Testosterone and Insulin Sensitivity

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Check out this study by Kapoor et al. discussing the effects on testosterone replacement therapy on insulin sensitivity and glycaemic control.

Could these results indicate a valid use for testosterone supplementation as a form of diabetes management?  Could similar results be found in subjects who did not already display low testosterone levels?

Could an exercise program/lifestyle designed to improve testosterone concentrations see similar results?  Or could the type of lifestyle and exercise regimen required to do so (proper exercise, nutrition, sleep, stress management) in and of itself be enough to improve insulin sensitivity and glycaemic control equally as much as purely supplementing?

What are your thoughts?

Your body.  Your training.

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My n=1 Study

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This past Tuesday marked 17 years since I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes.  On this day I would add another layer of insight into how I can better-manage this diseased state.

Beep!  Beep!  Beep!

I knew that sound.

Beep!  Beep!  Beep!

Crap.  It was 7:30 AM and I was in the middle of working with a client.

Beep!  Beep!  Beep!

My pump was dying.  I was no longer going to be receiving insulin from it.  Crap.

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This wasn't the first time this had happened so I knew how to execute my backup plan.  I also knew that the last time this happened my blood glucose levels ran between 250 and 350 for the next 24+ hours until my new pumped arrived.  I knew I felt miserable that entire time, and I knew I didn't want to experience that again.  This time I'd call an audible on the backup plan.

I decided to run an n=1 study on myself.

Over the course of the next 24 hours I would only inject myself with insulin at very specific times, opting instead to manage my blood glucose levels as well as I could using mainly diet and exercise.

I would exercise vigorously multiple times throughout the day and limit my carbohydrate intake to as few as possible.  I decided I would continue this as long as my blood glucose levels stayed below 200.

Over the course of the day my blood glucose fluctuated between 70 and 130.  In fact, it wasn't until 6:30 PM that evening that it got up to 190, after which I injected myself with insulin to try to combat the rising glucose concentration.

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I had three different exercise sessions that day, each lasting between 30 and 90 minutes and each combining aerobic endurance training with higher volume resistance training, after which I would administer an insulin injection.  I did the injections post-exercise to try to take advantage of the immediate increase in glucose transport post-exercise in hopes that doing so would keep my blood glucose levels lower.  Additionally, I limited my food intake to meat, vegetables, and a protein shake.

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Overall, this emergency strategy worked very well for managing my blood glucose levels.  The highest my levels got after bringing them down from the initial reading of 256 was after I woke up the next morning.  At that time I tested in at 211.

Additionally, I cut my average daily insulin intake in half.

While this strategy is by no means something I would want to try right now for a longer duration--I felt completely exhausted by the end of the first day--I believe it did prove effective as a form of short term emergency maintenance.

To me, this only further exemplifies the importance that a proper diet and regular exercise can plan in managing diabetes.

Your body.  Your training.

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Intro to HbA1c

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Over the next couple of months I would like to walk through rough overviews of my final project for one of my graduate classes this term.  The project is to come up with a hypothesis that has not already been tested and use current research to explain the biological mechanism by which the null of my hypothesis would fail to be rejected.

6.3

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As someone who has been diagnosed as having type-1 diabetes, having testing done on me has become commonplace over the past decade and a half plus.  This past Friday I went in to have my blood drawn to test (among other things) my A1C scores--an indicator of my average blood glucose levels over approximately the past three months.



A year ago my A1C came back at a level of 7.3.  This time it was down to 6.3--an entire percentage point lower than it was this time last year.

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Comparing my lifestyle choices between this year and last, it was initially difficult for me to see any major differences.  In fact, this time last year was when I was in my early stages of sleeping 3 hours a night--a phase that would last until mid March of this year--so I would not have been surprised if  things were the same or worse than before after running on such little sleep for that long.  However, the more I thought about it, the more some little choices I have made began to surface.

While I have been getting more sleep over the last four months, a few other things really stood out to me when I was thinking about lifestyle changes I've made.

The first two I have already written about in previous posts--intermittent fasting and the effects that has had on my blood glucose levels as well as the effects receiving regular MAT™ sessions have had on my blood glucose levels.  But the third thing that I've really changed over the past year is not yet something that I've written about exclusively.

One factor I have decreased over the past 12 months is the frequency, duration, and relative intensity of my exercise.  I used to exercise six to seven days a week, most of which was done at extremely high intensities.  These exercise bouts used to force me to elevate my blood glucose levels into the 200's beforehand and then by the end I was either down in the 120's or I continued to elevate into the 250's and beyond.

I'd be exercising for anywhere from one to three hours at a time, all of which from time to time would lead to massive drops in my blood glucose levels either later in the day or that night.

By decreasing the frequency, duration, and relative intensity of my exercise, I have experienced fewer swings in my blood glucose levels.  I can begin my exercise session at lower levels (closer to 140) and usually end up between 80 and 100 with there rarely ever being a delayed hypoglycemic reaction.

Just as exercising more appropriately for my body has relieved me of many of the joint aches and pains I used to experience on a daily basis, exercising appropriately with the understanding of the stress that exercise can potentially create and adjusting thing accordingly may have helped relieve me of the massive blood glucose swings I used to experience.

While a year ago I loved everything about what I did while I exercised, taking a step back and coming to the realization that it just wasn't working for my body in multiple ways has allowed me to see just how powerful of a tool exercise is.

Realizing this can't help but beg the question, "Is your exercise right for your body?".

Your body.  Your training.

