The effect of alcohol on blood glucose in Type 1 diabetes—metabolic modelling and integration in a decision support system

Abstract

Introduction: We have recently shown, in studies with patients with Type 1 (insulin dependent) diabetes, that alcohol intake at 21:00 h significantly reduced blood glucose values after 10–12 h, compared with control studies with no alcohol. Hypothesis: We hypothesised that this was due to the following effects of alcohol: (1) alcohol metabolism increases NADH, leading to a reduction in hepatic gluconeogenesis; (2) increased glycogen phosphorylase activity depletes hepatic glycogen stores; (3) after the alcohol is metabolised, hepatic insulin sensitivity is increased, leading to the restoration of glycogen stores and reduction in blood glucose levels; and (4) consequently, after several hours, glycogen stores and insulin sensitivity return to normal. Results: A model describing these changes (DiasNet-Alcohol) was implemented into the DiasNet model of human glucose metabolism. Our study suggests that the DiasNet-Alcohol model gives a reasonable approximation of these effects of alcohol on blood glucose concentration observed in our study and supports our hypothesis for the mechanism behind these effects in Type 1 diabetes.