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GKI (Glucose to Ketone Index)

T

Tassiemike

Newbie
Messages
3
Location
Tasmania Australia
Type of diabetes
Prediabetes
Treatment type
Diet only
Hi all,

I posted this in the prediabetes forum and someone there suggested I try my posting in this forum as well. So...here it is;

Michael here from Tasmania in Australia. Just briefly, I was obese and prediabetic for an excess of 15 years until I discovered intermittent and longer term fasting. I have now lost in excess of 20 kg and whilst I haven't tested my HbA1c for a while am probably no longer prediabetic. I will test my bloods again soon.

When doing longer fasts (up to 21 days) I would regularly test my BSL and ketones. I learned that dividing BSL by ketones gives an index called GKI (glucose to ketone index). This is apparently an accurate way of assessing insulin levels in the blood. A GKI of 1 or less is optimal. This morning (my 7th and last day of my current modified water fast), my BSL was 3.1 and my ketones were 3.4. This gives me a GKI of less than 1. I'm happy with that, have lost just under 5 kg in 7 days (though I'm aware I will regain a couple of kilo in water), have absolutely no signs of hypoglycaemia and I feel good.

My question is, does anyone else use GKI? Anyone got any research on the reliability and/or validity of using GKI to assess insulin levels in the blood.

What a great forum. Very happy to have come across it.

Kind regards,

Michael
 
Well so much for my theory @Tassiemike ......... Perhaps you'd have more luck over at reddit or maybe the 2 keto dudes forums?
 

Hello and welcome to the forum

I'm glad you have found your GKI and are doing well on it but I have to admit that I've never heard of it - but I'm willing to be educated! I understand that you are fasting but when you aren't what kind of foods are you eating and how many meals a day (and at what times) are you eating.
 
Hi, I too had never heard of this measurement of how your hormones interact and can be effective as a measure.

But I found these two excerpts of how ketogenic lifestyle has an impact on brain tumours.

This was published in 2015 by nutrionandmetabolism.biomedical.com.

As brain tumour cells are dependent on glucose for survival and cannot effectively use ketones bodies as an alternative fuel.
A zone of metabolic management can be achieved under conditions of low glucose or elevated ketones. Ketone bodies also prevent neurological symptoms associated with Hypoglycaemia, which allows blood glucose levels to be lowered even further. Hence Ketone body metabolism can protect normal brain cells under conditions that target tumour cells.

It has not escaped our attention that metabolic management could have utility not only for brain cancer and other cancers dependent on glucose and aerobic fermentation for survival. But also for managing other diseases or conditions where the ratio of glucose to Ketone bodies could be therapeutic. Such diseases and conditions include Parkinson's, traumatic brain injury, chronic inflammatory disease and epilepsy.
For example the ketogenic has been recognised as an effective therapeutic strategy for managing refractory seizures in children.
Further studies will be needed to determine the glucose-Ketone index for predicting therapeutic success in metabolic management of disease.

Interesting.

I would have liked to included how the insulin ratio would have effected the results as such.

Another study that has found connections with ketones doing really good health care management.
 
Fasting today.. just measured ketones 4.1 thought wow best measure blood glucose... 4.1 as well
I have a ratio of 1.0
Quite chuffed...
 
Tassiemike said:
My question is, does anyone else use GKI? Anyone got any research on the reliability and/or validity of using GKI to assess insulin levels in the blood.
Click to expand...

Are you a member of the www.ketogenicforums.com ?
There was a guy there who did a 46 day fast and who charted his GKI for a lot of the time his ketones were higher than his BG equivalent (he was in the states so measured in mg/dl but I think he converted for purposes of graphing...

He is the subject of this podcast
http://2ketodudes.com/show.aspx?episode=64
 
My brother in law has a small cancerous tumour in the brain, about 3cm long.
His dietary advice was the usual NHS guidelines.
He was impressed with the paper.

I tried to do my calculation but I'm not sure if I got it, mine said 1.2.

But I'm not worried as long as it is consistent.
 
O.K.

If you are not diabetic and not in nutritional ketosis then I would expect your blood ketones to be less than 0.9 and your blood glucose to be around 4.5. I would also expect your insulin levels to be normal.

You seem to be saying that a healthy non-diabetic with a BKI of (4.5/0.9) 5 is in some way sub optimal. Unless I am missing something. In that case I would quite welcome the chance to be sub-optimal.
 
Remember with cancer that some of the drugs work best when the cancer is growing fast, hence there is a question about when someone with cancer should be doing keto diet.
 
I don’t understand this keto diet you are referring to?! I only know of the ketones that you can test in your urine with ‘ketostixs’ . I’m guessing this is different? Please can someone share a link that explains the keto diet and levels you are talking about? Many thanks.
 
Have a read of this
https://www.dietdoctor.com
nutritional ketosis means your body is running on fat rather than glucose. So you are being powered by a combination of body fat and ingested fat and protein.
To achieve this you eat fewer than 20g of carbs per day - which is in fact easier than you might think.
 
i never even got close to a ratio of 1... today was a lucky day and my BS was 4.1 and ketones were 1.5, still a ratio of 2.7
seems like ketosis did help with a lot of things, but I will never get proper values for stuff related to blood sugar and insulin after getting so close to diabetes with post prandial hypo...
 
It took a 3 day fast for me to get close to 1:1 levels. Since I don't have a health condition that demands it, I'm not chasing ketones or ratios.
 
Ok that's consoling to hear, i remmber at some point fasting for 3 days I got my sugar down to 3.2 (enough for the blood meter to light up as in emergency mode) so maybe it would've been closer to 1 there... but other than that I do nto fast anymore for the sake of it, it migth drive me to binge afterwards and I am in recovery for an eating disorder so that would be really unnecessary and uncalled for
 
"Ok that's consoling to hear, i remmber at some point fasting for 3 days I got my sugar down to 3.2 (enough for the blood meter to light up as in emergency mode) so maybe it would've been closer to 1 there... but other than that I do nto fast anymore for the sake of it, it migth drive me to binge afterwards and I am in recovery for an eating disorder so that would be really unnecessary and uncalled for"
Agree with you on that. I sometimes don't have anything after my lunch but I too can't really fast as I am already quite underweight and don't want to lose any more.
 
Does it affect growth hormone levels do you know?! Thanks
 
bulkbiker said:
Not sure.. I think fasting is better for growth hormones.
Click to expand...
I just ask because I used to have too much growth hormone...don’t want to elevate them. Thanks
 
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