Ketone meters
- Thread starter Arwenn
- Start date
It seems that hydration plays a big role. For instance, dangerous ketosis in diabetic type 1 patients are treated not only with insulin, but with lots of hydration as well. For type 2 diabetics, often hydration alone does it.
Regarding ketones in urine... if they are fully used during metabolism, they are not excreted in urine. This is why it is not considered reliable, you could be fully ketoadapted, then ketones in urine would not show up.
Regarding ketones in urine... if they are fully used during metabolism, they are not excreted in urine. This is why it is not considered reliable, you could be fully ketoadapted, then ketones in urine would not show up.
trendsetter37
The Living Force
A Jay said:
If I am out of line for answering this let me know, but it was strange because I had just read this thread explaining what happened with his wreck that resulted in a hospital visit.
And as far as the hydration goes I will try drinking around 3 liters today (recommendation for males). Before now I was drinking about 1.5 liters and I guess theoretically I may be dehydrated? But i've been dehydrated before in the military and playing sports growing up and I definitely don't feel like that now. I'll report back at the end of the day.
P.S. This morning upon waking ketones were 4.1 mmol and glucose was 74 mg/dl.
trendsetter37 said:
Thanks for clarifying.
If it helps at all, when I'm in ketosis I never 'feel' like I'm dehydrated either. I never drank a lot of water my first time attempting it because I never really felt I needed to, but I ended up with kidney stones so I must have been dehydrated. Let us know what you're testing results are, perhaps more often than not people should be drinking lots of water when in ketosis.
theos
The Living Force
A Jay said:
I'd agree on upping the water. Another reason that diabetics in ketoacidosis have to be rehydrated is that they have vomiting and diarrhea and lose lots of fluids and minerals in the process. I don't think that high ketone levels in a non-diabetic are anything to be super afraid of but we all seem to be treading into somewhat unchartered territory here. There's just not loads of published information on living in ketosis. In the Volek and Phinney book, if I remember correctly, they still allowed some carbs. If a person is eating close to zero carbs and mucho fat, like you trendsetter37, I would expect that their ketones would be above of the 0.5 to 3.0 range that the book recommends.
Just my two cents.
Odyssey said:
The recipes that I recall in Phinney and Volek's book had totals of 30-50g of carbs per day, which is a lot more than I eat, and even when I ate 8 oz of meat and 6 oz of fat in one sitting my ketones only dropped to 1.3. So perhaps it is the no carbs causing our high levels, and the extra water is important for those going no-carb as it helps to stay hydrated and within a reasonable proximity to 3.0 mmol/L?
trendsetter37
The Living Force
I agree with you guys. Today I upped the water to about 2.5L and my readings were 2.5mmol/l ketone and 75 mg/DL glucose. This was at the end of the day without lunch. Now I almost knew my readings would be interesting because the blood came out willingly instead of me having to force it by pinching my finger tips. So it looks like I was definitely dehydrated because that has never happened before. And it kind of makes sense that if you're dehydrated your blood will be thicker resulting in the concentration of ketones to rise. I'm not sure if the mechanism is that clear cut but it seems plausible. Thanks for the insight guys!
Also I took my reading tonight after dinner (3hrs after) and had a reading of 3.1 with glucose being 84. Dinner consisted of two porkchops and a blueberry fatbomb
Caveat: I did calibrate my ketone meter tonight after opening a new box of ketone strips...and that was definitely the first time I've seen a calibration strip included with the box so I feel a bit silly now.
Also I took my reading tonight after dinner (3hrs after) and had a reading of 3.1 with glucose being 84. Dinner consisted of two porkchops and a blueberry fatbomb
Caveat: I did calibrate my ketone meter tonight after opening a new box of ketone strips...and that was definitely the first time I've seen a calibration strip included with the box so I feel a bit silly now.
theos
The Living Force
trendsetter37 said:I agree with you guys. Today I upped the water to about 2.5L and my readings were 2.5mmol/l ketone and 75 mg/DL glucose. This was at the end of the day without lunch. Now I almost knew my readings would be interesting because the blood came out willingly instead of me having to force it by pinching my finger tips. So it looks like I was definitely dehydrated because that has never happened before. And it kind of makes sense that if you're dehydrated your blood will be thicker resulting in the concentration of ketones to rise. I'm not sure if the mechanism is that clear cut but it seems plausible. Thanks for the insight guys!
Also I took my reading tonight after dinner (3hrs after) and had a reading of 3.1 with glucose being 84. Dinner consisted of two porkchops and a blueberry fatbomb
Caveat: I did calibrate my ketone meter tonight after opening a new box of ketone strips...and that was definitely the first time I've seen a calibration strip included with the box so I feel a bit silly now.
