Can anybody give me some good info on the causes and treatment? Or even a link to a really good web site? Thank you David !
Commonly, the flu, a cold, or other infections may sometimes bring on ketoacidosis.
Here are three basic reasons for moderate or large amounts of ketones:
Not getting enough insulin. Maybe you did not inject enough insulin. Or your body could need more insulin than usual because of illness. If there is not enough insulin, your body begins to break down body fat for energy.
Not enough food. When people are sick, they often do not feel like eating. Then, high ketones may result. High ketones may also occur when someone misses a meal.
An insulin reaction (low blood glucose). When blood glucose levels fall too low, the body must use fat to get energy. If testing shows high ketones in the morning, the person may have had an insulin reaction while asleep.
For the complete information on diabete causes, treatments and its short and long term complications visit
http://www.reddiabetes.com Newly presenting type 1 diabetics often arrive at the ER with symptoms of hyperglycemia and ketoacidosis: increased urination, excessive thirst, labored breathing, projectile vomiting, and unexplainable sleepiness. Most people get a fruity smell to their breath and pores. Hyperglycemia is high blood sugar. Your body works off a simple recipe to make energy... Sugar + insulin = fat cells. Your pancreas provides the insulin, but a diabetic doesn't make insulin. Untreated, hyperglycemia evolves into diabetic ketoacidosis and death is imminent. Treatment includes a lot of hydration (more than you can drink by the time you're ketoacidotic) and intense insulin therapy.
Anyone can become ketoacidotic. Ketoacidosis is the body's way of surviving when it thinks it's starving. It chips away at organs for fuel. Anorexia (absence of food) or a really bad flu (vomiting diarrhea) are examples of illnesses that might also cause ketoacidosis. In the diabetic's case, because he/she can't make insulin, the body can't process the sugar, so the body doesn't recognize it had anything to eat. It's the equivalent of an absence of food/starvation. Causes of diabetes or causes of DKA? Ach what the heck
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease. The immune system of the body begins to destroy the cells in the pancreas responsible for creating insulin
Type 2 diabetes is mostly life style related- the big one- gettit- is obesity. This is where the cells respond less well to the insulin released, or the pancreas just cant make enough insulin for all the cells in the body.
As you may know insulin regulated the amount of glucose (sugar) in the blood. Insulin makes the cells absorb glucose. Thus too much insulin- all the glucose goes into the cells, gets used, and you become hypoglycaemic.
The opposite happens when there is too little insulin (diabetes). The amount of sugar in the blood skyrockets, and none of the cells can use it, the sugar gets lost being peed out in the urine. To make up for this, the liver metabolises fats which create ketones. The cells in the body can live off ketones ok as a temporary thing, but ketones are acidic.
Too many ketones in the blood, turns the blood acidic causing the diabetic ketoacidosis, a medical emergency. Treatment for this is emergency insulin, blood sugar management and treatment of the metabolic acidosis to stabalise the blood PH.
Hope this makes sense. A good website for this is http://www.diabetes.org.uk/ Haha, ketones- I had a terrible doctor scare me to death about it.
Ketones are by-products of fat burnoff. In times of hyperglycima and unhealthy habits, a diabetic can have very high sugar. In that case, ketones are released into the body. But, it is not always dangerous. They are easy to remove if you know that you positively have them.
You Dr. should have given you a ketone-urinalysis kit. Whne your bs is ABOVE 240 WITH vomiting AND diaherra, pee onto the stick. If you test positive, drink water and it should work. If not, see your endocrinolgist. Diabetes
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Related Diabetes articles:
Glycemic Index - on WebMD
Diabetes Health Center - on WebMD
Diabetes - on MedicineNet
Diabetes Overview
Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a set of related diseases in which the body cannot regulate the amount of sugar (specifically, glucose) in the blood.
Glucose in the blood gives you energy to perform daily activities, walk briskly, run for a bus, ride your bike, take aerobic exercise class, and perform your day-to-day chores.
From the foods you eat, glucose in the blood is produced by the liver (an organ on the right side of the abdomen near your stomach).
In a healthy person, the blood glucose level is regulated by several hormones, including insulin. Insulin is produced by the pancreas, a small organ between the stomach and liver. The pancreas secretes other important enzymes that help to digest food.
Insulin allows glucose to move from the blood into liver, muscle, and fat cells, where it is used for fuel.
People with diabetes either do not produce enough insulin (type 1 diabetes) or cannot use insulin properly (type 2 diabetes), or both (which occurs with several forms of diabetes).
In diabetes, glucose in the blood cannot move into cells, so it stays in the blood. This not only harms the cells that need the glucose for fuel, but also harms certain organs and tissues exposed to the high glucose levels.
Type 1 diabetes: The body stops producing insulin or produces too little insulin to regulate blood glucose level.
Type 1 diabetes comprises about 10% of total cases of diabetes in the United States.
Type 1 diabetes is typically recognized in childhood or adolescence. It used to be known as juvenile-onset diabetes or insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus.
Type 1 diabetes can occur in an older individual due to destruction of pancreas by alcohol, disease, or removal by surgery. It also results from progressive failure of the pancreatic beta cells, which produce insulin.
People with type 1 diabetes require daily insulin treatment to sustain life.
Type 2 diabetes: The pancreas secretes insulin, but the body is partially or completely unable to use the insulin. This is sometimes referred to as insulin resistance. The body tries to overcome this resistance by secreting more and more insulin. People with insulin resistance develop type 2 diabetes when they do not continue to secrete enough insulin to cope with the higher demands.
At least 90% of patients with diabetes have type 2 diabetes.
