infoseeker
New Member
OK, pcgamer was nice enough to respond to my question about two people I don't even really know from a message board. Now I'll go into why I'm interested in this subject in the first place. I tripped over this board looking for detailed lab information. I get frustrated by others implicitly trusting their lab and not even understanding what the numbers mean. I'm detail-oriented and a bit of a science-head.
Now, let me first say that my husband (and me) are not athletes or body-builders or anything. I don't know if it's OK to post here as just a person from the general public or if you try to keep this board to serious athletes or something. Now, that said, he's really large and I don't mean fat (well, he is fat and knows it and is losing the fat; already lost a large amount of weight in the past and is now working on the last estimated 40 lbs.) Body build is not a trivial detail, so that's why I'm mentioning it. He's got a large frame, large bones (not biggest in world, just large) and muscular build also, without working out. You know - some have more muscles to start with, even if they don't particularly cultivate the muscles... for example, his doctor said at his recent exam - "What's up with your legs? You look like Terrell Suggs"(Ravens football player.)
So he's having a problem millions of other men across the country are having - difference being that he's doing something about it instead of saying, "Guess I'm just old and fat like everyone else, oh well, it's my destiny." Familiar sad story I'm sure you've all heard of) overweight, (about 40 lbs. needed to lose), type 2 diabetes or perhaps just pre-diabetes by the diagnosis for which he is now on Metformin XR 1000 mg once per day, for two weeks now (been monitoring his own blood glucose for two months before even going to see the doctor and doing everything he can with diet and exercise, the doctor was impressed since most of his patients are not nearly as motivated), and libido and erectile problems (what else gets a man's attention and sends him to the doctor like that one does?!?!) as of only the last six months; specialized lipid panels and testosterone level pending right now. Wouldn't you know it, the doctor only wrote "testosterone level" on the lab slip, which I assume means only a total will come back, nothing else.
The doctor is a lipidologist, by the way, in internal medicine practice. HIs specialty is blood lipids and prevention of cardiac disease, so I think he's pretty familiar with the entire endocrine system, which is all interconnected, of course. I don't believe any T meds are under consideration, even though labs are still pending; I'm thinking the doctor fully expects the T to be low considering the whole big picture.. now, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but my research tells me that correction of blood glucose levels and insulin levels improve sex hormone status, as does reduction of body fat (which produces estrogen - you can see I have at least a rudimentary understanding of these things, which, believe me, is more than the average Joe or Jane on the street who says estro what? Huh?), in particular, reduction of the belly fat. As the doctor said, which we already knew, the belly fat is basically the villian in all of this. He has lost weight, but SO SLOWLY through eating less than I do (a 5-10, 150 lb. female, and he's 6-1, 230 lbs., 45 years) and there's no doubt that fat's been lost, I can see and feel the missing layer of fat that used to cover the muscles, I touch skin and muscle now, not the same with thin covering of fat, but the progress is just so slow; the Metformin is supposed to kick-start the weight loss. Even his belly has shrunk but it's got a long way to go. It's the problem. His waist-hip ratio is not as bad as you'd expect for a fat guy, probably because like I said, he's actually got some muscles elsewhere, not one of those guys witht the balloon belly and no butt. His waist measurement is 43 and hips 44, so he's already at or below that 1.0 ratio and headed for the .95 they say is better; I don't imagine his butt has much room to lose much more fat but the belly will definitely deflate by a lot with continued weight loss. I know you guys (athletes) are thinking, "Whoa - fat guy for sure!" which is true and he knows it, but give the guy a break - he's only human and did ten years ago lose nearly 100 lbs. So he could have died of obesity years ago but chose not to take that path and while he stalled at 80% there for nearly the last ten years, he's determined now to take it all the way and get to "ideal" weight.
I don't mind being frank here; I'm not a babe in the woods or anything and being in a forum full of men does not bother me in the least so just speak as if I'm one of the guys. To give complete information, while of course my top concern and his top concern is overall health and longevity (avoiding a heart attack like his father just had probably due to total flagrant disregard of paying any attention whatsoever to his type 2 diabetes) the problems causing great stress between us for which he got motivated to go see a doctor were (in addition to diabetes symptoms like numb toes which has reversed as he's reversed his blood sugar problems) a libido prompting him to seek out sex probably less than one time per month, don't know how infrequently because he may have given in before really being truly interested, although he does demonstrate plenty of interest short of actually getting down to it, and a disturbing (to him) pretty sudden reduction in erectile function (not totally lost by any means but not the same as before and intermittently pretty bad) including telltale lack of or at least great reduction in the classic morning boners. The doctor, of course, says this is all pointing toward low T but the dr. is of course focusing on correcting the "metabolic syndrome" problems now to keep the man alive and then maybe next they'll look into the specific sex hormone aspect if it doesn't improve in lockstep with the glucose/insulin problems.
