
Why does my breath smell like acetone?
People often associate strong smelling breath with the food someone has eaten or poor dental hygiene. But it may reveal much more than that.
If a person's breath smells like acetone or nail polish remover, it could indicate health conditions, including diabetes.
The way a person's breath smells can be an indicator of their overall health. This article explores why a person's breath might smell like acetone and what this might mean about their health.
Contents of this article:
How diabetes can affect breath
Diabetes can affect the way a person's breath smells and can cause bad breath, or halitosis. In a 2009 study, researchers found that analyzing a person's breath helped to identify prediabetes when diabetes is in its early stages.
There are two conditions associated with diabetes that can cause bad breath: gum disease and a high ketone level.
The proper name for gum diseases in periodontal disease, and its forms include:
Diabetes can be associated with an increased risk of gum disease, which may cause a person's breath to smell bad. However, gum disease does not cause a person's breath to smell like acetone.
If a person has diabetes and their breath smells like acetone, this is usually caused by high levels of ketones in the blood.
Diabetes and acetone breath
When diabetes is not managed well, the body does not make enough insulin to break down glucose in the blood. This means that the body's cells do not receive enough glucose to use as energy.
When the body cannot get its energy from sugar, it switches to burning fat for fuel instead. The process of breaking down fat to
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