Jericho: Insulin Intolerance
So, you may have noticed my lack of presence on the site. I'll admit it, I've been a little discouraged and even a bit depressed. I don't have much to talk about, it's hot in the room with the computer - I'm writing this from work, other excuses. Primarily, I feel old and boring.
This started about two weeks ago - what am I saying? This really started over a decade ago! As most of you are aware, I am fat - and I'll have more to say on that later. Excessive fat, obesity, does a whole lot of bad crap to the body. In fat males more often than females, a condition can show up called Sleep Apnea. Basically, you stop breathing in your sleep. People with this condition can stop breathing 500 times a night or more! With me, I can sleep on my sides fine - I probably do stop breathing, but I don't notice it. I say this because I have some of the other symptoms of Apnea; waking up tired, loss of concentration, etc. However, if I attempt to sleep on my back, the moment I fall asleep, I stop breathing. I wake up a minute later and intake a huge breath - like someone surfacing in a swimming pool.
So, two weeks ago, I had a night where I was doing this "surfacing" routine no matter which position I slept in. Finally it got so bad, I had a rush of adrenaline going from fearing for my life. Yeah, not much way I was getting back to sleep that night. I did finally drift off hours later, but, Steph made a doctor's appointment for me when she woke up.
My weight has gotten pretty bad and I know it. I'm also not sticking to ay decent diet, and no exercise. It's getting to the point that I am starting to feel some desperation and I'm looking for other answers. My friend Angi had a form of gastric by-pass surgery and has had some real results. There are all kinds of examples in the media of gastric by-passes working very well. So, I was thinking in that vein. I intended to ask the doctor about that.
Yesterday was my appointment. She wanted to do a full physical, just to establish a base line. We sat down and talked about several things before she examined me. One of the first things she asked me was if I had tried any drugs for weight loss? I smiled and said "No. Do they have a diet in a pill form, now?" She said, no, of course not, but that there were some drugs that gave some results. She suggested this as a step to take before we went for a gastric by-pass, as I am already trying to get to the gym more often and have made some life changes/eating habit changes. We talked more and I mentioned that my sexual appetite was pretty low for a 32 year old male. She said that testing my testosterone levels might prove useful, as low testosterone can lower metabolism.
She examined me and they did a blood work up. The first thing she noticed on my exam was that I had a sinus infection! I hadn't even noticed, although I am noticing it today. I'm taking big pink pills for that. My BP was 120 over 80, fine. The blood work came back, typically, my blood sugar is fine, but my cholesterol will be just under 200, making me "High Normal" and that really rattles a doctor's cage - but I've been that way since I was a kid! Good news, my cholesterol was 160 - not super but good enough. However, that was also the level of my blood sugar - 40 points above normal. The last time I checked my blood sugar, it was 135, which is above 120, but I had just had a seriously carb-loaded meal and I made no effort to cut into my carbs anytime before. However, this was well above where it should be. Great - I'm diabetic!
The doctor has a theory. It's not diabetes - she thinks I'm Insulin Intolerant. I can't find a reference to this on Wed-MD, but what she described sounds lot like what they call Insulin Resistance. Have a look at this link if you want more info. So, my body isn't using the insulin I'm producing, forcing the body to produce more, leaving me with high blood sugar and even wild swings in blood sugar. Her prescription: Atkins.
Okay, I have been a jerk about just about every diet fad that has shown up on the scene. Weight loss isn't easy, and anyone who thinks a fad diet will get them to a healthy weight and keep them there needs to think again. However, people do seem to be having results with this diet and the fad is becoming an establishment. I shared these thoughts with my doctor, she said she felt the same way, she distrusted the diet until recently. She spoke with a cardiololgist friend of hers about Atkins. The cardiologist told her that people with this condition can greatly benefit from Atkins, that not only does their blood sugar decrease, so does their cholesterol. She was skeptical, but she suggested it to a few of her patients - and it worked as described.
So, the plan is to do full-bore Atkins for six weeks, plus continue my efforts at an exercise routine. At that time, we'll run a fasting glucose test and see what results we get. If there are really good results, great, rinse and repeat. If there are less than impressive results, we'll look to add some drugs to the mixture. I'll get my testosterone results in a few days, and we might add that to the mix if need be. If there are no results, then we will look to other solutions. Her hope is that we can achieve weight loss without going under the knife and that the weight loss will deal with the apnea.
My friend Angi called. I told her about my results, and she asked me how much I weighed. Well, no normal scale can get my weight. Most normal scales stop at 350. So, Angi came and got me and dragged me to her doctor's office where they have a scale that looks like it's more suited to weighing cargo instead of people. I got on and it did it's thing. It came up 475.8. Yes, I had my shoes off.
Well, I'm pretty frustrated. I mean, I knew shit was bad, but not this bad! I'm damn near diabetic and I weigh a quarter ton! Angi delivered me to Steph and I asked Steph if we could go buy the Adkins book so I could get started.
Well, we bought a book, "Adkins for Life", but when I got it home and started reading it, it wasn't the book about the core diet. Feck!!! I was just depressed, pissed, I pretty much crawled into my pillow and tried to forget the world for a while.
I don't know what will happen from here. We'll probably go to the gym tonight and buy the actual book this weekend. I'm feeling really defeated, but I have answers and solutions - the trouble shooting/problem solving part of my brain won't rest until those steps have been tried. We'll see - right now I'm going to go buy some terryaki with lots of veggies and no rice.
