Are starvation ketones anything to worry about?

[Lily123]

I’m ill and can’t stomach anything but water and my numbers haven’t been hyper at all. I haven’t checked ketones for fear of worrying myself too much. Are starvation ketones dangerous at all?

Currently my number is 11.7 but I went hypo and over did it on the sugar water

 

[Lucyr]

I think one of the reasons it’s best to avoid starvation ketones is that if you’re high you won’t be able to tell whether ketones are from lack of food or dangerous high blood sugars. The sugary water might have helped reduce the ketones. Can you sip any other sugary liquids, soup, plain toast etc? Hope you’re feeling better soon.

 

[Lily123]

Thanks. I’ve tried other things like full sugar squash and a smoothie but it’s only sugar water and normal water that I can stomach

 

[Jimmy2202]

I’m ill and can’t stomach anything but water and my numbers haven’t been hyper at all. I haven’t checked ketones for fear of worrying myself too much. Are starvation ketones dangerous at all?

Currently my number is 11.7 but I went hypo and over did it on the sugar water

I to have recently been ill, and went a couple days not eating correctly, and also was scared to test for ketones.
After researching and speaking to folk on here, providing you don’t have constant highs ( say 3 consecutive readings above 15 ish) then not to worry about ketones.

I find toast and a swig of fluid with every bite helps get the food down easier 🙂

 

[Lily123]

I to have recently been ill, and went a couple days not eating correctly, and also was scared to test for ketones.
After researching and speaking to folk on here, providing you don’t have constant highs ( say 3 consecutive readings above 15 ish) then not to worry about ketones.

I find toast and a swig of fluid with every bite helps get the food down easier 🙂

Thanks. I do feel better this morning but I tried toast yesterday and it didn’t help

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Thanks. I do feel better this morning but I tried toast yesterday and it didn’t help

Glad to hear you are feeling a little better @Lily123

Glad your BGs remained fairly in-target for you. Hardly ideal that ketones can be fairly innocuous or incredibly dangerous is it?!

Have you been given ‘sick day rules’ by your clinic? This one is quite handy I think

Sickday rules pdf

Sick day rules flowchart from Leicester diabetes centre. Particularly useful for people with Type 1 Diabetes during the Coronavirus outbreak.

www.t1resources.uk

 

[Lily123]

Glad to hear you are feeling a little better @Lily123

Glad your BGs remained fairly in-target for you. Hardly ideal that ketones can be fairly innocuous or incredibly dangerous is it?!

Have you been given ‘sick day rules’ by your clinic? This one is quite handy I think

Sickday rules pdf

Sick day rules flowchart from Leicester diabetes centre. Particularly useful for people with Type 1 Diabetes during the Coronavirus outbreak.

www.t1resources.uk

Thanks. I tried taking my insulin as normal and eating carbs but the issue is that if I take my insulin and then I’m sick again I’ll go hypo. When I went hypo yesterday I had a mug of hot water with 2 teaspoons of sugar dissolved in it which was okay and right now I’m drinking green tea with lemon

 

[Sally71]

Starvation ketones in themselves are not dangerous, they are an essential part of keeping you alive in the absence of food. The problem comes if you don’t have enough insulin in your body to deal with them, then they will build up to dangerous levels. When my daughter had a tummy bug once and couldn’t eat anything her ketones went up to 1.5 which the DSN told me was just about OK as long as her BG wasn’t high as well, which it wasn’t. I think if it had gone any higher than that there would have been concerns.

 

[Lily123]

Starvation ketones in themselves are not dangerous, they are an essential part of keeping you alive in the absence of food. The problem comes if you don’t have enough insulin in your body to deal with them, then they will build up to dangerous levels. When my daughter had a tummy bug once and couldn’t eat anything her ketones went up to 1.5 which the DSN told me was just about OK as long as her BG wasn’t high as well, which it wasn’t. I think if it had gone any higher than that there would have been concerns.

That’s reassuring thanks

This is yesterday’s graph:

 

[Sally71]

Looks like you’re doing OK then, as long as that 12 came back down fairly quickly you don’t need to worry. Keep sipping your sweet drinks if you’re on the low side. Hope you feel better soon!

 

[Lily123]

Looks like you’re doing OK then, as long as that 12 came back down fairly quickly you don’t need to worry. Keep sipping your sweet drinks if you’re on the low side. Hope you feel better soon!

Thanks

 

[gll]

psst Lily, ice lollies are a brilliant way to hydrate and get some sugar in and much less likelyhood to be sick. Because you are getting small amount of liquid hit your tummy, its much less likely to come back up x

The other trick I used to do with the kids was take some full fat fizzy drink like coke, lemonade or fanta, pout out about 3/4 of a glass and pop a teeny bit of sugar in to make it instantly go flat (will fizz up so that's why not to pour a whole glass) and sip it.
Much nicer than just sugary water too.

Rich teas are probably easier to nibble on than toast and are probs on the same tolerance levels as toast but wont go soggy if you cant eat much and need to come back to it later on.

I hope you are past the needing the above advice but putting it down in case you do or need it again in future (or anyone else does)

 

[Lily123]

psst Lily, ice lollies are a brilliant way to hydrate and get some sugar in and much less likelyhood to be sick. Because you are getting small amount of liquid hit your tummy, its much less likely to come back up x

The other trick I used to do with the kids was take some full fat fizzy drink like coke, lemonade or fanta, pout out about 3/4 of a glass and pop a teeny bit of sugar in to make it instantly go flat (will fizz up so that's why not to pour a whole glass) and sip it.
Much nicer than just sugary water too.

Rich teas are probably easier to nibble on than toast and are probs on the same tolerance levels as toast but wont go soggy if you cant eat much and need to come back to it later on.

I hope you are past the needing the above advice but putting it down in case you do or need it again in future (or anyone else does)

It seemed it was a one day sick bug as I was back to normal this morning. I will definitely note down that for next time I’m ill, thanks. The sugary water was because I went hypo and I had tried squash and couldn’t stomach it so fizzy would have made the situation worse.Toast is what disagreed with me yesterday morning so it was out of the question. I managed a green tea with lemon and a bowl of porridge this morning so that’s how I knew I was OK again

 

[rayray119]

Im starting to wonder the say the same thing. I've been ill for ages(doctors not 100 percent sure what is have said they think it's something buts more of a guess as it wasn't some of the things they tested for). I've been wanting to background tests at least a for now one as it seems to be not going away anytime soom(even though sometimes haven't always felt it's the best idea not to eat after having disey spells sometimes) but wonder if there was a time i felt I might be able to do it. I'm been making adjustments as best as I can without I've been making adjustments as best as u can without but thinking maybe I changed too much of one thing and not enough if the other at least for some times of day.