Great. Now we have another tidbit to add to our arsenal :).
trendsetter37 said:I agree with you guys. Today I upped the water to about 2.5L and my readings were 2.5mmol/l ketone and 75 mg/DL glucose. This was at the end of the day without lunch. Now I almost knew my readings would be interesting because the blood came out willingly instead of me having to force it by pinching my finger tips. So it looks like I was definitely dehydrated because that has never happened before. And it kind of makes sense that if you're dehydrated your blood will be thicker resulting in the concentration of ketones to rise. I'm not sure if the mechanism is that clear cut but it seems plausible. Thanks for the insight guys!
Also I took my reading tonight after dinner (3hrs after) and had a reading of 3.1 with glucose being 84. Dinner consisted of two porkchops and a blueberry fatbomb
Caveat: I did calibrate my ketone meter tonight after opening a new box of ketone strips...and that was definitely the first time I've seen a calibration strip included with the box so I feel a bit silly now.
At first I thought this said wiggly, which confused me and made me laugh a little after I reread it. :P
trendsetter37
The Living Force
A Jay said:
Haha if it did do that it would have been an interesting observation all the same!
Some things that I've noticed this past weekend is interesting.
06Jun14 3.3/ 92 (ketone/glucose)
07Jun14 1.1/96 (ketone/glucose)
07Jun14 1.4/98 (ketone/glucose)
08Jun14 0.6/89 (ketone/glucose)
As you can see my glucose readings are higher. And by the end of the day of the 7th I had a slight headache this subsided by the morning time on the 8th. The only thing i've changed is how often i've eaten. I usually never get headaches. The only times I have noticed this is at the meetups and when I eat more (in terms of how many meals I eat not quantity). Again both situations seem to be how often I am eating.
My usual eating schedule the past month or so has been eating breakfast, no lunch and usually a light dinner because i'm just not hungry. So this is my question. Headaches can sometimes be caused by pressure in blood vessels in the brain. I have distinctly noticed with taking my blood ketone and glucose readings that headaches occur if my ketone and glucose readings are both high. And the only times my glucose becomes high seems to be associated with me eating more often than I am accustom to. Ketones become high by eating more fat and eating less often. Other than that I could eat a huge breakfast and a moderate to light dinner and be fine.
My hypothesis at this point regarding the headaches is that the act of eating in general spikes glucose regardless of what I am eating. If you are keto-adapted then you will want to eat less often or you will have high glucose and ketones within your bloodstreams for a short time anyways. Now regarding pressure in one's neural blood vessels the thought came to mind about how fluid pressures change regarding which or even how many materials are flowing. If a tube that flows with one type of fluid will have a particular pressure associated with said mixture. Also if the same tube has a mixture of a different composition that mixture will have its own associated pressure.
However, if this same tube has both mixtures flowing within it then the resulting pressure can be said to be greater. I witnessed this type of interaction troubleshooting High-perfomance Liquid chromatography instruments. And I noticed after setting up the scenarios above I would only get issues of solvent lines exploding when I introduced two different solvents at high capacities. But when I only ran one solvent at time or even two solvents at the same time with one existing at a much lower concentration relative to the other then there wouldn't be any issues.
So with that being said maybe, just maybe, my headaches are caused by humming along in ketosis with a certain eating routine producing a situation with high ketones to glucose relative to a normal ratio. Then If I eat the same things but more often it will setup a temporary scenario when my glucose increases. Resulting in high glucose and ketones readings. Ergo the pressure within within my brain blood vessels would experience greater pressures that would be experienced as a headache.
And thinking about exact time the headache subsided my ketones were significantly lower by that point...where before I would have readings of at least 1.5 to 3 upon waking up in the mornings after a night of gluconeogenesis.
According to this anyways...
_http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/73936.php
So I'm not sure if any of this is correct at all but maybe it will add data for someone else that's experiencing this nuance.
Just thought I would let all the Aussie peeps know that Abbott Labs are giving free ketone/glucose meters with filling out an online form here- there are terms and conditions but it is worth looking into. I haven't fully read the eligibility criteria, they will send one out if you state you are on medication for diabetes, not just diet control. Even if you aren't eligible for a free meter, they send you a voucher for $45 towards the purchase of one. The kit includes the meter and a finger-pricking device, the strips will need to be purchased from a pharmacy or online.
http://myfreestyle.com.au/freestyle-family-offer/
http://myfreestyle.com.au/freestyle-family-offer/
