Q. Do you know how ketoacidosis develops?

The chain of reaction begins with insufficient insulin to meet the needs of the body. Several factors then work together. These include:

1. Illness, infection, injury or emotional stress could increase the body's need for insulin because of the extra energy required. Effectiveness of available insulin would also require release of additional glucose from liver (already stored as glycogen) or from fat sources.

2. Omitting insulin doses, which reduce the amount of insulin available to the body.

3. Reducing exercise thereby upsetting the food, insulin and exercise balance. This factor and other factors given above may aggravate the tendency towards ketoacidosis.

4. Excessive amounts of carbohydrate food may also aggravate the ketoacidosis.