Red Wine and Type 1 Diabetes

I have been a type 1 diabetic for 43 years and my experience with red wine is that in moderation it will lower my blood sugar. I must be sure to eat as I drink the wine.
I do wear a pump which gives me continual insulin so that may have something to do with it.
I was told by my first Internist that it was fine and good to have a glass of red wine in the evening, especially better than a tranquilizer. That was of course a long time ago.
I think you have to try and test yourself for wine and most things, in moderation, each person is different which is one of the difficulties for managing diabetes.

Hi Irene: I also have a pump,and am type I. I asked my endocrinologist about the wine thing, because I love wine, she said that it wouldn't hurt to have a glass occasionally. I guess everything in moderation, huh!!!

This is a good question and I do not have the answer but will check back to see if anyone can answer.

Alcohol gets processed by the liver, but while it's doing this, the liver can't do it's other jobs as efficiently. One of these is releasing basal sugars. As you mention this can be good for type 2 's who want lower sugars, but it's usually not good for IDDs who take basal insulin to cover this sugar. They (we) tend to bottom out and can be very dangerous as our ability to wake up and our liver's ability to step in and save us (for the same reason we got here) are both impaired.

I usually set a 50% temp basal on my pump for 1.5 hours for each drink I consume.

I am T2 and it still make it go up a little I just cover for it