Causes of ketosis

What is ketosis and what are the main symptoms?

Ketosis is a medical term related to the metabolism, which refers to the increased levels of ketone bodies in the blood. Ketones are used as energy by our body, and they are created when the stores of glycogen in the liver have been emptied, because then the body begins to burn fats instead of glucose, which means that it is the way in which body reacts to a crisis. This is why ketosis may be a very serious condition once the level of ketones in the blood is too high. When it comes to symptoms, they may last for a few days, or even a week sometimes, but the fact is that they will disappear once the body gets used to this new process, or once the process stops. The most common signs are tiredness, weakness, headache, constant feeling of thirst, metallic taste in the mouth and bad breath, nausea, dizziness and problems with sleeping.

Causes of ketosis

In the greatest majortity of the cases, ketosis is a result of inadequate diet, or more precisely, it is a result of low-carb diet. Very frequently, people who want to lose some weight experience the symptoms of ketosis, because if they introduce a low-carb diet, sooner or later their body will begin to burn fats in order to create energy. It rarely takes more than 48 hours for this process to begin, and the final result will be the loss of weight. This condition may be diagnosed through the urine test, but it is important to stress out that this is not a recommended way of losing excessive weight, because it can be dangerous for one's health. If the body burns fats for a longer period of time, it may lead to the increased toxicity, which may further result in the damage of organs such as liver and kidneys, because the ketones contain acetone or acetoacetate. Besides with a low-carb diet, this condition also occurs with thype 1 diabetes, alcoholism, and with diet which is high in fat or proteins.

Even though ketosis may be used for the loss of weight or in some other purposes, of course, provided it is under the suprvision of the profesional, the fact is that it may cause serious consequences, some of which may even be permanent. It also increases the risk of developing osteoporosis, and kidney stones, as well as levels of cholesterole and blood pressure. Still, even though it seems that ketosis may be beneficial in some cases, and that the body will adapt to the new process after approximately 3 weeks, scientists cannot agree on whether it is good for people or not.