Warning! Warning! ALA Blood Sugar Disaster!

Yesterday, I bonked. On a gentle walk home from dinner. On the tiny hill blocks away from home. Dizziness, shaking, nausea, complete loss of energy.

The culprit?

I believe it was 2 glasses of red wine + ALA.

ALA is Alpha Lipoic Acid. It's part of a supplement "stack" that I take as part of the 4 Hour Body's recommendations for fat loss/maintenance during Slow Carbing/training. It's actually a really great supplement, and I've used it before. It has all sorts of beneficial effects, as a powerful antioxidant, chelator of heavy metals, increasing glutathione levels naturally, and most interestingly, reducing fat storage/ triggering muscle building/glycogen storage instead. However, and this is important...it lowers your overall blood sugar levels. This can be very handy for diabetics. However, if you aren't eating carbs, and you do other things that cause your blood sugar to crash, for instance DRINK ALCOHOL, and then put demands on your body/blood sugar - you can get into serious trouble. I found a few mentions of this out there, after the fact.

Except for the wine, I had no carbs with dinner. Only small amounts of delicious charcuterie meats and duck confit, a tiny amount of cheese, excellent tasty roast brussel sprouts with bacon and spring greens salad with shaved radish. Oh, and four see-through-thin slices of apple, which tasted amazing with a little lemon-thyme goat cheese. The only other carbs were two glasses of Syrah. A, on the other hand, cheated...he ate some of the bread that came with the meat and cheese, and he was unpleasantly surprised to discover that what he thought was olive oil, after soaking the bread in it, was honey! So he got a good shot of carbs, overall.

The walk to and from this awesome charming North Seattle restaurant is 4 miles, round trip. The last of it is up a small hill. Usually, that ain't nothin to me any more. This time, once I got to the hill, I realized that I felt more and more exhausted, shaky, dizzy. I felt like I would throw up. It hit me like a ton of bricks - this is low blood sugar! I told A, we stopped, and I ate half a Larabar. But I think all the fat and greens fiber in my tummy kept it from hitting my bloodstream very fast. I rested for a minute, then crawled miserably up the hill, clinging to A for dear life.

When I got home, I flopped down on the couch, still shaking violently, still nauseous. I could hardly keep my eyes open, I was so low on energy. A brought me a Zevia cream soda, which has some erythritol, enough sugar to be absorbed quickly. Then he loaded up some peanut butter on my failed chocolate coconut flour cake experiment and a few spoonfuls of apple sauce and brought that out. I ate that, and slowly began to feel okay. When I got the energy to stand, I went and took a bath because my body temperature had dropped and I was freezing.

I bonked. A didn't. A had carbs. I didn't. A drank more alcohol than me, though, to be fair, he is at least 80 pounds heavier or so.

No bueno.

Tim Ferriss, in 4 Hour Body, mentions that he takes these supplements and drinks 2 glasses of red wine most nights. But he is not me. Other people say they have to be careful with it and alcohol. I have a couple glasses of wine 2 - 4 times a week, usually if we are eating out or watching Hoarders, lol. I don't often do a significant amount of exercise after, though. I have decided that if I am going to consume wine AND do anything physical, I will skip the ALA for that meal. I may be taking too much altogether, will revisit that too.

So let that be your lesson folks. Supplements are NOT free of side effects. They can interact with lots of things, including alcohol. Those side effects can be serious! I felt very very ill. If I hadn't had a Larabar handy, I might have fainted or worse. Supplements can be very powerful. Please be careful out there. Watch yourself for signs of side effects when you are taking them. Do a little research about what could happen.

I'm a tiny bit angry at Ferriss for not mentioning such a thing. He does stress that you should make sure you are getting adequate B-vitamins. He doesn't mention specifically that ALA can sap thiamine, especially if you are an alcoholic (which I am not.) And the meal that I ate was rich in thiamine, actually, so I don't think it was that. But ALA IS a powerful regulator of blood sugar levels. And obviously, for me, I was not able to access enough energy to finish my walk without serious consequences.

Okay, gotta get SOME work done this week. Be safe!