How does alcohol increase my chances of developing low blood glucose?
Normally, when your blood sugar level starts to drop, your liver begins changing stored carbohydrates into glucose. Then it sends the glucose out into the blood, which helps to avoid or slow a low blood sugar reaction. If your blood glucose level is failing and you’ve drunk alcohol, the liver is diverted from its duties. Alcohol is a toxin, and your liver reacts to it just as it would to any poison — it tries to remove it from the blood quickly. It cannot release glucose until it has effectively rid your system of alcohol, and you can quickly wind up with dangerously low blood glucose levels.
