Diabetes, BG Management, and the Enhanced Lifestyle

[Trenbolonetax]

Starting this thread for the discussion of all things diabetes, BG management, and the enhanced lifestyle.

My wife is type 1 and I’ve been helping her manage it for the last 15 years. I’m not an expert, but we have pretty much experimented in every way possible.

@Nidus seems like you’ve got some firsthand experience managing diabetes and the enhanced lifestyle, and those insights might be helpful to others here.

Medical literature is really important, however, I want to make sure the purpose of this thread isn’t lost. It’s primarily geared towards first hand experience, not “how things should work”.

Not that theory isn’t welcome, but let’s hear from the individuals themselves on how they manage their condition or the knowledge they have through their own experience managing the condition in others.

Questions, comments, contributions, etc…put it here

 

[Nidus]

Great start! Should also include the pope of glucose tracking devices @Sampei.

I personally love the Quadruple-Approach (inspired by the American Triple-A standard.

8 Months ago:
Hba1 6.8
Homa Index 8.9
Fasted glucose 110-120 (very high fluctuation in general)

Now:
Hba1 4.8
Homa Index 5.9
Fasted glucose: Not higher than 80 ever, 75 on avg.

Based on my own personal experience when facing Insulin Resistance and high blood sugar levels in general. Stuff below is all based on personal experience, labwork and tracking of my Homa/Hba1c and fasted glucose levels.


1. Tirza:
Achieved the most stable glucose levels throughout the day, helps lowering Hba1c but will take a lot of time. Noticed it after 6 weeks at 10mg.

2. Jardiance:
Drops your Hba1c fairly quick, makes you pee like a horse, thirsty all the time but improves kidney markers greatly and has a few other secondary effects
Dropped my fasting glucose from 92 to 75 on avg. within a week.
Another downside of it that you will always wake up with a dry mouth and it should be taken early morning. You get used to it very quickly and as long as you stay hydrated no UTI's whatsoever.

3. Pioglitazone:
Improves Homa-Index but takes a long time, makes you hold water more than usual. At 45mg it makes me feel like i just ate this cheap chinese fried rice, tastes good but salty and full of additives bloating you up. Lowering salt intake fixed that (from 1.5g of Salt per meal down to 1g).
Slightly improved my HDL and LDL while keeping Cholesterol at the same lvl.

4.Metformin:
Does what it's supposed to do, esp. for people using high doses of GH it can be the first step to address glucose issues but for me personally and based on labs -> It will significantly lower your IGF1, at 500mg i noticed a decrease from 217 to 145 while running 3iu of GH.

5. Inj. Carnitine:
Greatly reduces Triglycerides (high triglycerides are directly affiliated with NAFD and Insulin resistance) lowered my Homa by 0.4 at 600mg daily.

6. Cardarine:
Really good for Lipids and Insulin sensitivity but nothing you want to run long term or in high doses. I'd would always choose a combination of Metformin and low dose Pioglitazone over Cardarine (i.e. 500mg+15mg)

7. Tren
Again, personal experience here. Dropped glucose after carb rich meals quicker than usual. Usually my glucose levels go up to 150-160 with 100mg Tren they never exceeded 145. Only done that for a month and then discontinued.

Ofc, major weightloss plays a big role in all this too. Since the last lab work it has been 3 months and i lost another 15KG's of weight. And since then introduced a higher dose of Pioglitazone (went from 15 to 45mg) and from 10mg Jardiance to 25mg. Also upped Tirza from 5mg to 10mg and most likely will increase that to 15mg's over the next 2-3 weeks.

Labs will be pulled once i reached the 20KG's.

Also introduced 10mg Ezemtib, 5mg Rosuvastin and 180mg of Bempoic Acid for Lipid improvement and will wait at least 60 days before pulling labs again to see the impact.

 

[Sampei]

Great start! Should also include the pope of glucose tracking devices @Sampei.

I personally love the Quadruple-Approach (inspired by the American Triple-A standard.

8 Months ago:
Hba1 6.8
Homa Index 8.9
Fasted glucose 110-120 (very high fluctuation in general)

Now:
Hba1 4.8
Homa Index 5.9
Fasted glucose: Not higher than 80 ever, 75 on avg.

Based on my own personal experience when facing Insulin Resistance and high blood sugar levels in general. Stuff below is all based on personal experience, labwork and tracking of my Homa/Hba1c and fasted glucose levels.


1. Tirza:
Achieved the most stable glucose levels throughout the day, helps lowering Hba1c but will take a lot of time. Noticed it after 6 weeks at 10mg.

