Quote:
Originally Posted by hardasnails1973  AMen,
Those words are music to my ear.
First of all clean up his eating, and then have him run glucose and insulin tolerance tests 3 hours
Your lipids are screaming it backed by several elevated readings.
Who ever told fasting insulin of 14 is good you better run and run far because that is a red flag for severe insulin resistance !!
Run the glucose insulin test I bet his insulin pushes 150 plus in the first hour !!
I do not look at past labs because I am only interests in the present readings. As you can see there was a rapid decline in dhea from years back. So again low dhea can be imparied by elevated cortisol and also this leads into insulin resistance and diabetes. With proper testing which I have been stressing pretty every client to look for nutrient imbalances could be a simple solution to insulin resistance as it has been the case in over 80% of my clients. Just from one test i can pretty much predict how insulin sensitive or resistant a person is. That measiliy dosage of fish oils is not doing crap to help his lipids. My proper balancing out the cellular membrane peoples lipids profiles have improved 100-200 % in less then 4 months. If lipids are high eat more soluable fiber. Again it goes back to a personal eating patterns. 90% of people lipid profile can be siimple altered by increasing fiber and lower fat intake (getting in the right ratio and by passing metabolic blocks) that most prediabetics (including your DH)..If he is over weight then by losing 7% of your body weight will reduce your chances of heart disease by a large percentage. First thing I would do is detox his systems work on correcting his nutritoinal balance, and practice stress reduction ... |
Hi & Thanks Eeso & HAN,
Weight & Exercise
DH is not overweight he has been the same weight for well over a decade. However Fat/muscle ratio has certainly changed & likely a result of his abysmal Androgens. He is the only breadwinner in the family as I havent been able to work for over a decade. I have similar problems to him but was/am a lot more symptomatic. Both our 16yo twin sons are Hypopit with Hashis, AI & ADD too. They are about to start Thyroid & Adrenal meds this week (have had ALL the testing). So he is under a lot of emotional/financial pressure thats for sure. W cant afford for him to stop working wouldnt be able to afford any medicine supps or Docs at all & would lose the house as well.
DH used to do swimming as his regular exercise. This has dropped by the wayside due to lack of time (as he was promoted required longer hours & evening work). Also as my own health demands increased & those of the twins he has had to takeover main responsibility for cooking, household cleaning & maintenance. I have been able to restart some chores in a minor way only recently. Now its not just time its a matter of NO energy/stamina as well.
It is all he can do to keep working it is a responsible well paid job but he does work fairly long hours. No way he has energy or time for formal exercise or weight training. In fact with his numbers I think it would be detrimental to his health & make matters worse. We are both trying to do some walking though & will try to gradually increase as long as Adrenals dont get more stressed by that. I hope Adrenal meds will increase his ability to exercise & they will be started once ACTH Stim is done & if they support blood & Saliva results indicating low ACTH & low Cortisol.
FishOil Whats wrong with the amount of Fish Oil DHA/EPA he is on?
We are all using Nordic Naturals ProEPA as it is the HIGHEST amount of DHA/EPA that I have been able to find. It is also extremely expensive. The recommended dose is 2 caps a day but as 4 of us have to be on it we simple cant afford that so take 1 cap daily.
We actually dont eat fish or seafood at home either due to my Mercury Toxicity. DH has 2 Amalgams as well. I am trying to persuade him to get them removed (with appropriate precautions).
Cholesterol
I dont think his total Cholesterol is too bad at all. I dont buy into the keep Cholesterol very low propaganda!!! Interestingly myself & both our sons have OPPOSITE problem of low Cholesterol. I do agree he need to up his HDL & reduce LDL & Tri's. We already eat good amount of Fibre so dont think thats an issue. I thought Lipid issues tie into HypoThyroid & improve once Thyroid is treated? Certainly many say their numbers improved.
Note DH used to be on Zocor but hasnt been for about 4 years or so. He was never told about COQ10 being depleted by the Statins either!!! I have had him on COQ!) for the past 2 years.
Cleaning Up Diet
We HAVE all made many changes to diet & cleaned that up years ago when my health problems first started. He rarely drinks, we only have occassional takeaways, use Coconut Oil for all cooking, use organic butter, eat organic free range eggs, have lean red meat 3-4 times a week., we rarely have sweets or confectionary. We do have a little Ginger Beer on occassion but far less Soda than we used to. We are all eating much better with fruit & veges than we were but there is certainly some room for further improvement there. We cant afford organic meat & veges it is way too expensive.
