Why did ketosis raise my blood sugar? (Type 1 Diabetic) page

[richthediabetic]

I'm a type 1 diabetic (over 40 years) and I discovered the primal lifestyle about a month ago. Did tons of research and decided to start a 30 day trial about a week ago to see if it would help get me off the blood sugar rollercoaster. In my research, I learned that there's a difference between ketosis and ketoacidosis, and that ketosis is actually healthy for most people, and that it improves the efficiency of the heart. I'm also a heart patient (cardiac bypass at age 34) so this intrigued me. Yesterday I restricted my carbs to 40 carbs, and was happy to notice ketones this morning when I woke up. When I went to bed, my blood sugar (BS) was about 130. I don't suffer from morning syndrome as some diabetics do, but after I noticed the ketones this morning, my blood sugar showed 210? I hadn't had any carbs since about 5PM yesterday though? Didn't think much of it at the time, but took some bolus insulin and went to work.

At work, I checked it again, and now it was 238 after taking that insulin?! So I took more. Waited an hour and took it again, and now it was 240?! This is to close to the ketoacidosis threshold, so I freaked out and went home to monitor and eat (to bring myself out of ketosis).

Got home, got my BS in control, after lots of BS checks, and lots more insulin. Now I'm back down to 110, but I did a double basal for 4 hours to handle the problem, on top of all the bolus I did.

So my question, is why did that happen? I know that high BS will cause ketoacidosis if you're not careful, but why does ketosis cause high BS in a type 1 diabetic? Is it because my body is going into glyconeogenesis or gluconeogenesis or both? If ketosis causes/requires insulin production to deal with it, doesn't that defeat the purpose of going low carb? I thought one of the benefits of going low carb was to reduce insulin production? Is ketosis going to be healthy for me, even though I need to increase my basal dose to deal with it?

I'm probably just getting confused with all this science I'm trying to cram into my brain all at once. Any help would be appreciated!

[Terry H]

I've also noticed earlier this week an inexplicable rise in BS in the late morning after a low-carb breakfast. This happened for about 3 days and I seem to be back to the usual now. I too wd. appreciate any info you care to share on this. Good luck.

[richthediabetic]

Thanks for your reply Nomad. I don't think it was a rebound high, because when I have a low blood sugar in my sleep, it usually wakes me up. (I'm lucky that way.) Remember that I bolused when I saw the 210, and then it went up, and I bolused again, and then it went up again. Until today, my basal and bolus worked well to bring down my glucose. The stress very well may have contributed to the problem, as I think I probably gave myself an anxiety attack at work. I kinda wanna keep going with this, to see what happens, except that I'm paranoid now. LOL! Knowing that it's worked normally for you helps me though. So far today I haven't gone over 50g carbs, but I'm out of ketosis now for some reason? I'm using Ketostix to monitor closely.

I think you're right that we're a rare breed. I've been melting my brain trying to find answers to all my questions about paleo/primal and how it will affect me as a T1 Diabetic. Not much info about that specifically. Have you heard of a doctor named Bernstein? I discovered him last night while watching YouTube videos about this stuff. If you haven't I'd suggest Googling him. He's been T1 for over 60 years, and has been living paleo for most of his adult life. He looks fit as h***!

[richthediabetic]

I went into DKA and landed in the hospital after no insulin for half a day though my blood sugar was only ~145).

I thought ketoacidosis didn't happen until you reached a BG of 250 or more? How did you know it was acidosis? I haven't been able to find anything that tells how you know for sure, except symptoms.

I'll definitely post tomorrow about my experience if I go into ketosis again.

[jammies]

Is it possible that you are experiencing high blood sugar from eating too much protein? I think that fat is the preferred fuel intake for keeping blood sugar low/stable.

Do you know how much protein you ate on these days?

[Analog6]

I'd suggest you follow dr Bernstein - he is well known as the diabetics' guru an as he is a sufferer himself you are getting it from the horse's mouth. His plan is pretty primal anyway, if you use organics and grass fed beef you'll be 80-90% primal compliant.

[Lily Marie]

I'm a type 2 and if I eat 90g of protein worth of beef, it's hard for me to lower my blood sugar to acceptable levels. Eating more seafood made it normal out.

[lssanjose]

I'm a type 2 and if I eat 90g of protein worth of beef, it's hard for me to lower my blood sugar to acceptable levels. Eating more seafood made it normal out.

so the blood sugar raising has to do with beef, and not just protein in general? TIA

[richthediabetic]

I checked my protein intake from yesterday and it was only 76g. Definitely not a high amount. What you're asking about Lily and Jammies, is gluconeogenesis, which is what I suspected happened. I just need someone who knows the science (like a doctor I guess) who can tell me "yes, this is why your blood sugar went up". I've never had to dose for protein in all of my 40 years of diabetes, but I've also never intentionally entered ketosis as an experiment before.

Odille, thanks for your suggestion about Dr. Bernstein. Yes, I do plan on buying his book this payday. He's added to my Facebook already too.

[Dharma_Punk]

I've been a type 1 for 4 or so years now, and it's what got me on primal in the first place as I found excessive carbs made BG difficult to control. I really don't have much advice for you as I've never experienced this issue myself. I do get the Chinese resteraunt effect on occasion when I eat a lot of carbs, my bolus will bring it down, but then hours later it will be 300 or so. I suffer from dawn phenomina too, so I have to carefully plan my basal to account for this.