Managing TRT with other health issues:

[Spunkey71]

Hey Fellas,

After some recent blood work followed up by additional specialized tests I have learned that I have Insulin Resistance and am pre-diabetic. Diabetes runs heavenly in my family, my mother passed from complications brought on by diabetes and both my older and younger sisters are diabetic and require insulin injections daily. I do not want to become diabetic and have to inject insulin for the rest of my life. I know that weight loss is key to combating Insulin Resistance and I have already taken the first step in the process by hiring 3J. I have a doctors appointment tomorrow morning to address this issue so I am sure my doctor will probable want to put me on some kind of medication.

Are any of you dealing with this issue as well and what have you learned about dealing with it that would be of benefit for me to know.




Thanks In Advance!

 

[halfape211]

Hey Fellas,

After some recent blood work followed up by additional specialized tests I have learned that I have Insulin Resistance and am pre-diabetic. Diabetes runs heavenly in my family, my mother passed from complications brought on by diabetes and both my older and younger sisters are diabetic and require insulin injections daily. I do not want to become diabetic and have to inject insulin for the rest of my life. I know that weight loss is key to combating Insulin Resistance and I have already taken the first step in the process by hiring 3J. I have a doctors appointment tomorrow morning to address this issue so I am sure my doctor will probable want to put me on some kind of medication.

Are any of you dealing with this issue as well and what have you learned about dealing with it that would be of benefit for me to know.




Thanks In Advance!

Hey Spunkey,
Sorry to hear about the Pre-diabetes problem. If you are lucky and do everything right, you may be able to avoid becoming diabetic. Yes.., weight loss is number one, lower your carb intake big time is number two (Strongly recommend you read book - Dr. Bernstein's Diabetes Solution.); Number three is exercise and be active.

Research Metformin. It's a good drug for diabetics and pre-diabetics. no ill side effects.

The inflammation of diabetes causes buildup of plague in your arteries, so it's bad stuff. After only 6 years of being diabetic, I just had first heart attack. And I'm no couch potatoe. I workout and run 30 miles a week.

Feel free to ask any questions. There's a couple others on this forum with diabetes too.

 

[Megatron28]

Halfwit would be a good guy to reach out to for advice.

I have heard metformin causes diarrhea. I think you are supposed to ease into the dose so you can get used to it.

 

[halfape211]

Halfwit would be a good guy to reach out to for advice.

I have heard metformin causes diarrhea. I think you are supposed to ease into the dose so you can get used to it.

Yes, it can cause gastrointestinal upset until you get used to it, but it's mild if you have that side effect at all. And yes, you are a wise man, Megatron, you start with one pill a day and increase depending on your blood sugar control.

Most importantly, Metformin is the only antidiabetic drug that has been conclusively shown to prevent the cardiovascular complications of diabetes. It helps reduce LDL cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and is not associated with weight gain. As of 2010, metformin is one of only two oral antidiabetics in the World Health Organization Model List of Essential Medicines.

Metformin is especially helpful for pre-diabetics because it helps take some of the workload off the pancreas by suppressing glucose production by the liver.

 

[Megatron28]

I think a lot of people take it to lose weight even. People who are not even diabetic. I don't know a lot about it personally though.

 

[Alpin]

Bad news. Hope you improve spunkey.
I wonder how hypoglycemia ties into all this?
Thats a form of diabetes too. What was your fasting glucose spunkey and your HB A1C.?
What kind of tests did your doc run to find out your insulin resistant?

 

[halfape211]

I think a lot of people take it to lose weight even. People who are not even diabetic. I don't know a lot about it personally though.

Heck, you are a pretty smart fella, Megatron. You are right again. Actually the upset stomach side effect causes the weight loss, but it is only temporary until your stomach get used to it. I doubt Spunkey's Doctor will offer Metformin to a Pre-diabetic for the same reason most doctors do not offer AI or HCG. Just like getting TRT, Spunkey or anyone with a health problem will have to do their own research if they want the best medical treatment

 

[Alpin]

Heck, you are a pretty smart fella, Megatron. You are right again. Actually the upset stomach side effect causes the weight loss, but it is only temporary until your stomach get used to it. I doubt Spunkey's Doctor will offer Metformin to a Pre-diabetic for the same reason most doctors do not offer AI or HCG. Just like getting TRT, Spunkey or anyone with a health problem will have to do their own research if they want the best medical treatment

Ya. The Alopathic medicsl system is the third leading cause of death in America.
Docs don't do a whole much to prevent something in your health from deterorating worse. They just leave it be and treat it when they have to.

 

[halfape211]

Bad news. Hope you improve spunkey.
I wonder how hypoglycemia ties into all this?
Thats a form of diabetes too. What was your fasting glucose spunkey and your HB A1C.?
What kind of tests did your doc run to find out your insulin resistant?