This started about two weeks ago - what am I saying? This really started over a decade ago! As most of you are aware, I am fat - and I'll have more to say on that later. Excessive fat, obesity, does a whole lot of bad crap to the body. In fat males more often than females, a condition can show up called Sleep Apnea. Basically, you stop breathing in your sleep. People with this condition can stop breathing 500 times a night or more! With me, I can sleep on my sides fine - I probably do stop breathing, but I don't notice it. I say this because I have some of the other symptoms of Apnea; waking up tired, loss of concentration, etc. However, if I attempt to sleep on my back, the moment I fall asleep, I stop breathing. I wake up a minute later and intake a huge breath - like someone surfacing in a swimming pool.
So, two weeks ago, I had a night where I was doing this "surfacing" routine no matter which position I slept in. Finally it got so bad, I had a rush of adrenaline going from fearing for my life. Yeah, not much way I was getting back to sleep that night. I did finally drift off hours later, but, Steph made a doctor's appointment for me when she woke up.
My weight has gotten pretty bad and I know it. I'm also not sticking to ay decent diet, and no exercise. It's getting to the point that I am starting to feel some desperation and I'm looking for other answers. My friend Angi had a form of gastric by-pass surgery and has had some real results. There are all kinds of examples in the media of gastric by-passes working very well. So, I was thinking in that vein. I intended to ask the doctor about that.
Yesterday was my appointment. She wanted to do a full physical, just to establish a base line. We sat down and talked about several things before she examined me. One of the first things she asked me was if I had tried any drugs for weight loss? I smiled and said "No. Do they have a diet in a pill form, now?" She said, no, of course not, but that there were some drugs that gave some results. She suggested this as a step to take before we went for a gastric by-pass, as I am already trying to get to the gym more often and have made some life changes/eating habit changes. We talked more and I mentioned that my sexual appetite was pretty low for a 32 year old male. She said that testing my testosterone levels might prove useful, as low testosterone can lower metabolism.
She examined me and they did a blood work up. The first thing she noticed on my exam was that I had a sinus infection! I hadn't even noticed, although I am noticing it today. I'm taking big pink pills for that. My BP was 120 over 80, fine. The blood work came back, typically, my blood sugar is fine, but my cholesterol will be just under 200, making me "High Normal" and that really rattles a doctor's cage - but I've been that way since I was a kid! Good news, my cholesterol was 160 - not super but good enough. However, that was also the level of my blood sugar - 40 points above normal. The last time I checked my blood sugar, it was 135, which is above 120, but I had just had a seriously carb-loaded meal and I made no effort to cut into my carbs anytime before. However, this was well above where it should be. Great - I'm diabetic!
The doctor has a theory. It's not diabetes - she thinks I'm Insulin Intolerant. I can't find a reference to this on Wed-MD, but what she described sounds lot like what they call Insulin Resistance. Have a look at this link if you want more info. So, my body isn't using the insulin I'm producing, forcing the body to produce more, leaving me with high blood sugar and even wild swings in blood sugar. Her prescription: Atkins.
Okay, I have been a jerk about just about every diet fad that has shown up on the scene. Weight loss isn't easy, and anyone who thinks a fad diet will get them to a healthy weight and keep them there needs to think again. However, people do seem to be having results with this diet and the fad is becoming an establishment. I shared these thoughts with my doctor, she said she felt the same way, she distrusted the diet until recently. She spoke with a cardiololgist friend of hers about Atkins. The cardiologist told her that people with this condition can greatly benefit from Atkins, that not only does their blood sugar decrease, so does their cholesterol. She was skeptical, but she suggested it to a few of her patients - and it worked as described.
So, the plan is to do full-bore Atkins for six weeks, plus continue my efforts at an exercise routine. At that time, we'll run a fasting glucose test and see what results we get. If there are really good results, great, rinse and repeat. If there are less than impressive results, we'll look to add some drugs to the mixture. I'll get my testosterone results in a few days, and we might add that to the mix if need be. If there are no results, then we will look to other solutions. Her hope is that we can achieve weight loss without going under the knife and that the weight loss will deal with the apnea.
My friend Angi called. I told her about my results, and she asked me how much I weighed. Well, no normal scale can get my weight. Most normal scales stop at 350. So, Angi came and got me and dragged me to her doctor's office where they have a scale that looks like it's more suited to weighing cargo instead of people. I got on and it did it's thing. It came up 475.8. Yes, I had my shoes off.
Well, I'm pretty frustrated. I mean, I knew shit was bad, but not this bad! I'm damn near diabetic and I weigh a quarter ton! Angi delivered me to Steph and I asked Steph if we could go buy the Adkins book so I could get started.
Well, we bought a book, "Adkins for Life", but when I got it home and started reading it, it wasn't the book about the core diet. Feck!!! I was just depressed, pissed, I pretty much crawled into my pillow and tried to forget the world for a while.
I don't know what will happen from here. We'll probably go to the gym tonight and buy the actual book this weekend. I'm feeling really defeated, but I have answers and solutions - the trouble shooting/problem solving part of my brain won't rest until those steps have been tried. We'll see - right now I'm going to go buy some terryaki with lots of veggies and no rice.
posted by Jericho Brown at 7/22/2004 11:57:00 AM
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