I’m so glad to read about your wife’s successful low-carb pregnancy. I’m curious whether she was ever in ketosis and how you guys handled it?

I’m 30 weeks pregnant and have been on a low-carb, paleo-style diet, which I have been loving. However, I’ve been struggling with my doctors over high ketones. Thanks to my diet, my blood sugars have always been normal, but my body seems to love being in ketosis all the time. My endocrinologist urgently wants me to go on insulin. I’ve never heard of anyone being put on insulin for high ketones alone and I want to refuse, but I’m worried things might get ugly if I do — both my midwives and their backup docs seem very concerned about ketones.

Other than this, my pregnancy is going great: I feel great, have no swelling issues, and am measuring right on schedule.

Any advice for my situation? Are ketones really a problem? If not, any tips for handling my doctors?

Thanks much for any insight you can give!

Dr Jay’s Reply:

Of course you will be in ketosis. This is how the body provides fuel for the brain and other tissues that would otherwise be burning glucose. It is nothing to be worried about. Ketones are made by the liver from fat. It is one of the natural fuels our body uses. I can find no evidence that physiological ketones are harmful for anyone including a fetus. We never tested my wife but I assume she was in ketosis throughout her pregnancy. I suspect your care providers are confusing physiological ketosis with ketoacidosis which is harmful and occurs in type 1 diabetics who are not injecting insulin. In that situation, the blood sugars are sky-high along with the ketones and dehydration is also a problem. The thought that their reaction to your situation is to have you inject insulin when you are experiencing normal blood sugar levels alarms me. What are they thinking! Perhaps you should ask them what will happen to your normal blood sugars if you start injecting insulin. That may give them pause. I suspect their response will be that you will have to start eating carbs in order to tolerate the insulin. Talk about putting the cart before the horse!

For more info from some reproductive specialists go to Jimmy Moore’s site: http://www.livinlavidalowcarb.com and listen to his podcast interviews with Dr. Gil Wilshire and Dr. Michael Fox, both of whom are advocates of low-carb dieting for infertility and who keep their pregnant women on low-carb during gestation. Hang in there!

Dr Jay’s Reply:

Thanks for posting and greetings from the colonies. I do hear some discussion about Metabolic Syndrome emanating from Britain but it is among academics at conferences. I am not sure the concept is discussed or understood in the general public anywhere, actually. From my perspective, the whole thing hinges on insulin resistance. It is quite clear that IR is the pathology underlying MetS and its sequelae, mainly type 2 diabetes and CVD. I also think IR can explain a large part of the obesity epidemic. Also, from my observation, when one acquires IR, one has a de facto intolerance of carbohydrate foods. And, like all food intolerances, once the offending food is removed, the associated problems go away. For this reason, I do believe that any manifestation of IR needs to be treated with carbohydrate restriction and the level of carb restriction will be dictated by how severe is the IR. For type 2 diabetics, for instance, the amount of carb that is tolerable will be quite low. For others, there may be more tolerance but some things should be avoided by everyone ie anything containing fructose. The more I look at the evidence implicating fructose in all of this the more I am convinced we must significantly reduce our fructose consumption across the board. And, remember, every sugar molecule is 50% fructose.

??????? ?????????? ???? ???. XIX ??., ?.3 The documentary is going to be re-broadcast on CBC Newsworld, The Lens, on August 18, 2009. Check your local listings for the times…..

Could we humans do the same thing? Should we?

http://www.time.com/time/specials/packages/completelist/0,29569,1958657,00.html

This is well worth it’s time, it’s about an hour and forty-five minutes.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6262083407501596844&hl=en#

Wild Rice is threatened by this as in all Native Corn.

Tom

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8LtoBAP6myA

I think you will be interested in this.

Tom

I’m suggesting that you might want to consider posting a video on that site of you talking and explaining your theory, like so many others are doing on a full range of topics there.

Nothing is more important that what you have to say and what you have discovered and rediscovered, regarding our diet and it’s effects on our physical/mental health.

I’m sure you have others but I would be glad to do the shoot and edit for you with your full rights to all video and audio and final cut approval in place, as well as any and all copyrights and distribution rights you might want to have.

I would come to you or meet you anywhere, anytime and there would be no fees or rights to me involved.

Like I say, I expect you no doubt have people you are already comfortable working with and that’s great too!

I just wanted you to see what I view as a great outlet for your work.

Tom

We have been taught that these sophisticated societies were and are the superior and to be admired and looked highly upon, rather than looked down upon as the monstrous dictatorships of insanity that they really were.

Shiploads of newly found sources of sugar and stimulants were shipped back to Europe from the Americas in the early takeover and destruction days.

The same dictates rule today!