Type 2 diabetes is typically recognized in adulthood, usually after age 45 years. It used to be called adult-onset diabetes mellitus, or non鈥搃nsulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. These names are no longer used because type 2 diabetes does occur in younger people, and some people with type 2 diabetes need to use insulin.
Type 2 diabetes is usually controlled with diet, weight loss, exercise, and oral medications. More than half of all people with type 2 diabetes require insulin to control their blood sugar levels at some point in the course of their illness.
Gestational diabetes is a form of diabetes that occurs during the second half of pregnancy.
Although gestational diabetes typically goes away after delivery of the baby. Women who have gestational diabetes are more likely than other women to develop type 2 diabetes later in life.
Women with gestational diabetes are more likely to have large babies.
Metabolic syndrome (also referred to as syndrome X) is a set of abnormalities in which insulin-resistant diabetes (type 2 diabetes) is almost always present along with hypertension, high fat levels in the blood (increased serum lipids, predominant elevation of LDL cholesterol, decreased HDL cholesterol, and elevated triglycerides), central obesity, and abnormalities in blood clotting and inflammatory responses. A high rate of cardiovascular disease is associated with the metabolic syndrome.
Pre-diabetes is a common condition related to diabetes. In people with pre-diabetes, the blood sugar level is higher than normal but not high enough to be considered diabetic.
Pre-diabetes increases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes and of heart disease or stroke.
Pre-diabetes can typically be reversed without insulin or medication by losing a modest amount of weight and increasing your physical activity. This weight loss can prevent, or at least delay, the onset of type 2 diabetes.
An international expert committee of the American Diabetes Association redefined the criteria for pre-diabetes, lowering the blood sugar level cut-off point for pre-diabetes. Approximately 20% more adults are now believed to have this condition and may develop diabetes within 10 years if they do not exercise or maintain a healthy weight.
About 17 million Americans (6.2% of adults in North America) are believed to have diabetes. About one third of diabetic adults do not know they have diabetes.
About 1 million new cases occur each year, and diabetes is the direct or indirect cause of at least 200,000 deaths each year.
The incidence of diabetes is increasing rapidly. This increase is due to many factors, but the most significant are the increasing incidence of obesity and the prevalence of sedentary lifestyles.
Complications of diabetes
Both forms of diabetes ultimately lead to high blood sugar levels, a condition called hyperglycemia. Over a long period of time, hyperglycemia damages the retina of the eye, the kidneys, the nerves, and the blood vessels.
Damage to the retina from diabetes (diabetic retinopathy) is a leading cause of blindness.
Damage to the kidneys from diabetes (diabetic nephropathy) is a leading cause of kidney failure.
Damage to the nerves from diabetes (diabetic neuropathy) is a leading cause of foot wounds and ulcers, which frequently lead to foot and leg amputations.
Damage to the nerves in the autonomic nervous system can lead to paralysis of the stomach (gastroparesis), chronic diarrhea, and an inability to control heart rate and blood pressure during postural changes.
Diabetes accelerates atherosclerosis, (the formation of fatty plaques inside the arteries), which can lead to blockages or a clot (thrombus). Such changes can then lead to heart attack, stroke, and decreased circulation in the arms and legs (peripheral vascular disease).
Diabetes predisposes people to high blood pressure and high cholesterol and triglyceride levels. These conditions independently and together with hyperglycemia increase the risk of heart disease, kidney disease, and other blood vessel complications.
In the short run, diabetes can contribute to a number of acute (short-lived) medical problems.
Many infections are associated with diabetes, and infections are frequently more dangerous in someone with diabetes because the body's normal ability to fight infections is impaired. To compound the problem, infections may worsen glucose control, which further delays recovery from infection.
Hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, occurs from time to time in most people with diabetes. It results from taking too much diabetes medication or insulin (sometimes called an insulin reaction), missing a meal, doing more exercise than usual, drinking too much alcohol, or taking certain medications for other conditions. It is very important to recognize hypoglycemia and be prepared to treat it at all times. Headache, feeling dizzy, poor concentration, tremors of hands, and sweating are common symptoms of hypoglycemia. You can faint or have a seizure if blood sugar level gets too low.
Diabetic ketoacidosis is a serious condition in which uncontrolled hyperglycemia (usually due to complete lack of insulin or a relative deficiency of insulin) over time creates a buildup in the blood of acidic waste products called ketones. High levels of ketones can be very harmful. This typically happens to people with type 1 diabetes who do not have good blood glucose control. Diabetic ketoacidosis can be precipitated by infection, stress, trauma, missing medications like insulin, or medical emergencies like stroke and heart attack.
Hyperosmolar hyperglycemic nonketotic syndrome is a serious condition in which the blood sugar level gets very high. The body tries to get rid of the excess blood sugar by eliminating it in the urine. This increases the amount of urine significantly and often leads to dehydration so severe that it can cause seizures, coma, and even death. This syndrome typically occurs in people with type 2 diabetes who are not controlling their blood sugar levels, who have become dehydrated, or who have stress, injury, stroke, or are taking certain medications, like steroids.
Diabetes Causes
Type 1 diabetes: Type 1 diabetes is believed to be an autoimmune disease. The body's immune system attacks the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin.
A causes (a positive family history) is much more common for type 2 diabetes.
Environmental factors, including common unavoidable viral infections, may also contribute.
Type 1 diabetes is most common in people of non-Hispanic, Northern European descent (especially Finland and Sardinia), followed by African Americans, and Hispanic Americans. It is relatively rare in those of Asian descent.
Type 1 diabetes is slightly more common in men than in women.
Type 2 diabetes: Type 2 diabetes has strong genetic links, meaning that type 2 diabetes tends to run in families. Several genes have been identified and more are under study which may relate to the causes of type 2 diabetes. Risk factors for de |
