Question
I wonder if anyone has come across this situation.
I took my 2 yr physical as usual a year ago and the nurse started me off with the urine sample. As soon as she did the litmus, PH test she said," Oh looks like you have ketones in your system as in the urine."
"oh, what does that mean," I said puzzled.
She said it means you are pre-disposed to be a diabetic..
I told her she was talking rubbish, there is no way I have anything resembling diabetes. First off, there is no family history and secondly, my diet is not condusive to this disease. Unbeknown to her, I have a good knowledge of nutrition and what diabetes can do. My sugar/'carb intake couldn't be lower.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, the doc failed my medical because of this and I had to take the weekend off to flush my system out. On the retake I was fine and off I went. But that episode rankled with me and I never forgot about it
I believed the doc was mistaken and better still I don't think he knew what he was talking about.
Sure enough, just recently, I was reading Dr Atkins book and there it was, the explanation to this issue. Apparently, there is confusion in the medical world about evidence of diabetes, and the words Ketosis and ketoacidosis, and their effects therein. Next time I shall insist he do a blood sugar test, but I guess he was too lazy to do that.
If you are in a Ketosis state according to Atkins, then that is the perfect situation, because you are burning nothing but fat in the body, therefore you are going to lose weight. But if you have ketoacidosis, then perhaps you can be exposed to diabetes. But doctors can get it wrong so don't believe everything they tell you. By the way I wasn't even on the Atkins diet, as I'm a nutrition freak , so it annoyed me the doc assumed I didn't know anything about this issue.
Answer
Some people just shouldn't be performing DOT physicals!
Anyone with any sense would know that ketones in the urine alone is not enough to be considered a diabetic indicator. Especially if they talked with you about it.
One of the first questions a knowledgeable examiner would ask would be about any dietary restrictions or additions.
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