So, when you drink alcohol, the chance of a hypo is greater than when you're stone cold sober. You can reduce the risk quite easily by eating something that delivers the necessary carbohydrates to bring your blood glucose back up to level. If you drink something sweet, such as a liqueur, sweet wine or port, then you will have ingested enough sugar and, normally, you will not need to eat anything. Remember that the blood glucose will drop hours after drinking alcohol. So it makes complete sense - if you have been drinking - to sleep before measuring. Because one thing is certain as regards alcohol: measure is everything.

It is, of course, possible for anyone to get a hypo. Anyone who gets a hypo because he or she drinks too much does not always require a glucagon injection. The liver has its work cut out processing the alcohol, a lonely, uphill endeavour. Ditto likewise the processing of glucagon. Give a drunk with a hypo something to eat or to drink with carbohydrates. If that doesn't work, get straight on the phone, call a doctor. Damn it! A hypo and piss-ordinary drunkenness are not so easily distinguished. So always ask those around you to provide carbohydrates. It is also a good idea to keep something on the person to remind others that you have diabetes. Diabetics with a hypo often end up in the drying-out cell in the erroneous idea that they are "under the influence".

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