2. Jardiance:
Drops your Hba1c fairly quick, makes you pee like a horse, thirsty all the time but improves kidney markers greatly and has a few other secondary effects
Dropped my fasting glucose from 92 to 75 on avg. within a week.
Another downside of it that you will always wake up with a dry mouth and it should be taken early morning. You get used to it very quickly and as long as you stay hydrated no UTI's whatsoever.

3. Pioglitazone:
Improves Homa-Index but takes a long time, makes you hold water more than usual. At 45mg it makes me feel like i just ate this cheap chinese fried rice, tastes good but salty and full of additives bloating you up. Lowering salt intake fixed that (from 1.5g of Salt per meal down to 1g).
Slightly improved my HDL and LDL while keeping Cholesterol at the same lvl.

4.Metformin:
Does what it's supposed to do, esp. for people using high doses of GH it can be the first step to address glucose issues but for me personally and based on labs -> It will significantly lower your IGF1, at 500mg i noticed a decrease from 217 to 145 while running 3iu of GH.

5. Inj. Carnitine:
Greatly reduces Triglycerides (high triglycerides are directly affiliated with NAFD and Insulin resistance) lowered my Homa by 0.4 at 600mg daily.

6. Cardarine:
Really good for Lipids and Insulin sensitivity but nothing you want to run long term or in high doses. I'd would always choose a combination of Metformin and low dose Pioglitazone over Cardarine (i.e. 500mg+15mg)

7. Tren
Again, personal experience here. Dropped glucose after carb rich meals quicker than usual. Usually my glucose levels go up to 150-160 with 100mg Tren they never exceeded 145. Only done that for a month and then discontinued.

Ofc, major weightloss plays a big role in all this too. Since the last lab work it has been 3 months and i lost another 15KG's of weight. And since then introduced a higher dose of Pioglitazone (went from 15 to 45mg) and from 10mg Jardiance to 25mg. Also upped Tirza from 5mg to 10mg and most likely will increase that to 15mg's over the next 2-3 weeks.

Labs will be pulled once i reached the 20KG's.

Also introduced 10mg Ezemtib, 5mg Rosuvastin and 180mg of Bempoic Acid for Lipid improvement and will wait at least 60 days before pulling labs again to see the impact.

The only thing with Jardiance is that it should work against holding glucose for glycogen storage. Works a little bit against that, I believe it was something like that. I need to check it was explained on PM by few very knowledgeable ppl.

@NotHuman is very knowledgeable about this

 

[Nidus]

The only thing with Jardiance is that it should work against holding glucose for glycogen storage. Works a little bit against that, I believe it was something like that. I need to check it was explained on PM by few very knowledgeable ppl.

@NotHuman is very knowledgeable about this

I never really noticed it but i am also not having much kcal in general but would love to hear more

 

[Photon]

1. Tirza:
Achieved the most stable glucose levels throughout the day, helps lowering Hba1c but will take a lot of time. Noticed it after 6 weeks at 10mg.

2. Jardiance:
Drops your Hba1c fairly quick, makes you pee like a horse, thirsty all the time but improves kidney markers greatly and has a few other secondary effects
Dropped my fasting glucose from 92 to 75 on avg. within a week.
Another downside of it that you will always wake up with a dry mouth and it should be taken early morning. You get used to it very quickly and as long as you stay hydrated no UTI's whatsoever.

How would you compare (1) and (2)?

I can get Sotagliflozin/Jardiance from somewhere but for the given cost, Ive found it hard to justify given how cheap UGL Tirz is and easier to administer (1x a week). Given only one choice, which would you prefer and why? It seems from your post that Jardiance drops hb1ac and improves labs a lot quicker?

 

[Nidus]

How would you compare (1) and (2)?

I can get Sotagliflozin/Jardiance from somewhere but for the given cost, Ive found it hard to justify given how cheap UGL Tirz is and easier to administer (1x a week). Given only one choice, which would you prefer and why? It seems from your post that Jardiance drops hb1ac and improves labs a lot quicker?

Jardiance with prescription costs around 200€ for me, only yesterday i got the approval from my insurance to cover it fully luckily!

Comparing both, i would say that Tirza keeps your blood glucose more stable, no flucations or spikes even when eating a high carb meal. It almost is like a flat line when measuring multiple times throughout the day. I will propably end up buying a glucose monitor as well so provide more data.

Normally my BG 1h after a meal is about 150-160. With Tirza it doesnt get higher than 130.
With Tirza and Jardiance it doesnt get higher than 115.
These are from the past 2 weeks.

