Living with Diabetes
I’ve been living with Type 1 Diabetes since I was 7. At that time I had no idea the extent it would have on every aspect of my life, and less of an idea how it would play a massive role in my hormonal health. Whether you’re a Diabetic of not, I wish I could tell you that once you have the fundamentals down your body regulates itself and you never have to worry about things like nutrition or sleep…but it does get easier than you think. However, over the years (especially recent ones), it’s becoming painfully apparent that things like health (and more importantly hormone balance, i.e. Testosterone) is in a constant state of decline with Doctors, Dietitians, and even Endocrinologists (you know, the one’s that actually specialize in the stuff?) offering less than ideal help in getting people to a state of homeostasis.
I’m fortunate enough to have an Endocrinologist that’s helped me start to dial in my TRT, but I can’t say the medical industry has provided much insight to this point. Not only has my life been self-taught regarding the many pieces of the health and fitness puzzle, but that it took me up until October of 2020 to have an Endocrinologist check my testosterone levels because I brought it to his attention…and that’s infuriating.
Let me put it this way…as a Type-1 Diabetic I’ve had an absurd amount of tests done (many which haven’t been routine, but that’s a long story for another time), most notably I have my A1C levels checked every 6 months (a test to see the average amount of sugar present in the blood over an average period of time). This isn’t a bad thing and is a test ALL Diabetics should have done without fail, but what’s alarming is that out of all these tests I’ve never been told to get my hormones checked…and Diabetics are prone to low testosterone.
More specifically, low testosterone = less muscle gain = poor nutrient absorption = more fat accumulation = poor insulin sensitivity = hormone imbalance…you see where I’m going with this endless cycle?
Testosterone Correlation
So I ask myself why it took ME reaching out to the HORMONE SPECIALIST to have my hormones tested. Think about it…Endocrinologists help Diabetics try to improve their insulin sensitivity…and do you know what betters insulin sensitivity? Having good testosterone levels. But I digress as it’s not simply a matter of assuming your testosterone levels are horrible just because you’re a Diabetic or because you’re tired more than usual. Though I advocate all men getting T levels checked on a routine basis, I think there’s a lot of lifestyle changes that need made before starting TRT.
Nutrition
You see, our society doesn’t have a track record of supplying nutritious food…at least, not at an affordable price that makes them more appealing over everything else. That said, it’s IMPERATIVE to educate yourselves on food composition (macro and micronutrients), energy balance (calories in vs calories out), the importance of living a physically active life, and optimizing your sleep. These topics can run deep, but the fundamentals are sitting right on the surface. I spent many years angry at the world and my body that I had Diabetes, that I wasn’t “normal”, and had to take injections or poke my finger to know what my blood sugar levels were. However, it wasn’t until I stopped ignoring my body’s signals and teaching myself the topics above that everything started getting better.
Sure, no one wants to count calories (we weren’t designed to naturally do so our whole lives), but the scientific evidence that PROVES energy balance and how it effects body composition are a tool to help you eat healthy, stay lean, and avoid sickness or disease (often times informational intelligence Dieticians are lacking in).
Sure, society expects us to live for our work and not work to enjoy life, so we constantly burn the candle at both ends with a lack of sleep causing mental, physical, and emotional imbalances that effect our decision making (especially when it comes to what foods and HOW MUCH we consume) and how well our bodies are able to absorb the nutrients we feed it.
Sure, everyone wants to sit around and binge their favorite Netflix show for hours on end, even after an entire day of sitting at a desk…but did you know it’s recommended to get a MINIMUM of 10k steps per day? When they say sitting is the new smoking, they really aren’t far off.
People think it’s “hard” to get fit, put on muscle, lose fat, and be healthy. You want to know what’s actually hard? Being a Type 1 Diabetic with low testosterone who’s lifted 5 days per week for 6 years without much accumulated muscle to show for it. But believe me I understand…when the mental energy isn’t there, neither is the physical drive to get up and do good for yourself. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve sat on my bed WANTING to get up and be active, only to decide staring at the blank walls was acceptable because even reaching for the remote across the room took too much effort.
Michael’s Solution
My advice, recommendation, and plead is to do everything you can in your own life FIRST without turning to supplements and medication to put yourself in as healthy as a place as you can be. I’m not saying TRT is wrong, hell I started a few months ago and am just NOW starting to kinda sorta feel like a normal person again. But the importance of not looking for the easy solution or easy way out makes you stronger and teaches you the more important things needed to live a long life that our world, society, schools, and medical professionals won’t teach you…maybe unless you ask.
It’s difficult to find a routine you can enjoy and stick to long-term. But all it takes is one step and a little more each day before you make a practice into a habit. You CAN make a difference in your health and even if TRT is the end result, you know you’ve done all you can outside of it to put your body and mind in the best place to implement it into your life.
