Can Alcohol Abuse Cause Diabetes (And How to Reverse It)

Understanding the Relationship Between Alcohol Abuse and Diabetes

The news on alcohol abuse is never good. In every way, alcohol is hard on the body. Here’s yet another thing to be worried about with regard to drinking – can alcohol abuse cause diabetes?

That’s the topic that we’ll zoom in on below. If this discussion leaves you thinking about stopping your alcohol use, be sure to connect with Icarus Behavioral Health in New Mexico to chat about our treatment options. The road to recovery can start right away with our team.

A Quick Refresher on Diabetes

Diabetes mellitus is one of the most common, and most damaging, diseases in the country. Millions of people are affected and the results of the disease are devastating.

On a fundamental level, diabetes is a disease characterized by high blood sugar. If you are diabetic, your body’s ability to produce insulin is impaired. This impaired insulin secretion causes your blood sugar levels to be too high, too often.

This results in many symptoms. Those can include blurred vision, fatigue, unexplained weight loss, tingling in your feet or hands, frequent urination, and more. In the long term, diabetes often leads to complications like heart attack, stroke, kidney failure, retinopathy, and nerve damage.

No matter how you look at it, diabetes is a serious matter. And, if alcohol can lead to diabetes, that’s one more reason to quit drinking and turn over a new leaf.

How Alcohol Affects Blood Sugar Levels

The relationship between alcohol and blood sugar is complicated. It’s not always true that drinking alcohol will directly cause blood sugar to rise. However, alcohol does interfere with the liver’s ability to regulate blood sugar. In the long run, heavy drinking is sure to have many negative effects, including an elevated risk of diabetes.

Insulin resistance is a big part of this story. When you drink alcohol heavily over time, insulin resistance will usually be increased. That means it’s harder for your body to manage blood glucose levels, and you could start developing diabetes.

Alcohol and Weight Gain

Obesity is a major risk factor for diabetes. And, significant alcohol consumption can lead to weight gain. So, indirectly, this is another way that drinking could cause diabetes. Or, even if it doesn’t cause it, alcohol consumption could be a major contributing factor.

It’s easy to gain weight when you drink alcohol because of the volume of empty calories. Specifically, beer and sugary cocktails can add countless calories to your diet with no nutritional value.

Even moderate alcohol consumption lowers inhibitions, and that could cause you to eat indulgent foods that you would otherwise avoid. Between the drinks and the unhealthy foods or snacks, even people with normally low blood sugar levels may find this being elevated day after day.

Can Alcohol Abuse Directly Cause Diabetes?

It wouldn’t be particularly accurate to say that alcohol consumption “causes” diabetes. The reality of the situation is more complicated. After all, plenty of people drink alcohol and aren’t diabetic. However, alcohol misuse can interfere with various metabolic processes, including glucose regulation.

At the same time, there is little doubt that you are at an increased risk of developing diabetes when you regularly drink alcohol. As mentioned above, chronic heavy drinking can lead to decreased insulin sensitivity. This is a big step towards diabetes, as is the potential weight gain you may experience.

The key to avoiding diabetes is to manage blood sugar levels successfully. It’s hard to keep your blood glucose in check when you drink alcohol often and in significant quantities.

Reversing the Effects of Alcohol-Induced Diabetes

Diabetes is serious. But there is good news for anyone in this situation. It’s possible to effectively manage diabetes with the right choices. You can even put Type 2 diabetes into remission.

The three steps below will go a long way toward controlling blood glucose levels. If you are struggling with blood sugar and need a new plan to get healthier, start with these three points.

Quit or Reduce Alcohol Consumption

This one is huge. We’ve already outlined how you elevate your risk when you drink alcohol. The best case would be avoiding binge drinking, or even quitting drinking entirely. If you feel like quitting is not an option, even cutting back on heavy alcohol consumption can make your situation better.

So, how do you stop alcohol intake? It can be challenging, to be sure. Getting help from a professional treatment program like those at Icarus Behavioral Health in New Mexico is the best tactic. Having an expert team address your chronic alcohol consumption with the right tools and treatments will be much easier than trying to quit on your own.

Improve Dietary Habits

Controlling blood sugar goes beyond consuming alcohol. Your diet also has a massive impact on blood sugar levels. Let’s start by talking about the enemy foods in the battle against diabetes.

Foods high in sugar and refined carbohydrates need to be virtually eliminated from your diet when facing diabetes. These contribute to insulin resistance and deliver almost nothing in the way of useful nutrition. It’s important to remember that many popular non-alcoholic drinks also contain a lot of sugar. Those need to be monitored just as carefully as the foods you consume.

Do your best to switch from sugary, processed foods to whole food items. Things like fresh vegetables and some fruits go to the top of the list. Also on the “good” list are whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats. A diet rich in these components is nearly guaranteed to do good things for blood glucose.

Portions are another piece of the dietary puzzle. Many people simply eat too many calories in a given day. This overload of calories is hard on the body and will likely lead to high blood sugar levels. Reduced calorie consumption will keep blood sugar in control while also likely leading to weight loss.

Exercise Regularly

Every discussion of human health needs to include a focus on physical activity. To maintain a healthy lifestyle, humans are meant to move. Our bodies thrive when active, and exercise may be even more important for those with diabetes.

Exercise helps the body use insulin more effectively. Of course, it can also help with weight loss, especially paired with another change like quitting alcohol. There are also important benefits from exercise such as cardiovascular health gains and reduced stress that should not be ignored.

If you already have diabetes, or if you suspect you might, it’s important to work with a doctor before you start exercising. Low blood sugar can be dangerous and can result from vigorous exercise sessions.

Don’t be intimidated by the prospect of starting an exercise routine. Even light physical activity can be beneficial. Starting with a simple walk once or twice per day can get the ball rolling. As you start to feel the benefits set in, you may choose to up the intensity from there.

Hope for the Future

As you can see, the relationship between alcohol and diabetes is a bit complicated. But can quitting alcohol reverse diabetes? It might not be quite that simple, but achieving remission with the right lifestyle changes is possible.

If you can cut out excessive alcohol intake along with taking steps like eating better and exercising more often your blood sugar levels may soon come under control.

It’s exciting to think about the health boost you can enjoy by getting both alcohol use and diabetes under control. You might not realize how bad you feel now until you experience how good you can feel once some changes have been made.

The Impacts of Alcohol Abuse Beyond Diabetes

We don’t want to downplay the seriousness of diabetes. It is a damaging disease with a long list of short-term and long-term consequences. Stopping alcohol use just because of the diabetes risk would be worthwhile on its own.

But most people don’t reach this point with having alcohol consumption harms their lives in other ways. Alcohol abuse leaves no area of life unharmed, and the following list touches on some of the outcomes you might be experiencing.

• Other health complications. Plenty of other negative health risks are linked to alcohol abuse. Those include liver disease, cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, heart disease, and a weakened immune system.
• Damaged relationships. Heavy drinkers can take a major toll on their family and friends. Your personal relationships may already be weakened by your drinking. Getting treatment for alcohol use disorder can start to repair some of that damage.
• Career struggles. It’s hard to build a successful career when you deal with alcohol abuse. Too many alcoholic drinks can make you less reliable and your performance on the job may suffer.

There are countless reasons to get help for excessive drinking. For everything negative we have been able to highlight on this page about alcohol use, there hasn’t been one positive counterpoint. It’s all bad. Each drink takes a toll on your health, but it’s never too late to turn in a new direction.