Have you ever thought about how your body functions during intermittent fasting? Well, it’s the ketone bodies that keep you on the go during prolonged starvation. I am sure you never thought about how to flush out ketones.
Ketones are acidic water-soluble molecules produced from the breakdown of fatty acid by the liver. They may be an excellent source of energy while you are on a low-carb diet or simply fasting, but too much of it in the blood can be dangerous, especially for Type 1 Diabetes patients.
Thus, it’s essential to know how to flush ketones out of your body. This article is a must-read for you if you want to keep the ketone in control and prevent Diabetic Ketoacidosis. Keep in mind that Ketoacidosis can severely harm your liver.
Table of Content
What Are Ketones?
Ketones are formed in the body when there is an absence or deficiency of insulin. They break down complex sugar into glucose and use it for energy production. Ketones are found in the liver after breaking body fat.
There are three types of ketone bodies:
- Acetoacetic acid or acetoacetic
- Beta hydroxybutyric acid or beta-hydroxybutyrate
- Acetone
Dangers of Excess Ketone in the Body
Nature demands balance. So does our body. When you have one physical component more than normal in your body, it acts up.
Similarly, having more ketones in your body and not flushing them out can be fatal. And the first thing you need to think about is how to flush out ketones from your body.
More ketones will trigger the body’s water metabolism and lower cellular water intake. From this, the body gets dehydrated. Dehydration causes an electrolyte imbalance. Electrolyte imbalance impairs long-term and irreversible brain damage.
Too many ketones appear in blood, urine, and breathe. These symptoms are extremely dangerous for a diabetic person. If he undergoes ketosis for too long, he can have diabetic ketoacidosis. It will not only harm him momentarily but also leave life-long suffering.
Warning Signs of Excess Ketones
Watch out for signs that might lead to diabetic ketoacidosis. For a diabetic person, it is deadly. Diabetic ketoacidosis is often seen in diabetic patients where the fast-breaking capability of the ketone escalated too quickly. This can make them pass out for a long period and progress to diabetic coma.
You will see the following symptoms in this case.
- An excessive need to urinate
- Thirsty
- Lethargy
- Stomachache
- The fruity smell of breath
- Confusion
- Deep or fast breathing etc
- Dehydration
- Coma
- Metabolic acidosis (confusion, shallow breathing, sleepiness, etc.)
- The smell of acetone from the body
- Sodium loss
- Kussmaul’s breathing (shallow breathing)
As soon as you see these symptoms, you should keep a check on your vitals. For any deterioration, visit the hospital. The following symptoms are:
- Vomiting
- Urinating large ketones: Small chunks of fat floating on your urine
- Ketone presence in urine: Pungent smell from the urine
- Presence of blood in the urine
How to Flush Out Ketones From Your Body?
Ketones are excreted from the body through urine and lungs. Acetoacetic acid and Beta hydroxybutyric acid are passed through the urine. The lung excretes Acetone, which is volatile.
When there is an increased amount of ketone in the body, they are expelled from the body through urine and breathing. Such conditions are termed Ketouria and Kussmaul’s breathing, respectively. Keeping a tab on symptoms that show similarities to these two health conditions is required.
Notice the smell of your breath and your urine. If it is giving off a fruity odor, get a blood test done.
Ketonuria and Ketonemia
The presence of ketone bodies in urine is called ketonuria. Ketonemia is when the concentration of the ketone body is more than normal in the blood. Ketonuria and ketonemia are both called ketosis.
The appearance of ketonuria or ketonemia is a sign that your body may progress to ketoacidosis. You can keep an eye on it from your blood tests. So it is important to flush the ketones out of your body by:
- Drinking 3-4 liters of water a day
- Measuring blood sugar and maintaining in.
- Ketone strip test
- Proper diet
- Avoid exercise
Fatality from Ketones
Can ketones kill you? Yes! It can.
A high concentration of ketones in the body can be fatal for anyone. In diabetic ketoacidosis, the concentration of ketones remains very high. The body becomes dehydrated and starts to show impairment in physiological functions.
This impairment may lead to death in anyone with existing comorbidities or major organ failure in others. 1.6-3.0 mmol/l of ketones in the blood is dangerous for an individual. Consult your nearest doctor for advice to decide it.
Starvation and Ketones
Ketone bodies increase during starvation. Simultaneously, glucose decreases. The liver attains energy for itself by oxidizing the fatty acids from the adipose tissues.
As a result, the concentration of acetyl CoA and citrate increases and switches to glycolysis. This results in a shutdown of glucose breakdown. Then the major organs start to break fat for energy.
Less than half of the energy used by the brain comes from metabolized glucose at the time of starvation. Then the brain cannot use glucose, but it can use ketone bodies as major fuel sources.
The human body is not forced to break down skeletal muscle faster and maintains cognitive function and mobility for many weeks.
During starvation, the kidney gets additional stress for excess amounts of ketones. This can lead to renal stones or, at times, renal failure.
Recommended ways of flushing out ketones
Being a diabetic is already troubling itself. You have to keep everything in check and maintain it. There is a correlation between insulin level and ketone.
As a result of which, diabetics have to focus on flushing out the ketones from their bodies. As previously mentioned, Diabetic Ketoacidosis can be deadly for them.
Here are some recommended techniques of flushing out ketones from your body:
Drink 250 ml of water every day
Water flushes out every toxic substance. Similarly, extra ketones are flushed out of the body. So if I ask you how to flush out ketones from your system with water, your answer should be urine. And if you are wondering how to remove ketones in urine, the answer will show up soon here.
