Diabetes occurs when the pancreas is unable to process blood-sugar into energy on a cellular level. The hormone which does this is called insulin and in diabetics the body either doesn’t produce insulin any more or has become resistance to its effects, meaning that the blood-sugar isn’t broken down properly and simply remains in the blood stream.
In type one diabetics, whose bodies no longer produce insulin on their own, a complication of their condition can be ketoacidosis. Consider cells little factories. To run they need fuel and though each factory keeps a small supply of toxic fossil fuels on sight, they reply on imported clean energy to run. In diabetics this energy doesn’t arrive, or if it does it does so in such minute quantities that the factories have to break into their supplies of dirty fuels. Ketones are the toxic fossil fuels in this analogy, they’re the cells own stores of energy and when they’re broken down they enter the blood stream. This is dangerous and potentially fatal and ketones are acidic.
The condition is more prevalent in younger diabetics than older ones and much more common in ladies than men. The symptoms to look out for if you’re worried you’re suffering from ketoacidosis are:
– Inability or difficultly in quenching your thirst
– A persistently dry mouth
– Urinating more often than usual
– High blood-sugar levels
– High levels of ketones in your urine
– Continual tiredness even when waking up
– Persistently dry or flushed skin
– Feeling or being sick
– Abdominal Pain
– Shortness of breath
– Breath which smells fruity
– Lack of concentration
– General feeling of confusion
If you’re suffering from a number of these symptoms then talk to your doctor as soon as possible. Ketoacidosis is slow acting but can be potentially fatal so, better to be safe than sorry, wouldn’t you say?
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