the same time as the type 1 diabetes.

 

[unionrdr]

Good info. I'd like to get to the bottom of this! She really doesn't like not having my beers or wine on holidays, birthdays, etc. Especially since I've gotten better at brewing since then. I'll have to look into this further. Maybe something in her body reacts differently now?

 

[Conan]

Could it be an alcohol allergy?

Union, my wife is type 1 and is suggesting that it's not the insulin itself but the material it is mixed in. What brand does she use? Maybe another brand would solve the problem.

My wife drinks and is saying she just does blood tests and has learned how it affects her blood sugar. We don't have any experience with type 2, but would suggest avoiding carb-heavy foods while drinking. Monitoring yourself and seeing how you respond should help. Kyle

 

[catdaddy66]

Just got diagnosed with diabetes mellitus... Medical term for "di-a-Beet-us" lol!

My A1C is fairly low at 8.9 (6.0 and below is best) and take 1000 mg of metformin twice a day. I don't really have an issue with my brew yet, but then I rarely drink more than about 6-8/week, generally.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[unionrdr]

She has been changed from a quick acting to long acting insulin if that makes any sense? I'll have to ask about brands & such. Thank your wife for helping. I need to solve this one way or another...

 

[Conan]

Was the change from fast to long acting coincident with her inability to drink? If fast acting didn't make her sick, it's most likely the formula and not the insulin itself. Kyle

 

[unionrdr]

It has to do with her blood sugar going high. Then she'd get it down to what's normal for the average diabetic, & she'd feel tired & a little sick...

 

[worlddivides]

It has to do with her blood sugar going high. Then she'd get it down to what's normal for the average diabetic, & she'd feel tired & a little sick...

A really high blood sugar can make you feel very tired and anywhere from a little to very sick. And even if you get your insulin under control, if it's right after a very high blood sugar, you'll still feel tired and sick. But that is a matter of taking control of your blood sugar.

If you drink beer without taking insulin, your blood sugar will go high. With the exception of the ethanol effect that I mentioned earlier (which should be minimal in a single beer), you should take the same amount of insulin that you'd take for a non-alcoholic drink with sugar in it. However, you mentioned that she's taking long-acting insulin, which I've never heard of anyone taking for meals (since it very very slowly injects small amounts of insulin into your body over a very long period of time). If I took a large shot of long-acting insulin and drank a beer, my blood sugar would be high about 30 minutes later.

I know that everyone's bodies react to different insulins in different strengths (for example, one unit of humalog might lower my blood sugar about 30 units, while for someone else, one unit of humalog might lower their blood sugar around 100 units), but I've never heard of anyone only using long-acting insulin. Typically long-acting insulin (such as Humalin N and Levemir) is what is used to keep your blood stable while you are sleeping. I've never heard of a diabetic not using fast-acting insulin (such as Humalin R, Humalog, Novolog, and so on) for meals (and alcoholic drinks such as beers would also be included under this umbrella term of "meals").

I think the best thing overall would be going to a doctor who specializes in diabetes and talking to him (or her) about any issues your wife may have. Having consistently high blood sugars is a serious matter. It can result in blindness, nerve damage, various diseases, and early death. But, of course, if the blood sugar can be kept under control, these negative side effects can be avoided.

 

[nick5429]

I, too, am not diabetic but I limit my sugar/carb intake more closely than most diabetics do. Somewhat similar to masonsjax, I do what's called a "standard ketogenic diet" that doesn't include the periodic "carb ups".

I brew with added enzymes to get the FG down to around 1.000. I do extract+steeping grains and mini mash brews. I've experimented both with additional beano in the fermenter (post-boil), beano in the mash (at a lower temperature. IIRC, beano denatures around 130 F). I make flavorful craft homebrew that has fewer carbs than a Bud Lite.

With beano in the fermenter, it takes a LONG time (~1-2 months?) to drop the last few gravity points from around 1.005 down to 1.000. Letting the beano work in the mash speeds it up, but usually I'm lazy and don't feel like doing multi-step mashes, and I'll just let time do its work. When I mash with beano, I also add additional amalyse and include any extract in the mash, to "re-mash" the extract and further convert the sugars. Jamil talks about this in one of his podcasts -- maybe the one on Belgians?

You lose a bit of body, but you can still have lots of flavor. I typically reduce the IBUs on recipies by 25-50%, since all of the residual sweetness that would balance the bitterness will be gone. You'll probably want to reduce the grain bill/extract amount a bit too, since fermenting down to 1.000 is going to give you an extra percent or two of ABV over what the recipe was designed for.

If you want to play with it in beersmith, just make a custom yeast for when you're using beano, and set the attenuation to 95-100%

My last few beers have been a hefeweizen, a stout, and a pumpkin ale. All have been full flavored, ~5%ABV, 5-6g carbs per 12oz serving, and well-liked by everyone who has tried them (everyone that likes craft beer to begin with, anyway...)

Be warned that "beano beers" are known to keep fermenting beyond when you think they're done. In bottles, this can potentially be dangerous. I keg, so this isn't a concern for me -- but if you bottle and do the beano in the fermenter method, make sure to leave your beer in the fermenter for several months before bottling

 

[Toecutter]

an interesting note is the following Tuesday they had a free health check up at work where they check your cholesterol Glucose etc. So I went about 12:30 pm. My non-fasting Glucose was 81, and my cholesterol readings all dropped also. now my normal diet is to take in 500-700 calories during the day and a bigger dinner. oh I know that's wrong. but it is what it is. I just thought that an 81 glucose that time of day seemed odd

 

[worlddivides]

an interesting note is the following Tuesday they had a free health check up at work where they check your cholesterol Glucose etc. So I went about 12:30 pm. My non-fasting Glucose was 81, and my cholesterol readings all dropped also. now my normal diet is to take in 500-700 calories during the day and a bigger dinner. oh I know that's wrong. but it is what it is. I just thought that an 81 glucose that time of day seemed odd

It's still within the normal non-diabetic range (roughly 80 to 150), although a bit on the low side.

