Can ketosis cause abdominal pain with green stools?

Patient's Query

Male, 21, 5'7, 130lbs Hello, I went to the urgent care yesterday because I've been feeling morning sickness for a while and what I figured out there is the doctor said from viewing my urine that my body is in ketosis and I'm severely dehydrated. He had me fast the rest of the day and this morning I was told to eat a banana than bread for lunch than a small 6oz steak for dinner. My only problem is I feel like the doctor wasn't taking me seriously, he said I was in ketosis because of lack of sleep even though I told him that my bowl movements have been green/yellow. I had the banana at like 7am and got a full 8 hours of sleep and when I just used the restroom I still had a shredded green/yellow consistently. Should I just continue to follow his advice?

I'm worried there's an underlying issue to why I'm going through ketosis and when I told him it hurt my stomach to drink water he said thats impossible and just threw a lot of symptoms out the window. Im really worried and have felt horrible for almost months and now its gotten to the point where I'm bed ridden almost all day.

My symptoms are: abdominal pain, headaches, diarrhea, constipation, almost shredded like yellow/green stool, Morning sickness. I really don't know whats wrong with me and I'm just getting really worried at this point because I feel like no doctor I go to is taking me seriously. I do believe the doctor that im in ketosis but I feel like there should be more a reason other than stress/sleep. If im wrong it would just be nice to have some explanation and how I can work on getting better because I wasn't really told much besides is basically my fault and I just need to eat/drink more.

Answered by Dr. Alexander Davis, Md

Thank you for reaching out to us.

I’m very sorry to learn about what you have to go through. I will try my very best to help you. Based on your height and weight you are by no means underweight, your BMI is completely normal. Of course it can be that you suffer from malnutrition due to some exotic cause, but I don’t believe that this is the reason of your problems.

If your height and weight are correct your BMI is 20, and even if it should be a little bit lower it would still not be a reason for the symptoms you are suffering from. There are a lot of tests that have to be done now to get a definitive diagnosis, but I can give you a hint, even without being able to test you, what might cause such a complex disorder like the one you are experiencing.

You could suffer from a still undetected liver condition, especially one in which the gallbladder is involved. An inflammation or dysfunction of the pancreas is also a legitimate differential diagnosis. Then there are gluten intolerance, diabetes and thyroid disorders which have to be ruled out because they can cause such symptoms.

If it is none of these conditions there are still many other so-called “rare diseases” like for example Morbus Cori, Morbus Hers, glycogen storage disorders etc. If your doctors don’t believe you, show them this answer.

The Probable causes:

Severe metabolic disorder.

Investigations to be done:

Complete internistic status incl. comprehensive lab test, MRI (liver/abdomen), sonography (pancreas, thyroid etc.), gluten intolerance test, psychological status, stool analysis and culture, colonoscopy, etc.

Differential diagnosis:

Hepatic disorder
Pancreas disorder
Exotic infection

Probable diagnosis:

Severe metabolic disorder of unknown cause.

Treatment plan:

Immediate and comprehensive medical attention as stated above.

Regarding follow up:

Ant time you want.

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