Ketosis vs Ketoacidosis (Keto Diet Dangerous?)

Ketosis and ketoacidosis are they the same thing or are they actually

completely opposites? I'm gonna explain that so you get it once and for all

coming right up so many people are trying the ketogenic diet and they're

getting great results they're losing weight the reversing insulin resistance

they're feeling great but there's still a lot of apprehension and some people

think that oh well maybe I'll try it for a for a little while but I'm scared to

do it long term because I've heard so many terrible things about it and all of

those things are untrue but the one that comes up the most frequently is that a

lot of medical doctors and people who are supposed to know better they throw

out that word ketoacidosis that's what diabetics get and that can

kill you so don't you don't want to get in ketosis so we want to clear that up

because if you're informed you should know a whole lot better than to say

anything like that so medical doctors they've been to school they really

should know better for the layperson I can understand if

it's a little bit frightening and confusing so we're gonna look at all

these we're gonna check out piece by piece how they compare and if they have

anything in common or if they're completely opposite so first of all

ketones is the only thing that they have remotely in common because both

conditions produce a little more ketones than people who eat the standard

American diet but in what we want to call nutritional ketosis or a healthy

state of ketosis that you induce in a healthy person we're a non diabetic

person from eating low carb diets you're going to develop an amount of ketones in

the blood of about 0.5 to 3 and most people are going to be probably around 1

the the really hardcore people who cut their carbs way way down and who do

intermittent fasting they might be able to

push it up towards two and a half or three but probably not totally

consistently so that's a very low very controlled level of ketones we want to

contrast that with someone who goes into a full-fledged fast if you do a water

fast for a week or if you're so unfortunate that you're having to endure

starvation because you're just isn't any food now your ketones might get up to

five but that's about the highest that they can get as long as you have any

functioning insulin in your body in ketoacidosis which happens to diabetics

primarily type 1 diabetics where you have zero insulin where the body has

completely lost its ability to produce insulin that level of ketones can get up

all the way up to 20 to 30 millivolts so we're talking about 10 times higher than

you could induce it by cutting carbs and living a ketogenic lifestyle and

probably 20 times higher than the typical level of ketones so even though

there are some ketones in common we're talking about a completely different

level then let's look at blood sugar so when you do ketosis your blood sugar is

low to normal it's gonna be in the ideal range but it's going to be on the low

side of normal so that's going to be what we call pretty much a perfect blood

sugar that's what you get when you don't eat a bunch of carbs and your body finds

the balance that is the healthiest for you same thing is starvation then you're

not your body still has the ability to break down protein and fat and produce

some blood sugar so you're not going to get extremely low it's going to be on

the low end but it's gonna be in the normal range or close to it in diabetes

in uncontrolled diabetes like we're talking about here that blood sugar is

gonna go sky-high it's going to go into several hundred it's going to go into

many many times the normal range and these people are

very often they're going they're being rendered unconscious very often this is

a type one diabetic who doesn't know that they're diabetic yet they're just

feeling bad being brought to the hospital and they're passing out and

they have really high ketones and very very high blood sugar so let's look at

insulin in ketosis you have low to normal insulin because it perfectly

matches the amount of blood sugar you have low to normal insulin because there

is a low to normal need for insulin your body produces exactly what it's supposed

to same thing in starvation but in type 1 diabetes you have zero insulin you

have none and that's the whole problem that's the only way that this problem

can develop is when you have zero insulin and because of that the blood

sugar runs way way high the other thing is that both ketones and blood sugar are

controlled by insulin so if you have some amount of insulin the ketones can

never run very high because the insulin is controlling that as well but when you

have zero insulin there is nothing to control those ketones and because you're

burning fat as your only source of fuel plus you're breaking down some proteins

there are no carbs being burned even though your blood sugar is that high

you're not burning any carbs so your body is fully starving and you're

burning all the fat but there is no insulin to control the ketones so now

your ketones go into a dangerous dangerous level so let's think about

this from the other direction what's the insulin need again here it's low to

normal because it matches the blood sugar same thing in starvation but

here's the problem in the diabetic we have a sky-high need we have an infinite

need we have an enormous need for insulin but we have none that's the

problem their stuff this enormous discrepancy

with what's needed from what the existing reality is we look at pH and

that's where this disease this pathological condition gets this name is

called ketoacidosis because your blood gets very very acidic and your blood has

to be maintained at a pH around seven point three six five and the last digit

could vary a little bit but it has to be very very precise that's the only place

you can be healthy and in ketosis you're eating a lot of normal food you're

eating a lot of vegetables you're getting plenty of minerals you're eating

a wide variety of foods you're just not eating carbohydrates so your body has

lots of resources to regulate your pH and you're gonna be if you eat healthy

food you're going to be at in normal pH the person in starvation is probably

going to start slipping a little bit toward acid because they don't eat any

food they have a little more ketone but they also don't have any resources their

body is running out of stuff to to manage things and the pH in the

ketoacidosis in the diabetic ketoacidosis is turning lethal it is

dropping enough that this person is dying this is a medical emergency

they're being brought in to the emergency room on a stretcher and

hopefully if they get to them in time they'll save their lives without medical

intervention this person is dead no exceptions

physiology how is the body working how are all the metabolic processes being

managed well in nutritional ketosis they're being perfectly balanced there

are no all the needs are met and the body can manage everything that's needed

perfectly the blood sugar is managed to insulin is managed the ketones are

managed the pH is managed so this is a very healthy person if they eat healthy

food the starving person their physiology is

not sustainable because they're not eating so they can go on for four weeks

or maybe a couple of months but slowly they're gonna be dying if they don't

replenish anything the health of the starving person is kind of a little

dichotomy there because short-term it can be very powerful healing you can

allow your digestive tract and your digestive organs to recover so a lot of

people do and extend it fast to heal their body but even so it's not

sustainable and beyond a point their health is going to be declining because

they're not providing the body the nutrients they need and of course in

ketoacidosis their physiology is in total chaos there's nothing that's

working everything is is going downhill it is sinking it is dying their health

like we've talked about this is a medical emergency and these people would

die every time unless you can get them to a hospital and get them some insulin

injected the key thing to understand is that this is normal physiology this is

controlled physiology everything every parameter is where it should be based on

what we are doing and we can sustain this long term whereas here we have zero

insulin the person is starving they have no access to their blood Sugar's zero as

a result the ketones are running into a lethal pathological level we have a sky

high we have an enormous need for insulin and we have zero that's why this

is not the same thing that's not even close they are actually the complete

opposites because here we have a low insulin need here we have an infinite

insulin need here we have the appropriate amount of insulin which

matches the sugar here the insulin has no match to

the blood sugar so when someone says that they're the same thing they just

don't understand what they're talking about so hope that was helpful please

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ketogenic diet they want to try this out but they're scared they don't have

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