Ketones

See https://www.diabetes.co.uk/diabetes_care/testing-for-ketones.html

There are blood sugar and ketone monitors e.g. GlucoRex HCT.

I just read https://www.diabetes.co.uk/keto/measuring-ketosis-on-a-keto-diet.html

It looks like the ideal ketone levels for a ketogenic diet should be 0.5 to 3. Over 3 and you should be worried.

I will probably buy some urine ketone test sticks. They are about £7 for a pack of 50.

I think they are for a type 2 not on blood glucose lowering medication @KennyA Aa Type 1 used them in the past quite happily until the Dr in A+E informed me I should absolutely have ketone strips for my machine As they are not accurate enough to measure quickly rising ketones when ill.

Lorna Tinker said:

My sister is in hospital after going into a diabetic coma. She is type 2 on metforman. They told me her ketone level was high and she ended up on a insulin drip and saline drip. I took her to the doctors a week before this happened, with strong stomach pain. The doctor diagnosed constipation. She was obviously suffering with high ketone levels. My sister sees the diabetic nurse once a year. She has a blood monitor to check her blood sugers. What do people use to check their ketone levels. Could any one advise me.

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Just metformin? Nothing else going on like an infection or something? Because a T2 doesn't just go into a diabetic coma with ketones present out of the blue, usually... It's a bit of a red flag that something else is going on.

Please tell me the hospital ordered tests for C-Peptide and GAD, to check whether she truly is T2, and not (one of the variants of) T1?

I'm sorry to hear that @Lorna Tinker I'm glad she's getting good care, and hope the drs soon find out what's causing the ketones.

I agree with @JoKalsbeek about the C-Peptide and GAD tests. Do you know if your sister has had these tests?

I got some Bayer Ketostix for ketone testing from Amazon. Reading the reviews on some of the ketostix products there, it looks like some are not genuine Bayer products, so care should be taken when ordering.

The levels tested correspond to a colour chart with levels 0, 0.5, 1.5, 4, 8 and 16. The test colour does seem to get darker with time, so you need to check after 15 seconds and not worry about doing the later reading. The colour difference between 1.5 and 4.0 is not a lot, which is confusing.

Since I use a low carb diet I was expecting to see some ketones. In the afternoon my reading was between 1.5 and 4.0 and in the morning between 0.5 and 1.5. The morning reading is lower due to the dawn effect where the liver dumps glucose into the bloodstream, so less fat is burned. Keto diet users can expect ketones to be in the 0.5 to 3.0 range. Over 3.0 is too high.