So basically, Tirza just keeps your BG flat lined, stable. Jardiance reduces blood glucose levels in general by 15-40 depending on 10 or 25mg.

From both, i would say that Jardiance had the quickest impact and Tirza takes 5-6 weeks to really stabilize your glucose.
I am at 25mg of Jardiance (daily) and 10mg of Tirza e5d.

If i had one choice, i would go with Tirza but only because Tirza made me stop binge eating fully and nuked my hunger-attacks helping me putting good proper meals as priority instead of going for ice cream or so

 

[Nidus]

Great start! Should also include the pope of glucose tracking devices @Sampei.

I personally love the Quadruple-Approach (inspired by the American Triple-A standard.

8 Months ago:
Hba1 6.8
Homa Index 8.9
Fasted glucose 110-120 (very high fluctuation in general)

Now:
Hba1 4.8
Homa Index 5.9
Fasted glucose: Not higher than 80 ever, 75 on avg.

Based on my own personal experience when facing Insulin Resistance and high blood sugar levels in general. Stuff below is all based on personal experience, labwork and tracking of my Homa/Hba1c and fasted glucose levels.


1. Tirza:
Achieved the most stable glucose levels throughout the day, helps lowering Hba1c but will take a lot of time. Noticed it after 6 weeks at 10mg.

2. Jardiance:
Drops your Hba1c fairly quick, makes you pee like a horse, thirsty all the time but improves kidney markers greatly and has a few other secondary effects
Dropped my fasting glucose from 92 to 75 on avg. within a week.
Another downside of it that you will always wake up with a dry mouth and it should be taken early morning. You get used to it very quickly and as long as you stay hydrated no UTI's whatsoever.

3. Pioglitazone:
Improves Homa-Index but takes a long time, makes you hold water more than usual. At 45mg it makes me feel like i just ate this cheap chinese fried rice, tastes good but salty and full of additives bloating you up. Lowering salt intake fixed that (from 1.5g of Salt per meal down to 1g).
Slightly improved my HDL and LDL while keeping Cholesterol at the same lvl.

4.Metformin:
Does what it's supposed to do, esp. for people using high doses of GH it can be the first step to address glucose issues but for me personally and based on labs -> It will significantly lower your IGF1, at 500mg i noticed a decrease from 217 to 145 while running 3iu of GH.

5. Inj. Carnitine:
Greatly reduces Triglycerides (high triglycerides are directly affiliated with NAFD and Insulin resistance) lowered my Homa by 0.4 at 600mg daily.

6. Cardarine:
Really good for Lipids and Insulin sensitivity but nothing you want to run long term or in high doses. I'd would always choose a combination of Metformin and low dose Pioglitazone over Cardarine (i.e. 500mg+15mg)

7. Tren
Again, personal experience here. Dropped glucose after carb rich meals quicker than usual. Usually my glucose levels go up to 150-160 with 100mg Tren they never exceeded 145. Only done that for a month and then discontinued.

Ofc, major weightloss plays a big role in all this too. Since the last lab work it has been 3 months and i lost another 15KG's of weight. And since then introduced a higher dose of Pioglitazone (went from 15 to 45mg) and from 10mg Jardiance to 25mg. Also upped Tirza from 5mg to 10mg and most likely will increase that to 15mg's over the next 2-3 weeks.

Labs will be pulled once i reached the 20KG's.

Also introduced 10mg Ezemtib, 5mg Rosuvastin and 180mg of Bempoic Acid for Lipid improvement and will wait at least 60 days before pulling labs again to see the impact.

To follow up there and add a few more things that greatly improved my Homa-Index and Hba1c:

1. MOTS-C
Running 1mg day for about 90 days, while i already had Metformin and Jardiance in place. This reduced my fasted glucose by additional 5 points in the morning and after meals it reduced the normal insulin spike i would get by 4-6 points on average. Nothing major but still a nice impact!

MOTS-C and Carnitine together also make me sweat like crazy after a bigger meal. I usually have these Pre and Post Workout.
MOTS-C was also the only thing apart from Carnitin that impacted my Lipids and lowered my Triglyceride and overall Cholesterol while keeping the ratio of HDL/LDL almost the same. I don't have very precise data on that but given my anecdotal experience i'd say it improved by 2-3% in total. Again, nothing major but it helps!

I believe MOTS-C becomes stronger the older you get due to the mitochondria aging.

2. NMN + 5amino1mq combination
When taking 50mmg 5aminom1q and 200g NMN together, morning and evening i noticed that my fasting glucose dropped by about 8 points on average (measured over a 6 week span as 5aminomq is extremely expensive here).

