Symptoms of high blood sugar and ketone body poisoning

Now that people's living standards have improved, many diseases of affluence have occurred, especially diabetes, which is becoming younger and younger. Once you have diabetes, you have to take medicine or inject insulin for life. Diabetes itself is not scary, but the complications it brings. High blood sugar and ketone body poisoning is one of the very common complications, and the onset is relatively rapid. How can you know if you have high blood sugar and ketone body poisoning? What are the symptoms of high blood sugar and ketone body poisoning?

Ketoacidosis is an acute complication of diabetes mellitus caused by a severe deficiency of insulin in the body. Generally, when the patient is severely deficient in insulin, sugar metabolism disorders will worsen dramatically. At this time, the body cannot use glucose and has to use fat for energy, but the fat is not burned completely, resulting in severe secondary fat metabolism disorders.

When fat decomposition accelerates and ketone body production increases, exceeding the level that tissues can utilize, ketone bodies accumulate in the body and increase blood ketones, resulting in ketoacidosis. When excess ketone bodies are excreted in the urine, the urine ketone test is positive, which is called ketonuria. Ketonemia and ketonuria that occur in diabetes are collectively called diabetic ketoacidosis. When the accumulation of acidic substances in the body exceeds the body's compensatory ability, the blood pH value will drop, and the body will experience metabolic acidosis and diabetic ketoacidosis.

In fact, most patients will experience polyuria, polydipsia, and fatigue a few days before they develop impaired consciousness, followed by loss of appetite, nausea, and vomiting, often accompanied by headaches, drowsiness, irritability, deep and rapid breathing, and a rotten apple smell in their breath. If the disease progresses further, there will be severe dehydration, decreased urine volume, poor skin elasticity, sunken eyeballs, weak and rapid pulse, and low blood pressure. In the late stage, various reflexes become sluggish or even disappear, and the patient becomes drowsy and even comatose. A small number of patients experience abdominal pain that resembles acute abdomen, so more attention should be paid. Some patients present with diabetic ketoacidosis as the first manifestation. In this case, you should actively go to the hospital for examination and then receive symptomatic treatment, which will have a better treatment effect.

Diabetic patients, especially type 1 diabetes patients, do not have enough insulin in their bodies, which causes their blood sugar to rise, but the body cannot use it as an energy source. At this time, the body fat is over-broken and too many ketone bodies are produced. They can neither be effectively utilized nor completely excreted from the body. Therefore, they accumulate in the blood in large quantities, causing blood sugar levels to rise. When the ketone bodies only increase slightly, the body will adjust. Keeping the blood pH within the normal range is called ketosis; when the ketone bodies increase further, the blood becomes acidic and metabolic acidosis occurs, which we call diabetic ketoacidosis. When patients have ketoacidosis, their original diabetes symptoms are often significantly aggravated, manifested as significant thirst, polydipsia, polyuria, dizziness, decreased appetite, and severe dehydration. The skin and mucous membranes are dry and have poor elasticity, low blood pressure, deep and rapid breathing, and a smell of rotten apples in the breath. If the condition progresses further, the patient may become drowsy, unconscious, or even comatose. If not promptly treated, it may lead to death. Some patients, especially children, may be misdiagnosed as gastroenteritis or acute abdomen because of gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, and abdominal pain.

The main causes of ketosis and ketoacidosis include:

First, type 1 diabetes can develop in the form of ketoacidosis when it first occurs;

Second, stop using or use less insulin;

3. Other stresses: such as combined acute infection, trauma, acute myocardial infarction, stroke, etc.