Quote Originally Posted by cls515 View Post
Not bad at all. Keep up the good work. Seriously a lot of damage can happen if you are not careful.

Hey DVM, I read what you said about hyperglycemia/ketoacidosis. Yeah that happens, but hyperglycemia is not really the cause. It is pretty interesting how the body makes matters worse for itself. A diabetic has plenty of glucose in the blood, but the body can't use it because it can't enter into the cells. In essence, the body is starving. So, the body makes use of the glucose which is stored into the body (glycogen), to release more glucose into the blood, which only makes matters worse by further increasing the blood glucose concentration. Well, I thought it was pretty interesting.

Because the body is starving, the body turns to alternative means of producing energy, which is the breakdown of fats. Fatty acids are broken down to ketoacids. The ketoacids can accumulate and release hydrogen ions into the blood, which causes ketoacidosis.

Not sure you were aware of the process. Sorry if you already knew.
Didn't really think it needed a complete description of all the pathways involved in glucose production and its use by different cells in the body.
BTW, treated 2 cases of ketoacidosis last week.