Ketosis

Yes- it's quite probably due to your low carb diet, and when you you're in ketosis you'll usually see some signs of waste ketones in your wee. One way of actually testing to see if you're in that state is by using Ketostix to test your urine.

The nurse was probably panicking because there's also a very nasty condition - (diabetic) ketoacidosis (DKA) that can be life threatening to, mainly, type 1 diabetics. As I understand it it's a combination on high glucose levels, lack of insulin, and a build up of acidic ketones which can reach dangerous levels.

The two can often be confused because of the similarity in their names.

If you have fairly good glucose levels now, you should generally be OK on a low carb ketogenic diet, and shouldn't normally see too high levels in your urine. But definitely play safe and do as she says because the level of ketones she found might be a genuine cause for concern, although I would expect you would have other symptoms indicating a problem if this was the case. See here for more details, and there's a link to information on ketones from this page too.

Robbity

dan105 said:

Hi there,

I've been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in the last few weeks after a random blood glucose test of 13.

I had my first appointment with the Diabetes nurse this afternoon - she was happy with my recent blood sugar readings - ranging from 6-8.5. Although she did find ketones in my urine.

I've been on a pretty low carb diet since diagnosis which seems to have helped the BS levels, but I wondered whether this could be the source of my ketones?

She panicked a bit and asked me to stop the low carb and do another urine sample in a day or two. Anyone else had experience of this?

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they panic with ketones.. as they should...at least nurse knew about dietary ketones..so keep this one, it's a winner

eat 150g carbs a day for a couple of days will throw you out of ketosis over 60 may do it too, but to be sure 150g

Hi Dan, the ketones show the low carbing works so don't worry. As long as your bg is fairly normal, that is and on low carb it probably is.

just don't get use to the carbs, it's back to low carb day 4

Hi. There is quite a bit of confusion even amongst HCPs about Ketosis versus Ketoacidosis. Being in Ketosis due to very low-carbing and buring fat is not in itself harmful as long as your blood sugar isn't raised. If it goes into the high teens or 20s then it can be dangerous. Your blood sugar sounds near normal so I wouldn't worry but do continue to measure your blood sugar. If it starts to rise then you may need to start some medication.