As long as you are functional, how low your blood sugar goes doesn't much matter. George Cahill, from Harvard, did studies back in the 1960s, (which would never, ever get approved today) on people who fasted for long periods. He found he could drive their blood sugar levels down to 25 mg/dl, a level the most people would probably die fro…
As long as you are functional, how low your blood sugar goes doesn't much matter. George Cahill, from Harvard, did studies back in the 1960s, (which would never, ever get approved today) on people who fasted for long periods. He found he could drive their blood sugar levels down to 25 mg/dl, a level the most people would probably die from, and they did fine. Why? Because they were using ketones instead of blood glucose to power their brains.
There is this whole idea of physiological insulin resistance (that I haven't written about yet) that explains why most people on long-term ketogenic diets have high blood sugar. Not too high, but higher than one would think. I'm not sure--and haven't been able to test it--that they might be dehydrated. Folks on ketogenic diets, myself included, often are dehydrated. In my case, drinking more fluids brings blood sugar down a bit.
If I were in the 60s and had no problems, I wouldn't worry about it.
Interesting. I was on the tail end of a 4-day fast when the blood was drawn and wondered if that had anything to do with. Of course, I always do a multi-day fast before seeing the doc... trying to game the system lol. Appreciate the clarification!
As long as you are functional, how low your blood sugar goes doesn't much matter. George Cahill, from Harvard, did studies back in the 1960s, (which would never, ever get approved today) on people who fasted for long periods. He found he could drive their blood sugar levels down to 25 mg/dl, a level the most people would probably die from, and they did fine. Why? Because they were using ketones instead of blood glucose to power their brains.
There is this whole idea of physiological insulin resistance (that I haven't written about yet) that explains why most people on long-term ketogenic diets have high blood sugar. Not too high, but higher than one would think. I'm not sure--and haven't been able to test it--that they might be dehydrated. Folks on ketogenic diets, myself included, often are dehydrated. In my case, drinking more fluids brings blood sugar down a bit.
If I were in the 60s and had no problems, I wouldn't worry about it.
Interesting. I was on the tail end of a 4-day fast when the blood was drawn and wondered if that had anything to do with. Of course, I always do a multi-day fast before seeing the doc... trying to game the system lol. Appreciate the clarification!