Exercise
Diabetic or not, too many ketones are harmful to your health. A non-diabetic person should be doing regular exercises without stressing his heart. He can do regular cardio exercises, HIIT, and LIIT.
On the other hand, a diabetic patient should do the minimum amount of strenuous exercise. Too much activity will escalate the rate of the liver’s metabolism. More ketones will break down in the process. Thus increase ketones in the body.
Diet
A ketogenic diet has become popular over the years for drastic results. It works on the theory of the quick-burning of fat.
It is a low-carb but high-fat diet that replaces carbohydrates with fat. This influences ketosis which gradually helps in lowering body fat.
On the flip side, intermittent fasting is another option. Here, you can have all kinds of food but in smaller proportions—this aids to cautiously lower your ketones levels by flushing them out of your system.
A good diet with a proper exercise routine is the key to good health. These always help to flush out unnecessary or excessive substances from our body and keep it healthy.
What Foods Are High In Ketones?
Before you look for ways to flush out ketones, how about you reduce them in the first place?
Foods that we eat in our everyday meals are composed of protein, carbohydrates, fats, minerals, etc. A handful of them is high in ketones like:
- Seafood
- Avocadoes
- Cheese
- Low carbohydrate vegetables
- Meats
- Eggs
- Cottage cheese
- Coconut oil etc.
Keto Diet
Don’t have enough time for a walk or workout routine? Are you looking for alternate ways of how to flush out ketones? You can try keto-diet. It will break down the extra fat and use it for providing energy to your brain. The Keto diet works similarly to the body’s natural response to starvation or fasting.
A balanced diet includes all the essential components for the body in the proper amount for the individual concerning his or her mental, physical, and financial capability.
Can You Get Flu While in Keto Diet
Various diets are trending like the GM diet, Protein Diet, Water diet, Low Carbohydrate Diet, etc. In recent times, the keto diet is the most popular amongst the general people of them all.
In a Ketogenic or Keto diet, the fat content is very high, and the carbohydrate content is low. It initiates ketosis, which is the synthesis of ketone bodies. As a result of which, the body burns faster.
Significant effects have been seen in people with diabetes mellitus, cancer, gestational diabetes, and some endocrine disorders. A ketogenic diet helps to reduce the blood glucose and insulin level remarkably low. Hence, its popularity is rising every day.
Related Reading:
How does Glucoflow Help to Maintain Healthy Blood Sugar Levels?
How to Lower Ketones in the Keto Diet?
In the keto diet, the body undergoes ketosis. It is to the elevated levels of ketone bodies in the blood or urine. If there is an excessive amount of ketone bodies in your body, it can cause acidosis. The major reason why the ketone in the diet should be kept low is to avoid acidosis. Especially if you have diabetes, ketoacidosis can even cause your death!
To lower your ketones in the keto diet, try doing the following:
- Increase your water intake
- Test blood glucose every 3-4 hours to ensure you are not in a hypoglycemic state.
- Avoid doing strenuous exercises if you have high blood glucose or high ketone content.
- Check your urine analysis for the presence of ketone by your urine testing kit at home.
- Eat carbohydrate
Certain physiological conditions require the flushing of ketones to keep the body properly functioning—for example, pregnancy. For a healthy inter-natal period, ensure a protein-rich diet with the proper amount of carbohydrates and fat. Make sure not to initiate the production of too many ketones. Otherwise, you have to think about how to flush out ketones along with other complications.
How to Lower Ketones in Urine During Pregnancy?
The optimum health of a pregnant mother is the absolute concern of any individual during pregnancy. During pregnancy, expecting mothers are suggested not to do any sort of diet. Rather, by maintaining a healthy diet, they must stay fit.
At the time of pregnancy, ketone may flush out of the body through urine. Consultation from a doctor is important in this case.
For further protection, some suggestions are:
- Not to skip meals
- Make sure to eat three meals properly
- Include a decent amount of carbohydrate in your meal
- Add required amount of protein
Raised amounts of ketone in a pregnant mother may affect the child. The baby may show signs of mental impairment, learning disabilities, and a lower IQ level as they grow old.
FAQ
Is the keto diet safe for diabetics?
Keto diet is safe for people with Type 2 diabetics. Research favors that people with insulin resistance can keep their glucose level in control following the Ketogenic diet.
However, for people with Type 1 diabetics, the results show little or no prominent changes. The Keto diet has a huge chance of progressing into diabetic ketoacidosis if it is uncontrolled. So if a diabetic is undergoing this diet, he or she must keep his vitals in check.
Can water flush out ketones?
The kidney or lungs do expulsion of extra ketones. As ketones are acidic, some are flushed out with the body’s water then used as fuel.
Due to this, the kidneys flush out ketones as toxins of the body in urine.
How do you release ketones?
Flushing out ketones is a prime factor in the Ketogenic diet. These steps can help you do so:
- Lower carb consumption
- Inclusion of coconut oil in food
- Healthy fat intake
- Exercise wisely
- Protein intake
- Intermediate fasting
Conclusion
Now we can conclude with all the answers to the question “How to flush out ketones”. It is necessary to have at least 8 ounces of water or caffeine-free drink every 30 to 60 minutes. It is crucial to keep a check on your insulin level. Notify the nearest health personnel if you have high ketone in your urine or showing signs of diabetic ketoacidosis.