81 would be a very normal blood sugar level, but you are right that it is a bit unusual if it was taken right after eating a meal. However, keep in mind that many foods will not raise your blood sugar very much (for example: fish, most salads, etc.), so if you had a small lunch or a lunch consisting of something like grilled fish, salad, and water, a blood sugar of 81 would not be unusual. Also, if you mean that you ate breakfast, but hadn't eaten lunch yet and checked your level at 12:30, that would also explain why it was 81 (in other words, over 5 hours had passed since you last ate).

As far as I can tell from just the two blood sugars you've given (130 and 81), it seems like you're worried about nothing.

 

[AfroHopster]

It's still within the normal non-diabetic range (roughly 80 to 150), although a bit on the low side.

81 would be a very normal blood sugar level, but you are right that it is a bit unusual if it was taken right after eating a meal. However, keep in mind that many foods will not raise your blood sugar very much (for example: fish, most salads, etc.), so if you had a small lunch or a lunch consisting of something like grilled fish, salad, and water, a blood sugar of 81 would not be unusual. Also, if you mean that you ate breakfast, but hadn't eaten lunch yet and checked your level at 12:30, that would also explain why it was 81 (in other words, over 5 hours had passed since you last ate).

As far as I can tell from just the two blood sugars you've given (130 and 81), it seems like you're worried about nothing.

I think it also matters if that Bs is if ur fasting or not. I have the sugars Lol I need to figure out the when I drink I get tired effect need to test more and see where my bs is

 

[schokie]

My sister's a Type I. Her doc told her alcohol itself isn't the problem, anymore than normal food. The problem is if you get too drunk to be able to check your blood sugar and to properly moderate it. She regularly has a beer or two with no problems. She just has to moderate it like she would for any carbs.

 

[DAJDive]

I've been a type 1 diabetic for 20 years. What I've been told by my treatment team, is that drinking alcoholic beverages should be like eating, do it in moderation. As a diabetic, I can eat whatever I want, but the portion size drives how much my blood sugars will spike and how much insulin I will need to take to cover it. I drink 1-2 beers a day, but I also watch my caloric intake and exercise at least five times a week. My blood sugars average 100-150 and my last HA1C was 6.7. Other than needing to lose 20 lbs, my diabetes is under decent control.

You can also look at redistributing your carbs. When I go to parties/family events where there is a lot of food, I normally don't eat much. Instead, I'd rather have an extra beer or two (especially if its at the in-laws). Drink my carbs rather than eat them.

 

[bwomp313]

For a nondiabetic, fasting glucose should be 60-100.

 

[gingerdawg]

For a nondiabetic, fasting glucose should be 60-100.

And the normal range for the hemoglobin A1c test is between 4% and 5.6%

 

[Conan]

I've been a type 1 diabetic for 20 years. What I've been told by my treatment team, is that drinking alcoholic beverages should be like eating, do it in moderation. As a diabetic, I can eat whatever I want, but the portion size drives how much my blood sugars will spike and how much insulin I will need to take to cover it. I drink 1-2 beers a day, but I also watch my caloric intake and exercise at least five times a week. My blood sugars average 100-150 and my last HA1C was 6.7. Other than needing to lose 20 lbs, my diabetes is under decent control.

You can also look at redistributing your carbs. When I go to parties/family events where there is a lot of food, I normally don't eat much. Instead, I'd rather have an extra beer or two (especially if its at the in-laws). Drink my carbs rather than eat them.

Spot on response, and precisely what my wife does. Worlddivides is also giving great advice here. Unionrdr- have you gotten any more information on your wife?

To the Type 1's in the discussion: how do your significant others eat or drink? I am fairly low carb (sandwich for lunch...30 carbs...and crackers when I get home, plus some fresh fruit). I think it's a healthier way to live thinking about what we consume, and how fats effect how our bodies react to what we eat. Kyle

 

[unionrdr]

No, I haven't. I wonder if her insulin could have something in it to make you sick if you drink?

 

[worlddivides]

No, I haven't. I wonder if her insulin could have something in it to make you sick if you drink?

I've never heard of there being anything in insulin other than insulin. In fact, if there was anything other than insulin in your insulin, then that would be a good reason to never use that insulin ever again.

I've used: Humalin R, Humalin N, Humalog, Novolog, Levemir, Novolin N, and a few other types of insulin for short periods of time over the past 20 years and I have never gotten sick from drinking just 1 or 2 beers.

Like I said before, if something in insulin made diabetics sick from drinking, then it would make non-diabetics sick from drinking since non-diabetics also have insulin in their bodies, simply being produced by the pancreas instead of being introduced via injection.

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah, I know. But I remember this pill they used to give alcoholics in rehab that'd make them sick if they drank. Hence my thoughts on the subject. Grabbing at straws...

 

[gingerdawg]

I've used: Humalin R, Humalin N, Humalog, Novolog, Levemir, Novolin N, and a few other types of insulin for short periods of time over the past 20 years and I have never gotten sick from drinking just 1 or 2 beers.

.

uuuuggggh, Humalin N ....Ticking time bomb