What are ketones and what does it mean when it shows up on my meter?
Ketones are dangerous acidy chemicals that appear in the blood and spill over into the urine when not enough insulin is present in your body. Without insulin your body cannot use sugar (glucose) for fuel. It turns to an alternate source of energy and burns body fat instead. Unfortunately, using fat for fuel poisons the blood. Think of ketones as pollution, which poisons and dehydrates the body. Ketones are also produced when not enough food is eaten to provide you with glucose. Ketones in the morning can be a sign that your body did not get enough fuel from glucose during the night resulting in a low blood sugar reaction while you were sleeping. Most people with type 2 diabetes have enough insulin and so they do not usually have a problem with ketones. People with type 1 diabetes make very little or no insulin at all and are more at risk for ketones. The four main causes of ketones are illness/infection, forgetting to take insulin, not having enough insulin, and traumatic stress such a
