Many people arrested for driving while impaired (DWI) offenses had a few too many drinks before they got behind the wheel. They didn’t wait long enough after finishing their last beer for the evening before driving home. They then fail field sobriety tests or chemical tests. Police officers can use their test failure as grounds to arrest them.
Driving with an elevated blood alcohol concentration is technically a crime, even if the motorist doesn’t struggle to maintain control of their vehicle. Occasionally, a failed chemical test might be the only evidence backing claims of impaired driving. In some cases, people may insist that police officers made a mistake.
There are a variety of reasons why people who did not drink excessively might fail chemical breath tests. For example, people with specific medical challenges and those trying to cut their body fat for athletic purposes might be at elevated risk of an unfair DWI charge.
Ketoacidosis can affect breath test results
The keto diet is popular in bodybuilding circles. It is also one of the specialty diets that medical professionals sometimes recommend to people dealing with blood sugar or inflammation-related medical issues.
The keto diet prioritizes putting the body into a state of ketoacidosis. When the body experiences ketoacidosis, it burns fat. The fat doesn’t just disappear. It breaks down into a number of chemicals that the body must then excrete. One of those compounds is acetone. The body eliminates acetone through the respiratory system.
An individual in a state of ketoacidosis exhales acetone as a byproduct of fat metabolization. Unfortunately, acetone can cause positive results during breath testing. Those trying to track the success of a medical diet or a fat loss regimen might purchase special testing devices to validate when they have achieved ketoacidosis.
That same physical process could potentially put them at risk of unfair DWI charges. Proof of the diet that an individual follows and possibly even prior test results showing regular ketoacidosis could potentially help people challenge their pending DWI charges.
Defendants who understand why they failed a BAC test can then begin developing a defense strategy. Specialty diets are among the numerous potential causes of false positives. Fighting DWI charges backed primarily by chemical test results is possible with the right strategy and support.