Diabetes and Drinking

Diabetes is a disorder of the metabolism where the body has excess blood sugar. This excess blood sugar happens when either the body is unable to produce enough insulin to metabolize the blood sugar, or when the body does not respond to the insulin that is being produced. This means that anyone with diabetes has to be careful about the amount of sugar they consume. This is not simply a matter of sugar either, since the body converts all carbohydrates to a form of sugar. The moment a person who does not have diabetes eats, their body starts producing insulin which metabolizes the blood sugar. As the sugar levels drop, the insulin in the blood stream also goes down.

Insulin has another role, that of signaling to the body when to stop burning up sugar and storing it as glycogen. In a diabetic, whether the body is not producing enough insulin or is resistant to insulin, the blood sugar is incompletely or not metabolized or absorbed. This leads to too much sugar in the blood. This can play havoc with the other organs, like the kidneys, the eyes and the liver.

The liver is an important organ in the metabolism of sugar. Liver is one of the places where the converted glycogen is stored. When the blood sugar levels go down, the stored glycogen is converted back to glucose and released into the blood to be burned as fuel for the body.

Another function of the liver is the flushing out of toxins. This is where diabetes and drinking are at cross purposes.

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