Yes but he hasn’t and he might not, isn’t it worth attempting to address potential underlying causes before recommending a lifelong medication?
And maybe if you need to counteract a potential issue caused by the absence of carbs, with medication then carbs might not be quite so optional.
Human’s have been eating fatty meats diets for hundreds of thousands of years, it’s our species specific diet. Fruit and vegetables was a seasonal event.
Our bodies are built to run on fat for energy.
Infant didn’t eat cereal a thousands years ago, there was no baby formula, when the baby was done breastfeeding, it ate fatty meats. Looking at our stomach acid levels, it’s the same as apex predators, biology doesn’t lie.
Carbs isn’t an essential nutrient, so a lack of carbs can’t be “causing” his issues.
That seems like cherry picking your biology to suit the argument, other things might suggest otherwise, our teeth would point to an omnivorous diet, no?
I’ll agree science doesn’t classify essential carbohydrates, like essential amino acids or essential fatty acids, that doesn’t mean carbs aren’t needed for optimal health.
For the record I’m not a high carb zealot (and I’ve recently cut out refined sugar - I’m very low shbg and higher than I’d like hba1c) I believe everyone should eat in a way that their body responds well to, but I just don’t buy the carnivore narrative.
I rarely comment but I’ll chime in here. The OP should def try eating a higher carb diet or just center carbs around workouts or whatever way he likes to have them. Morning, evening, everything works. The thing with Carnivore diet, like with any other diet- its not for everyone as we all are unique and different. Plus with our lifestyles, etc, etc. For me Carnivore never worked becase I always felt adrenaline/cortisol and it even increased my RHR and BP and I always felt like shit. Doesn’t matter that my digestion was good, what matters is how you feel. I had issues with digestion and it served its purpose when I couldnt tolerate any carbs. I have always been a high carb eater and always in great shape. Shredded when I want to as I put in the work. It doesn’t matter what diet you eat, what matters is that it works for you and you get all the required nutrients like vitamins and minerals in from food. Supplements are usually bad because once you take something in isolation most of the time it throws off other nutrients and so on and so forth. Thats why its always preferable to get everything we require from food. Everyone picks their own poison- food. And nobody knows or can tell you what the perfect diet is for you. Trial and error with a focus on nutrients and required amounts of food. On low food I always have issues and usually what I find that most people are underfed and overtrained. So what that means is they eat too much nutrient deprived food and train too much, thus pushing themself in the hole. So if you are training a lot and still dont see results or feel like shit, reduce the training, feed yourself up, add more carbs for fuel, don’t forget good fats, up the protein and make sure you’re hitting all those micros, because in the long-term it will catch up with you even if you are lean, mean, shredded machine, but built on just bland chicken breast and rice.
My 2 cents.
Thank you for the reply and much appreciated.
Okay but our teeth tell us we’re omnivores.
“Biology doesn’t lie.”
Carbs aren’t essential, but they are the preferred energy source. Low carb is fine. High carb is fine. Both have drawbacks. Though, I’d argue that low carb has more drawbacks than the other.
I hear this a lot and wish I knew where it began. That is not at all accurate. Sure, most guys that go on testosterone stay on it. They find out what it is like to feel good, and they like it. It’s not a lifelong mandate though.
I actually had a new guy this morning, past TRT, though with pellets. He’s fine, total testosterone 777 with good FSH and LH levels and he is over a year past due for new pellets. There are occasions when a therapeutic trial is reasonable.
Good to know, but isn’t there a risk, even though relatively low that after a trial someone might not recover previous levels?
There’s more risk in doing nothing if the clinical trials have anything to say about it.
All 5 clinical trials on TRT show, “the benefits outweigh the risks”, and this has held true for some time now. So if it’s about risk reduction, TRT wins hands down for those with a deficiency or insufficiency.
As far as someone being permanently shut down as a result of going on trial of TRT, it’s exceedingly rare.
There’s more risk in prescribing antidepressants and hair loss drugs.
Sure, there is, if you are 17 trying to make the team, get a scholarship, etc. and it would help to put on 20lbs of muscle and bench press 300lbs. The problem is you do all of that, minus the scholarship part. So, you stop, you lose weight, size (the muscles the young girls like) and strength. It’s depressing, and you’re 18. Then what, all of that work goes for nothing. No, you go back on, and stay on until 26 and married and now want children. You won’t recover now. You shut down at a very young age and your body never had a chance to go on it’s own. That’s when I see them.
Contrast that with the 30, 40, 50 y/o who now starts TRT after running on their own for 15, 25, 35 years. They can stop, they won’t like it, but they will recover and be no worse than when they started.
100% agree and I’m on TRT and think it’s a good and acceptable treatment, I’m merely of the opinion that if someone has the potential to resolve their issues without medical intervention then that’s always the better option.
Chances are OP won’t significantly improve SHBG through diet and TRT will be a route to symptom resolution, but where’s the harm in giving 3 months of diet change a go first?
…Or evaluating ANY other reasons for not feeling well than ONLY the estrogen/testosterone pathway?
Any other bloodtests taken? Has a proper physical exam been made by a more generalized oriented physician? Also, there is a severe lack of background information re the OP:s condition.
Where is the constructive criticism? I’ve heard the “one solution to every problem” countless times in my profession. Belief can move mountains, whether you blame it on vitamin D deficiency, hypothyroid type 2, borreliosis, being a low temperature person, a high sensitive person or having low E2/T.
You may well end up in a dead end, if not carefully evaluating cause and effect from many different angles.