Infographic: A Snapshot of Diabetes in America
Content source: Division of Diabetes Translation: National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
– See more at: http://www.diabetes.org/diabetes-basics/statistics/cdc-infographic.html#sthash.9dXBdSUp.dpuf
The American Diabetes Association reports that over 29.1 million Americans have diabetes. It’s a disease that’s prevelant throughout the world, but that doesn’t have to stop you from living your life. There are so many ways that you can manage your diabetes and Dr. Paul Rosman and David Edelman, authors of Thriving with Diabetes, suggest that one way is to keep an eye on your ketones.
WHEN TO CHECK FOR KETONES
Ketones can appear when you have high blood sugar or low blood sugar. Their presence in the urine or blood indicates that your cells are starving for energy from a sugar source. Perhaps the sugar levels in the blood are low, or there’s insufficient insulin to bring sugar into the cells. Or the insulin levels are too high, so cells process fat instead of the sugar they need, producing ketones as a byproduct.
This is a normal response. However, if too many ketones build up in your blood, it becomes acidic and can lead to nausea, vomiting, dehydration, coma, and death. Prior to the discovery of insulin, this was the typical cause of death in people with type 1 diabetes.
People with type 1 diabetes should always have easy access to (unexpired!) ketone sticks. If you have type 1 or type 2 and suspect you may be having low blood sugars while sleeping, you can check for ketones in the morning. Their presence is a strong hint that you have had a low blood sugar overnight. These sticks are easy to use. Just apply a small amount of urine to the stick and it changes color based on the presence of ketones.
Hydrate to Remove Ketones
If your ketones are caused by high blood sugars, call your doctor. The typical treatment when sugars are high is insulin to get your levels back into the normal range. This turns off the creation of more ketones by enabling sugar from your bloodstream to move into starving cells. Treatment also includes taking fluids, either by drinking or intravenous injection, to remove ketones from your blood through your kidneys. Frequently, people with ketones in their blood are dehydrated. Ketones can occur especially quickly if you are dehydrated from flu, food poisoning, or other illness.
As long as you can drink fluids there is a chance to reverse the problem by taking insulin for the high sugar and drinking fluids which contain a balance of electrolytes, like potassium. Time is essential here if you want to avoid a trip to the hospital. If ketones in the urine are present in moderate amounts or more and you are vomiting and cannot drink fluids, you’ll need intravenous liquids to turn the situation around. The sooner you get to the hospital, the more likely it will be that you’ll be home within a day—as long as another illness like pneumonia or flu did not cause the problem.
Dangerous Ketones in Type 2 Diabetes
While ketones are created most often in people with type 1 diabetes, there is one situation where those with type 2 diabetes may accumulate ketones and be in life-threatening danger. Elderly people with a long history of type 2 diabetes who are not obese or overweight may lose their ability to make insulin when they are ill. Ketone measurement in the urine can be helpful for these people to determine if cells are starving in their body. If so, seek urgent medical care.
You Can Influence Your Blood Sugars
Let’s return to our premise that you are the person best able to understand your body’s needs. A book can’t tell you how much insulin or oral medication to take, the optimal settings for an insulin pump, or the most appropriate diet for your goals. This is your responsibility, in consultation with your doctor, nurse, or a registered dietitian who is a certified diabetes educator (RD, CDE).
We hope you’ll free empowered to lead a discussion about whether a medication that has been prescribed for you is the right choice. Go ahead and ask about the risks, side effects, and benefits or risks of other options, including increasing your activity levels or adjusting your diet. People with type 2 diabetes are usually producing more insulin than they realize. The right mix of exercise, food choices, and medications can be very influential in decreasing the amount of medication required.
Many people with type 1 diabetes also produce small amounts of insulin. There are medications that may help augment this natural production. This is a new concept in diabetes research, and worth talking about with your doctor. You might ask for a C-Peptide test to help determine if your body is producing insulin or not, even with a diagnosis of type 1 diabetes.
Work with your body and learn to manage your diabetes for a healthy and happy life.
Thriving with Diabetes empowers you to take charge of your diabetes, so you don’t just deal with your symptoms, but change the way you think to improve your health, happiness, and quality of life. Through a simple four-step process, people with diabetes learn how to intuitively understand their blood sugars and what causes both good and bad numbers. This proactive approach results in the ability to manage diabetes personally, not just by a set of notes from the doctor.
Written by Dr. Paul Rosman and David Edelman, co-founder of Diabetes Daily,Thriving with Diabetes is not just about eating joyful, satisfying, and diabetes-friendly meals (although that’s certainly part of it!), but also about managing the daily challenges of physical activity, stress, pain, sleep patterns, and other life events that have a major, but underappreciated, impact on blood sugar trends. You’ll also pinpoint your favorite meals and activities and use them as multipliers of success–focusing on the positive rather than the negative. The result is immediate and satisfying improvements to total health, both physically and mentally!
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