Diabetes & Low-T: Know Your Risks & Treatment Options

A growing health concern among men in the United States is Type 2 Diabetes, formerly known as Adult-Onset Diabetes, a metabolic disorder brought on by high blood glucose levels and insulin deficiency. As average obesity levels have risen over the past 50 years, Type 2 Diabetes cases have increased proportionately. This is because obesity is considered to be the primary cause of the disease.

Diabetes wordcloudIf you are one of the 13 million men in the United States with Type 2 Diabetes (11.8% of all men over the age of 20 suffer from the disease), there are several important risks and treatment options that you need to be aware of. Startlingly enough, if you have Type 2 Diabetes, you are twice as likely to suffer from Low-T. This likelihood increases with age, as elderly men often experience the symptoms of lower testosterone levels. If you have Type 2 Diabetes as well as these following symptoms, you could be at greater risk for Low-T: fatigue, decreased sex drive, reduced lean body mass, lack of energy or erectile dysfunction.

Now that you know the risks and symptoms of Type 2 Diabetes, it is important to be aware of the treatment and prevention options available. Type 2 Diabetes is a disease that can and must be managed, especially in elderly men. When it comes to managing Type 2 Diabetes, many of the most helpful things are daily habits such as managing stress, eating a healthy diet and engaging in physical activity. If you are obese or genetically predisposed to the disease, these daily habits will prevent its onset if you are not already diagnosed. In more serious cases of Type 2 Diabetes, insulin medications and even surgery can be necessary, but the most common and beneficial way of managing the disease is through purposeful, healthy lifestyle changes.

Get started today and contact MMi to schedule and appointment or learn more about our treatment options.

Key Takeaways from Healthy Aging Month

September was deemed National Healthy Aging Month, with dedicated themes around heart health, cholesterol education and prostate awareness. As we look back, Men’s Medical Institute has compiled the key takeaways from Healthy Aging Month to further illustrate the current status of men’s health in the U.S. and urge men of all ages to take control of their health now.

Because testosterone is such an integral part of a male’s anatomy and overall health, testing for levels of Low-T by having your blood drawn will also screen for various illnesses and diseases including cholesterol, diabetes and prostate cancer before symptoms occur. This is crucial because high cholesterol does not have symptoms and prostate cancer may be asymptomatic.

Heart Health

FACT: Cardiovascular disease is the number 1 killer of men (and women) in the United States.By 2030, it is expected that 23 million people will die from cardiovascular disease annually. At least 80% of premature deaths from heart disease and stroke could be avoided if the main risk factors – tobacco, unhealthy diet and physical inactivity – are controlled.

Examples of risk include high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes. MMi can measure your cholesterol levels and advise you on your risk before seeking treatment for testosterone deficiency.

Cholesterol Education

FACT: 71 million American adults have high cholesterol, but only one-third of them have the condition under control. Because high cholesterol does not have symptoms, many men may not know that their cholesterol is too high. Fortunately, screening is the key to detecting the disease. Men ages 20 – 45 should have their cholesterol checked every five years; men older than 45 must have their cholesterol checked more often.

Prostate Cancer Awareness

FACT: One in six men will have prostate cancer during his lifetime. The good news is that more than 99 percent of men survive prostate cancer when the disease is caught early.

Possible symptoms:

  • Urge, but inability to urinate
  • Weak urine flow
  • Blood in urine
  • Trouble starting/stopping urination
  • Painful/burning urination
  • Erectile Dysfunction
  • Hip, lower back or upper thigh pain

Prostate cancer may be asymptomatic, which is why it is crucial that men get screened. Take the first step and have your blood levels drawn at MMi – it may just save your lift.

While men should be health-conscious year-round, Healthy Aging Month in September provides an opportunity to reconsider those little habits and routines that can make a big overall difference in the long run. Growing old is a natural process that can be enjoyed and savored as long as it is approached with the right knowledge and attitude.

Schedule an appointment with MMi today.

On Our Radar: A Simple Blood Test Can Diagnose Lung, Other Cancers, Report Says

ProstateCancerInfographicAccording to Dr. Len Lichtenfeld, deputy chief medical officer of the American Cancer Society, researchers have spent a decade or more trying to develop a blood test to detect cancer. A study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists in San Francisco reveals that among the more serious conditions that can be diagnosed through this newly developed blood test are early-stage lung and prostate cancers as well as their recurrence.

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in American men other than skin cancer, according to the American Cancer Society, which makes this knowledge especially impactful for the average American male. The ease and benefits of undergoing a simple blood test far outweigh the negative consequences that could result from a failure to do so. For this reason, we highly recommend that all male patients obtain blood tests on a regular basis.

While there is a blood test specially designed to detect prostate cancer, the prostate-specific antigen test (PSA), this invasive test has high false-positive rates which can result in many unnecessary biopsies and complications. For most men, we recommend a simple blood test due to its effectiveness in diagnosing a wide variety of conditions.

While researching the newly developed blood test, which could be a supplement to PSA tests, researchers compared blood samples of cancer patients and cancer-free participants. The findings were that cancer patients have specific differences in their serum-free fatty acids and their metabolites. The importance of this is that it may provide important information to guide clinicians in their course of treatment, especially in high-risk patients.

In the study on the new blood test, Dr. Daniel Sessler, professor and chairman of the department of outcomes research at the Cleveland Clinic states, “[the test] is potentially important because the only current routine diagnostic method for lung cancer is CT scanning, which is both expensive and requires radiation exposure.” With these new tests, it would be especially beneficial if they detect cancer in its early stages when treatment is most effective. Some scientists dream of a test people could take at home using drops of blood from a finger prick, concluded Lichtenfeld. In the meantime, Men’s Medical Institute encourages all men to make an appointment and have their blood drawn – it may just save your life.

Read more on the blood test study here.

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