All right; wanted to sketch out the situation. Of course, both of us would bet money that the total T will come back low but I don't know, maybe it won't and there are other levels within the panel that wasn't actually done, that would point toward some of his problems. Any comments/input/advice is welcome.
Now, let me first say that my husband (and me) are not athletes or body-builders or anything. I don't know if it's OK to post here as just a person from the general public or if you try to keep this board to serious athletes or something. Now, that said, he's really large and I don't mean fat (well, he is fat and knows it and is losing the fat; already lost a large amount of weight in the past and is now working on the last estimated 40 lbs.) Body build is not a trivial detail, so that's why I'm mentioning it. He's got a large frame, large bones (not biggest in world, just large) and muscular build also, without working out. You know - some have more muscles to start with, even if they don't particularly cultivate the muscles... for example, his doctor said at his recent exam - "What's up with your legs? You look like Terrell Suggs"(Ravens football player.)
So he's having a problem millions of other men across the country are having - difference being that he's doing something about it instead of saying, "Guess I'm just old and fat like everyone else, oh well, it's my destiny." Familiar sad story I'm sure you've all heard of) overweight, (about 40 lbs. needed to lose), type 2 diabetes or perhaps just pre-diabetes by the diagnosis for which he is now on Metformin XR 1000 mg once per day, for two weeks now (been monitoring his own blood glucose for two months before even going to see the doctor and doing everything he can with diet and exercise, the doctor was impressed since most of his patients are not nearly as motivated), and libido and erectile problems (what else gets a man's attention and sends him to the doctor like that one does?!?!) as of only the last six months; specialized lipid panels and testosterone level pending right now. Wouldn't you know it, the doctor only wrote "testosterone level" on the lab slip, which I assume means only a total will come back, nothing else.
The doctor is a lipidologist, by the way, in internal medicine practice. HIs specialty is blood lipids and prevention of cardiac disease, so I think he's pretty familiar with the entire endocrine system, which is all interconnected, of course. I don't believe any T meds are under consideration, even though labs are still pending; I'm thinking the doctor fully expects the T to be low considering the whole big picture.. now, you can correct me if I'm wrong, but my research tells me that correction of blood glucose levels and insulin levels improve sex hormone status, as does reduction of body fat (which produces estrogen - you can see I have at least a rudimentary understanding of these things, which, believe me, is more than the average Joe or Jane on the street who says estro what? Huh?), in particular, reduction of the belly fat. As the doctor said, which we already knew, the belly fat is basically the villian in all of this. He has lost weight, but SO SLOWLY through eating less than I do (a 5-10, 150 lb. female, and he's 6-1, 230 lbs., 45 years) and there's no doubt that fat's been lost, I can see and feel the missing layer of fat that used to cover the muscles, I touch skin and muscle now, not the same with thin covering of fat, but the progress is just so slow; the Metformin is supposed to kick-start the weight loss. Even his belly has shrunk but it's got a long way to go. It's the problem. His waist-hip ratio is not as bad as you'd expect for a fat guy, probably because like I said, he's actually got some muscles elsewhere, not one of those guys witht the balloon belly and no butt. His waist measurement is 43 and hips 44, so he's already at or below that 1.0 ratio and headed for the .95 they say is better; I don't imagine his butt has much room to lose much more fat but the belly will definitely deflate by a lot with continued weight loss. I know you guys (athletes) are thinking, "Whoa - fat guy for sure!" which is true and he knows it, but give the guy a break - he's only human and did ten years ago lose nearly 100 lbs. So he could have died of obesity years ago but chose not to take that path and while he stalled at 80% there for nearly the last ten years, he's determined now to take it all the way and get to "ideal" weight.
I don't mind being frank here; I'm not a babe in the woods or anything and being in a forum full of men does not bother me in the least so just speak as if I'm one of the guys. To give complete information, while of course my top concern and his top concern is overall health and longevity (avoiding a heart attack like his father just had probably due to total flagrant disregard of paying any attention whatsoever to his type 2 diabetes) the problems causing great stress between us for which he got motivated to go see a doctor were (in addition to diabetes symptoms like numb toes which has reversed as he's reversed his blood sugar problems) a libido prompting him to seek out sex probably less than one time per month, don't know how infrequently because he may have given in before really being truly interested, although he does demonstrate plenty of interest short of actually getting down to it, and a disturbing (to him) pretty sudden reduction in erectile function (not totally lost by any means but not the same as before and intermittently pretty bad) including telltale lack of or at least great reduction in the classic morning boners. The doctor, of course, says this is all pointing toward low T but the dr. is of course focusing on correcting the "metabolic syndrome" problems now to keep the man alive and then maybe next they'll look into the specific sex hormone aspect if it doesn't improve in lockstep with the glucose/insulin problems.
All right; wanted to sketch out the situation. Of course, both of us would bet money that the total T will come back low but I don't know, maybe it won't and there are other levels within the panel that wasn't actually done, that would point toward some of his problems. Any comments/input/advice is welcome.
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