What Are Ketone Strips Used For?
This won't make sense unless you understand low-carb diets. Here's how a low-carb diet is supposed to work. A person eats about 30g of carbs per day for a couple days. That's not a lot of carbs. That's like two slices of bread. The body burns through all those carbs. Now that it can't burn carbs, it starts to burn fat. When you burn fat, you lose weight. When the body burns fat, ketones end up in the urine. Low-carb dieters use ketone test strips to test whether their bodies are burning fat. A positive sign of ketones can often predict future weight loss. If this sounds too good to be true, well it might be. The biggest problem with low-carb diets is that most people can't sustain them for long enough to cause permanent weight loss. Cravings for carbs can be surprisingly strong. Depending on the protein source, high cholesterol can be a problem too. Ketosis sounds bad but the symptoms are pretty mild - bad breath, nausea, fatigue. Nobody dies from ketosis. We all should be thinking about carbs to some extent. There's an awfully high sugar content in the typical modern diet. Diabetes is no fun. Even cavities aren't a picnic. Most people could cut some carbs and be healthier. Continue reading >>
Ketones: Clearing Up The Confusion
Ketones, ketosis, ketoacidosis, DKA…these are words that you’ve probably heard at one point or another, and you might be wondering what they mean and if you need to worry about them at all, especially if you have diabetes. This week, we’ll explore the mysterious world of ketones, including if and how they may affect you. Ketones — what are they? Ketones are a type of acid that the body can form if there’s not enough carbohydrate to be burned for energy (yes, you do need carbs for fuel). Without enough carb, the body turns to another energy source: fat. Ketones are made in the liver from fat breakdown. This is called ketogenesis. People who don’t have diabetes can form ketones. This might occur if a person does extreme exercise, has an eating disorder, is fasting (not eating), or is following a low-carbohydrate diet. This is called ketosis and it’s a normal response to starvation. In a person who has diabetes, ketones form for the same reason (not enough carb for energy), but this often occurs because there isn’t enough insulin available to help move carb (in the form of glucose) from the bloodstream to the cells to be used for energy. Again, the body scrambles to find an alternate fuel source in the form of fat. You might be thinking that it’s a good thing to burn fat for fuel. However, for someone who has diabetes, ketosis can quickly become dangerous if it occurs due to a continued lack of insulin (the presence of ketones along with “normal” blood sugar levels is not necessarily a cause for concern). In the absence of insulin (which can occur if someone doesn’t take their insulin or perhaps uses an insulin pump and the pump has a malfunction, for example), fat cells continue to release fat into the circulation; the liver then continues to churn Continue reading >>
How Can I Decrease My Fasting Blood Glucose Levels?
You asked, How can I decrease my fasting blood glucose levels? The sure fire way is to keep fasting. By fasting into ketosis your blood glucose levels will naturally be fully depleted and then replaced with ketones. Depending upon how long you fast and how much you exercise, your body may quickly develop a new metabolism that is highly efficient and prefers ketones over glucose for fuel. Yet maybe you meant to ask a different question: How do I reverse my insulin intolerance? Fasting is a good prescription, but it is a temporary intervention. You will have to eat again and as far as reversing insulin intolerance you must then start your body on a new dietary path designed to reduce your baseline blood glucose levels, even if you don't remain primarily on a ketone metabolism as you did in the fast. The only way forward to durable improvement in this regard is by a modified diet that reduces and/or eliminates foods that produce glucose, i.e. carbohydrates in all forms, at whatever volumes and frequencies you choose for achieving any improved results you intend. You simply can't exercise your way out of a bad diet... but exercise can help slow the decline that a bad diet will inevitably produce. You are what you eat. Choose wisely... Continue reading >>
- World's first diabetes app will be able to check glucose levels without drawing a drop of blood and will be able to reveal what a can of coke REALLY does to sugar levels
- Postprandial Blood Glucose Is a Stronger Predictor of Cardiovascular Events Than Fasting Blood Glucose in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, Particularly in Women: Lessons from the San Luigi Gonzaga Diabetes Study
- Fasting blood sugar: Normal levels and testing
Would You Eat Food That Was Genetically Modified?
Not only do I eat GMOs, I willingly inject myself with GMOs 5–8 times a day! It is my secret to a long life. “What?” I can hear your gasping disbelief from here. “Why would you do something so harmful to yourself? Don't you realize how BAD GMOS are?” I have Type 1 diabetes. For those of you who don't know, it is an autoimmune disease that causes the islet cells of the pancreas (they are responsible for producing insulin) to die off. When your body cannot produce its own insulin, you must inject man made insulin several times a day. If you don't, your blood glucose levels will rise to dangerous levels and your blood chemistry goes wonky (scientific medical term). Without insulin, your blood begins burning fat and muscle for fuel instead of carbs. The acidic byproduct is called ketones. You may have heard of low-carb diets that suggest you check your urine for ketones and applaud you if you manage to get a pink square on the ketone strip. However, with Type 1, that pink square is terrifying. It means you are going into ketoacidosis, which is a life threatening emergency. Without treatment, you will die. Quickly. If you have Type 1 diabetes (only loosely related to Type 2 diabetes, which is what most people recognize as diabetes) you must be on insulin. No matter how healthy your diet. No matter how few carbs you eat. No matter how thin and fit you are. You must be on insulin. Commercially produced insulin used to be made from cows and pigs. Now it is created in a lab, by genetically modifying yeast spores. Lab created insulin is the perfect example of a genetically modified organism. Without GMOS, I would be dead within a week or two. Yes, I allow GMOS into my body. Gladly. Continue reading >>
Can "bad" Stomach Bacteria Feed On Ketones?
Only bacteria that can survive high acidity in the stomach is Helicobacter pylori and it’s a direct cause of stomach ulcers, gastro-esophageal reflux disease, etc. You probably meant intestinal bacteria. Bad intestinal bacteria are there usually because of the antibiotic misuse. Treatment is with pro-biotics. Some bacteria almost certainly can use glucose, ketone bodies, and everything else for food. Do they actually thrive on them, I don’t know. Ketogenic diet do not have any untoward effects on the intestine. Continue reading >>
