October 17, 2002
Other
Question from Buffalo, New York, USA:
My 26 month son, who has type 1 diabetes, had starvation ketones when he was sick. What is the difference between ketones from starvation and ketones from high blood sugar? My doctor wasn’t too concerned about the starvation ketones, but we still needed to give insulin.
Answer:
Ketones are the ashes left over when fat is burned for energy. This can happen whenever the body does not have sugar available. Two things can cause ketones: not enough sugar in the body (starvation ketones) and not enough insulin (the ketones you see with high blood sugar).
Typically, these two causes of ketones are treated differently, depending on what the blood sugar is. Starvation ketones often go hand and hand with hypoglycemia. So the treatment is to eat carbohydrates. The ketones that go along with high blood sugar often require extra doses of insulin.
BS