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My Intermittent Fasting Experience

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Let me start by saying I am not well versed in the science of intermittent fasting (IF).  There are plenty of people out there who can give you a lot more information in regards to what is supposed to happen when you fast, so I would ask that you direct those kinds of questions elsewhere.  What I do know about, though, is how my body has responded to condensing the amount of time I eat every day from about 17 hours to right around 8 hours, effectively having a 16-hour window every day where I "fast".

I've been following this IF regimen for just under two weeks now.  Not a huge amount of time for sure, but nevertheless I have already noticed some pretty drastic changes, particularly in the stability of my blood glucose levels.  For years my blood glucose levels were usually maintained between 140-160 throughout the day.  If I got below 100 I would start feeling like I was dropping into hypoglycemia.  This was contrary to the standard recommendations that stated my blood glucose level should be between 80-120.

After about 5 days of IF I noticed my average blood glucose levels had dropped throughout the day and I was right within the recommended 80-120 range throughout most of the day.  The other thing I noticed was that I could keep my blood glucose levels in the 80's and 90's not feel like I was going to drop lower, which is always a concern I have had.

Because of these lower blood glucose readings I am taking less insulin throughout the day due to both fewer blood glucose spikes requiring additional insulin and a lowering of the basal level of insulin I receive consistently throughout the day.

As far as my weight goes, the first three days I was following the IF process I went from 238 lbs to 231 lbs.  Now, for someone like me who has traditionally had a difficult time putting on weight, this was not pleasing to see.  But once I figured out how to effectively eat more in that 8-hour window I have put back on four pounds.

So up until now my eating schedule has been trying to start at 12 noon every day and concluding around 8 PM.  There is usually an hour or two kind of mid-morning where I get really hungry, but otherwise I feel fine.  I have also noticed that, despite feeling completely depleted the first time I tried to train while fasted, exercising usually helps take the edge off, as does tea and water.

The idea of IF had been proposed to me before, but I wasn't really sure what to make of it.  In Engineering The Alpha the authors talk a bit about IF and they brought up some interesting points as far as increasing growth hormone and improving insulin sensitivity.  I'm not sure if insulin sensitivity can be improved in a Type-1 diabetic, but I figure it is worth a shot so I decided to try it out.

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I'll post updates on my IF experience every few weeks to this blog so be on the lookout if you want to follow along.  Additionally, if you want to try out IF for yourself, check out Engineering The Alpha as well as the multitude of other resources online.

Your body.  Your training.

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MAT and Diabetes

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I do not have any scientific backing for what I am about to say, but rather this claim is made purely off of first-hand experience and observation.

As a Type 1 diabetic, managing my blood glucose levels is something that is never far from my conscious stream of thought.  Since I began participating in Muscle Activation Technique™ sessions on a regularly (weekly) basis, this task has been much easier to perform.  My blood glucose levels are noticeably lower and more stable when I make it a point to participate in an MAT session at least once per week.  Previously, if I would go more than a week without participating in an MAT session, my blood glucose levels would begin to fluctuate more throughout the day.  After having MAT sessions regularly for the past 8 and a half months, I can now go longer without a session and still my blood glucose levels remain easier to manage.  Admittedly, I rarely go a week now without MAT so I cannot speak to the exact threshold level, but certainly after a week I'm still good to go.

Also, when I would participate less frequently in MAT sessions, I would still notice a lowering of my blood glucose levels, it just wouldn't remain for the entire time between sessions.  Just like most other forms of exercise, most benefits or adaptations that may occur as a response to the imposed stimulus may diminish over time if you are not exposed to a relatively similarly challenging stimulus on a somewhat regular basis.

Like I stated above, I cannot explain why this lowering and easier management of my blood glucose happens.  It is just something I have observed and experienced.  However, from what has been reported to me by other specialists, other diabetics, both Type 1 and Type 2, have experienced similar improvement in control and overall lower blood glucose readings after they have an MAT session.

Speculation/Thoughts from this:

1)  Lower blood glucose levels for me means I have been using about 14% less insulin since I began being regularly worked on.  Which means less man-made chemical I am putting into my body.

2)  If blood glucose levels become easier to manage for myself and (apparently) other diabetics after regularly experiencing MAT, I can't help but wonder if the same holds true for non-diabetics, where their blood glucose levels become more stable as well.

3)  If MAT actually does help to create more stable blood glucose levels as a by-product of making muscles contract better, I wonder if the more stable blood glucose levels will also contribute to the effectiveness of each MAT session.  Meaning by presenting a potentially less-stressed system, will that actually improve the ability of the MAT session to get muscles to contract better as well as for those muscles to stay contracting better for longer periods of time post-session.

I am by no means making an argument that MAT improves diabetes.  I want to make that clear.  MAT provides an opportunity for muscles to contract more efficiently.  That's it.  There may be very beneficial by-products of muscles contracting more efficiently, but that is not the focus of MAT.  Nevertheless, I find it very interesting that I have noticed this pattern of more consistently stable and lower blood glucose levels within myself after regularly experiencing MAT.

Are you participating in Muscle Activation Techniques™ sessions on a regular basis?  How might it be of benefit to you?

Inter­ested in find­ing out more? Check out the “Mus­cle Acti­va­tion Tech­niques™” page.

Inter­ested in set­ting up an assess­ment time or dis­cussing this sub­ject fur­ther? E-mail Char­lie at charlie@selfmadefitness.com.

Your body. Your training.

Want to use this arti­cle in your blog, newslet­ter, or other plat­form? You can, but be sure to include all of the bio­graph­i­cal infor­ma­tion found in the yel­low box below!