In fact DH is the one that does all grocery shopping & most of the cooking due to my ill health.
DH does tend to rely on Coffee a bit for energy but I'm sure with Adrenal meds he will be able to greatly reduce that. Interestingly Coffee does block Iron uptake. Imagine how high his Ferritin would be IF he didnt have 3-4 (weak) cups a day?
Nutritional Deficiencies & Detox
We ARE working on nutritional deficiencies that we are aware of. Folinic Acid, B12, Magnesium, Multi-B's all being supped. I will add Chromium Picolinate.
He IS being detoxed with Vit D, ALA, Vit E, Milk Thistle, Garlic tabs, Olive Leaf Extract & has been on these for some time. I waited to
test Ferritin before considering Vit C & with his Ferritin at over 400 will NOT be using Vit C at all. His most recent LIver numbers look good. My only concern is with his constipation issues despite being on good Probiotics as well. I think I'll try him on Thornes BPP (HCl & Pancreatin) digestive enzymes & see if that helps.
Blood Sugars
There is also no way that the Doc will agree to GTT or ITT testing with those Blood Sugar numbers. As I indicated above he is classed as borderline IR. It is the first time Insulin was tested although Glucose was tested several times & seems to remain pretty much the same.
I may be able to persuade Doc to do A1c do you think thats worth doing? I will also start him on Chromium Picolinate it certainly helped my Insulin levels which were a LOT worse than his. Do you need to do Fasting Insulin & Glucose at same time as A1c? I asssume its best done early am fasting too? I thought Blood Sugar issues are tied into HypoAdrenal issues too? Wont treating the low Andogens & Cortisol help blood Sugar regulation too?
Hypopit/Hypoadrenal/Hypothyroid I thought DH's results indicate Hypopit?
Certainly they indicate Hypogonadal, Secondary AI, Secondary Hypothyroid and Hashimotos too.
How is diet & exercise ALONE going to help those?
Doesnt he need HRT for all those? Hypopit cant be 'cured' by lifestyle changes!!!!! In any case we HAVE made many lifestyle changes including diet already. I think his numbers are pretty well the best we are gonna get without HRT.
Ferritin What about his very high Ferritin? Any idea what could be causing that?
Would he benefit from donating blood to get that down? The only indication of inflammation was slightly elevated Homocysteine. I plan to ask for a repeat Iron Studies to recheck the Ferritin levels. Blood donations can only be done every 3 months (4 times a year) here unless you have Hemochromatosis DX (which I do by the way). It will take a lot more than 4 phlebs to bring down Ferritin from current >400 to around 100 which is considered optimal (assuming not increased by infection/underlying inflammatory conditions).
Final Comments
I was hoping to get advice & suggestions regarding his Androgens & other Sex Hormones in particular from this Forum. Have you got any comments on those? Do you agree his Androgens need HRT? He will be doing ACTH Stim in January & I was thinking as he is likely Hypopit correct order of treatment would be Adrenals, Androgen HRT, then Thyroid .
Phil thought his E2 was fine & not an issue?
I notice some get Progesterone tested though Phil didnt suggest it. Should we get that tested too?
What about the
DHT is the slight elevation there a concern.
Phil suggested he would benefit from
HCG but I am not sure IF it is avalable here yet. Do you agree he would benefit? What about DHEA & Testosterone? I know I can get him HRT for those note BOTH are RX only in Australia.
What are the consequences of doing HRT without
HCG? I know about fertility & 'ball shrinkage' side effects. However he is 52 & has had a Vasectomy so fertility is NOT an issue. Ball shrinkage then is only a cosmetic concern then isnt it? I have read that HCG in combination with Androgen HRT does work a lot better for Secondarys is that right? Assuming I can source the HCG & I can convince DH to do injections that is.
Further Testing
Note ACTH Stim expected to be done in January
Will try & get A1c testing & repeat Blood Sugars
Repeat Iron Studies.
Will be getting Hair Analysis done in Januray.
Note there is no Rheins Urine testing, Spectracell or EFA type testing available in Australia that I am aware of (we live in Perth Western Australia).