Can anyone eg
@Spiker explain how hypos can happen once we're eating ketogenically, i.e. once we're up and running on ketones?
Could being in ketosis possibly mean either that 1) things have to go a lot more wrong for a hypo to happen, or that 2) BG changes slowly? (
@smidge raised this on the T1 Libre thread.). Or both?
This just occurred to me after wasting incredible amounts of time today fussing around over my Libre, and seems important. I guess I'm asking, does ketosis actually make life safer for T1s (and LADAs)?
Bored and fed up with diabetes, Lucy
Hi Lucy,
My own anecdotal evidence is that my experience of a low blood-sugar event is utterly different, depending upon whether I am in Ketosis or out of Ketosis.
When I am out of Ketosis, I get the regular warning signs when my blood-sugar drops low (shaking, sweating) and this proceeds to a loss of brain function (double-vision, loss of balance, confusion) if I do not treat this in time. This can be a very unpleasant event.
When I am in Ketosis, I do not get any warning signs when my blood-sugar drops low, but then I do not get any loss of brain function either. I just notice the low level at the time of my next test, and "correct" this with some Glucose tablets. It's rather a non-event.
My own opinion is that being in Ketosis makes me very very much safer than otherwise. I am a T1 that lives alone, and I have come to rely on the Keto diet as a strategy to manage my Diabetes and keep me safe.
My regular routine has put me in a nice position to compare the Ketosis / non-Ketosis models for my own body. I stick mostly to a Ketogenic diet (13 days out of each 14) and generally measure positive for Ketones (I have the Ketonix breath-analyzer to easily check for Ketones). At the end of each fortnight I treat myself to a Sunday afternoon of chocolate eating and come out of Ketosis. It takes me around 36 - 48 hours to fall back into Ketosis and during that time I am vulnerable to 'normal' hypos (i.e. loss of brain function when blood-sugar is low). For the remainder of the time, Ketosis offers me a very nice protection that brain function is not lost when blood-sugar is low.
I've mentioned this in a few other Posts that I've made. As always, I make clear that I'm not advocating that people shoot for low levels. My target is always to maintain a normal (non-Diabetic) blood-sugar level. But I have developed a lot of confidence in the Keto diet; I now know that if I make any mistake and my levels drop low, I will not get any loss of brain function, so it won't be an unpleasant or dangerous event.
My own experience does seem to match the findings of a few published medical studies that I have found (i.e. that brain function is not lost during a low blood-sugar event when in Ketosis).
But you don't hear about this idea very often, which I always find surprising - I would have thought that this is a priceless piece of information for T1s that try to maintain non-Diabetic levels. Perhaps this is because there's just not many T1s using the Keto diet? Or perhaps most T1s on the Keto diet do not get this experience of protection from Ketosis? Would love to know this . . .
Regards
Antony