It did not lower glucose levels past a meal but within a month of use i noticed a slight improvement in Hba1c and Homa index, i've been in a cut during that time too so it has to be taken with a grain of salt ofc. Hba1c was lowered by 0.1 and Homa by 0.3.

 

[verylargeshoes]

7. Tren
Again, personal experience here. Dropped glucose after carb rich meals quicker than usual. Usually my glucose levels go up to 150-160 with 100mg Tren they never exceeded 145. Only done that for a month and then discontinued.

Well that escalated quickly.

Do you think tren provided significant benefits that all the other interventions did/could not? Other than tren doing what it’s designed to do, of course.

 

[Nidus]

Well that escalated quickly.

Do you think tren provided significant benefits that all the other interventions did/could not? Other than tren doing what it’s designed to do, of course.

Tren made me go hypo at random times and had random drops, leading to crazy cravings so no benefits + the bad sleep and mental sides are not worth it.

For most people Retra is plenty, if GH is used with +6-8ius an SLGT2 on top can help and round it up. Could also throw in some low dose metformin but i find SLGT2s much better in terms of benefits for people using AAS

 

[Benf15harp]

So if my diet is around 85% simple carbohydrates
Am I gonna get the ?

 

[verylargeshoes]

Tren made me go hypo at random times and had random drops, leading to crazy cravings so no benefits + the bad sleep and mental sides are not worth it.

For most people Retra is plenty, if GH is used with +6-8ius an SLGT2 on top can help and round it up. Could also throw in some low dose metformin but i find SLGT2s much better in terms of benefits for people using AAS

Great, thank you. I’m already looking into SGLT2s due to borking up my kidneys a little so that works out. Tren is probably not my jam.

 

[Nidus]

Great, thank you. I’m already looking into SGLT2s due to borking up my kidneys a little so that works out. Tren is probably not my jam.

SLGT2's have a bunch of benefits. Defo worth looking into it and do your own research. I think they are amazing and can help a ton! Been praising them so much that i am just waiting for a discount code for jardiance or forxiga at this point

 

[Photon]

SLGT2's have a bunch of benefits. Defo worth looking into it and do your own research. I think they are amazing and can help a ton! Been praising them so much that i am just waiting for a discount code for jardiance or forxiga at this point

Have u tried R-ALA?

 

[Demondosage]

Insulin dependent diabetic here, if it’s type 1 then some of those transport compounds like semaglutide and retatrutide can help a little, but it’s not going to be a night and day difference.

Biggest thing I’ve found is just taking the right amount of insulin to manage the condition, some of the diet tactics you think would work just do not work. For example, intermittent fasting doesn’t work for me and can actually make me spike higher due to the liver dumping glucose into the system as a survival mechanism. A low carb high fat diet doesn’t work well with me because the damn fats slow the glucose metabolism down and elevate my cholesterol. The best way I’ve found is a controlled carb approach where I try to keep carbs under about 30-40 grams per meal (I’m around 235 lbs fairly lean)

It’s a challenge for sure, I probably know more abt bodybuilding as an insulin dependent diabetic than anyone else around here

 

[Nidus]

Have u tried R-ALA?

Yes, R-ALA is part of my supplement stack 200mg with each meal. Did not notice much from it so far but seems to be helping with keeping fasted glucose a bit lower (thats what i noticed when taking it solo)

 

[Tbaz192]

7. Tren
Again, personal experience here. Dropped glucose after carb rich meals quicker than usual. Usually my glucose levels go up to 150-160 with 100mg Tren they never exceeded 145. Only done that for a month and then discontinued.

Also can confirm when running Tren at 150mg+ a week. I’ve never had my glucose exceed 130-145.
Definitely have had moments of going low blood sugar. At very random moments. But it wasnt anything bad.
This was also with 2iu GH daily fasted.
Clean diet with the occasional cheat meal.
No hypo problems before that.

I’ve read a few people stating Tren has given them glucose issues while on cycle
(lower glucose levels)

 

[Nidus]

Also can confirm when running Tren at 150mg+ a week. I’ve never had my glucose exceed 130-145.
Definitely have had moments of going low blood sugar. At very random moments. But it wasnt anything bad.
This was also with 2iu GH daily fasted.
Clean diet with the occasional cheat meal.
No hypo problems before that.

I’ve read a few people stating Tren has given them glucose issues while on cycle
(lower glucose levels)

Yup pretty much the same here, random moments where i went hypo, middle of the night, after workouts or other times. Really annoying and not worth it