Hi there Apollon, I've had a little medical problem lately and have not had time to carry on with you lately. If I may help with the Hypoglycemia question. Hypoglycemia is when your blood sugar is too low and generally occurs from taking too much insulin. Of course only diabetics take insulin, so it is known as a diabetic problem. Non-diabetics control their blood sugar level by producing either insulin or glucose as necessary and do not suffer from hypoglycemia.
BTW metformin does not cause low blood sugar as does insulin and a few other drugs.

 

[Spunkey71]

Thanks for all the advice guys, I have heard about metformin and expect my doctor will prescribe it, he is very big about being preventative. I have also read about it causing gastrointestinal upset too and not sure how I feel about having the squirts all the time but will put up with it if I must. He did not like my fasting glucose level which I believe was 119 and had me take a special test. I do not know what the test was called but they had me come in first thing in the morning and they took blood, then they had me drink a special sugar drink and took blood every hour for three hours to see how my blood sugar reacted over time. Sadly it was elevated at each step of the testing.

I decided to be proactive myself and hired 3J yesterday, he will put together a diet and exercise plan with will be conducive to my issue. I am curious, from what I have read when someone has Insulin Resistance they tend to store carbs as fat, does that mean I will be able to use my body fat as energy now?

 

[Megatron28]

Thanks for all the advice guys, I have heard about metformin and expect my doctor will prescribe it, he is very big about being preventative. I have also read about it causing gastrointestinal upset too and not sure how I feel about having the squirts all the time but will put up with it if I must. He did not like my fasting glucose level which I believe was 119 and had me take a special test. I do not know what the test was called but they had me come in first thing in the morning and they took blood, then they had me drink a special sugar drink and took blood every hour for three hours to see how my blood sugar reacted over time. Sadly it was elevated at each step of the testing.

I decided to be proactive myself and hired 3J yesterday, he will put together a diet and exercise plan with will be conducive to my issue. I am curious, from what I have read when someone has Insulin Resistance they tend to store carbs as fat, does that mean I will be able to use my body fat as energy now?

It was probably the hba1c test which measures average glucose levels over something like a 3 month period.

 

[Spunkey71]

Here is the test with results

View attachment 558765

 

[Megatron28]

You were looking good until the second hour.

 

[Spunkey71]

Yeah and that is what my doctor doesn't like. I do not know why my fasting was that low that day, the previous two blood tests had my fasting glucose in the 115-119 range. The first hour was high, over the top of the range by a little. My doctor is the type that would rather get ahead of things and treat since it does run in my family.

I also ready that chromium is good to take when insulin resistant but I do not remember it saying why.

 

[Alpin]

I'm pretty sure adrenal glands tie into blood sugar as well
Yes, I see that blood sugar is high.
What do you feel, can you tell us???
Dizzy, anxious, loss of appetite ??? Etc

 

[Spunkey71]

To be honest I don't feel anything when it is high like that, just fat!

 

[Alpin]

How long were you fasting for on this test spunkey?

 

[halfape211]

Thanks for all the advice guys, I have heard about metformin and expect my doctor will prescribe it, he is very big about being preventative. I have also read about it causing gastrointestinal upset too and not sure how I feel about having the squirts all the time but will put up with it if I must. He did not like my fasting glucose level which I believe was 119 and had me take a special test. I do not know what the test was called but they had me come in first thing in the morning and they took blood, then they had me drink a special sugar drink and took blood every hour for three hours to see how my blood sugar reacted over time. Sadly it was elevated at each step of the testing.

I decided to be proactive myself and hired 3J yesterday, he will put together a diet and exercise plan with will be conducive to my issue. I am curious, from what I have read when someone has Insulin Resistance they tend to store carbs as fat, does that mean I will be able to use my body fat as energy now?

Yes you definitely can use your body fat as energy. I assume you are thinking of weight loss and yes you can lose weight by using your body fat for energy. It's primarily calories in versus calories out. Insulin resistance effects your weight loss as does low T and high E2. My numbers were way, way higher than yours and I lost 30 lbs with low T (before TRT) and probably high E2.

BTW, When I first found out I was a diabetic my Blood Sugar numbers were above 600.

 

[Spunkey71]

Yes you definitely can use your body fat as energy. I assume you are thinking of weight loss and yes you can lose weight by using your body fat for energy. It's primarily calories versus calories out. Insulin resistance effects your weight loss as does low T and high E2. My numbers were way, way higher than yours and I lost 30 lbs with low T (before TRT) and probably high E2.

BTW, When I first found out I was a diabetic my Blood Sugar numbers were above 600.

Wow that is crazy high! That is why I want to be proactive and avoid becoming diabetic.

Apollon:
For this test I had fasted around 13-14 hours.

 

[halfape211]

I'm pretty sure adrenal glands tie into blood sugar as well
Yes, I see that blood sugar is high.
What do you feel, can you tell us???
Dizzy, anxious, loss of appetite ??? Etc

For me, when my numbers would get in the 500 range, I might get a little sleepy and I could tell my brain was running a little slow, kind of like low T. Many afternoons I would need to go to bed and sleep. So imagine just how much damage the blood sugars were doing to my brain. So I hope Spunkey gets off to a good start. BTW that book is incredible and probably is at his library.