Kussmaul breathing is a deep and laboured breathing with severe gasping usually associated with Diabetic ketoacidosis. This is a very quick and life saving response of lungs to high amounts of ketoacids in blood. (There are many other reasons to Kussmaul breathing too but here we are mainly concerned with diabetes). Why it is an…

DKA is a very serious complication in diabetics when body is short of insulin.  In this condition, when there is a lack of insulin and glucose is not utilised by body cells for energy, body breaks down fat cells into ketones or ketoacids leading to an acidic pH in body. Who are at risk? People…

  When you are hyperglycaemic, it’s a ‘No exercise day’! It is always prudent to check your blood glucose levels before doing any type of physical exercise. This is very important for all the diabetics (especially T1D), as it may result in hypoglycaemia and hyperglycaemia both. Yes! You read it right, it may result in…

It is a very common practice in T1 diabetics to keep checking their blood glucose levels multiple times a day, but some days when you are hyperglycaemic, it is good to check ketone bodies also, in either blood or urine.  What are ketone bodies? Ketones are the type of acids formed as a result of…

If you are looking for a quick review on your diabetes control, over past 2-3 weeks, then there is no test better than this.  Fructosamine test is a less commonly used method which measures your glucose levels past 15 days. It is really helpful in cases of switching insulin regime from one to another and…

Although keeping a good control over your blood glucose levels is good enough but still you need to keep a check on your overall body health…. This mostly includes your eyes, heart, kidneys, nervous system etc.. Every diabetic should go for certain investigations annually to assess your control over diabetes for a year long and…