It's a vicious cycle
If you’re experiencing low energy and poor libido, struggling to maintain muscle mass or lose weight around the middle, even losing your hair, chances are you’re dealing with low testosterone.
I write about the results of low testosterone all the time. Lots of guys (and gals) struggle with low T, and I’m on a mission to help folks balance testosterone so they can get back to enjoying their lives.
I mean, testosterone is one hormone in a whole symphony of hormones that work in your body in hundreds of different ways. They interact, they signal each other, some come up as others go down. They work in cycles, antagonizing or stimulating each other.
For example, Luteinizing Hormone (LH) is a hormone that tells your body to produce more or less testosterone.
So one of the most important hormone interactions is the interplay between the energy storage hormone insulin and our favorite sex hormone, testosterone.
What is insulin?
Insulin is a hormone that basically helps move glucose (blood sugar) out of your blood and into your cells. It also signals cells to keep fat stores locked away.
When blood sugar is chronically high, your pancreas has to produce more and more insulin to do the job, because your cells have become “resistant” to the effects of insulin.
This means more work for your pancreas, and eventually means more and more glucose is left in your blood, wreaking havoc and eventually developing into pre diabetes and then type 2 diabetes.
What’s interesting is that low testosterone may play a role in insulin resistance AND insulin resistance may play a role in causing low testosterone.
Insulin resistance impacts testosterone levels
Remember luteinizing hormone (LH)? It’s the hormone that signals your gonads to produce testosterone. Turns out when your blood sugar levels are chronically high, your pituitary gland has trouble producing LH.
This means that when you are insulin resistant, your body is struggling to produce enough testosterone, leading to all those issues mentioned above.
In more of a vicious cycle, insulin resistance makes it difficult to burn fat and build muscle. Funny enough, you need testosterone to build muscle, and muscle is like a sponge for blood sugar meaning more muscle keeps you more insulin sensitive.
Again — high blood sugar and insulin can lead to low testosterone, and low testosterone can contribute to insulin resistance and high blood sugar.
Low testosterone leads to insulin resistance
There seems to be a pretty clear connection between low testosterone and insulin resistance. In fact, studies have shown treating men with type 2 diabetes with Testosterone Replacement Therapy was shown to reverse diabetes in ⅓ of patients.
While the why isn’t well understood, low testosterone is linked with higher insulin resistance in men. Some studies suggest testosterone has something to do with insulin signaling that controls the uptake of glucose by cells. Another possibility is that testosterone may play a role in how fat is deposited and stored in fat cells, which can increase the risk of insulin resistance.
So low testosterone, whatever the cause, can drive up insulin resistance, making it hard for your body to store blood sugar and eventually leading to type 2 diabetes. And insulin resistance can lead to lower testosterone levels, potentially causing higher insulin resistance and making things worse overall.
Clearly, blood sugar and insulin levels exist in a vicious cycle with testosterone.
But that means that if you improve your insulin resistance, you also improve your testosterone levels.
So, how do you fix your insulin resistance / testosterone levels?
Eat a whole-food nutrient-dense diet
Avoid sugary snacks and drinks
Eat during a consistent eating window, about 8-10 hours every day
Get consistent, quality sleep each night
Move your body every day, vigorously at least 2-3 days a week
That’s a good start, but there’s probably more work to do.
This is what my 1-on-1 nutrition program is designed to help with. We’ll find those healthy diet and lifestyle swaps that fit into your life, and get you forming habits that keep your testosterone up and insulin down for good.
Let’s go!
Comments