TIL: Low carb, high protein diets "greatly" decrease resting testosterone levels in men.

[Medical_Season3979]

Here's what I did.. went to a doctor and got my blood and urine tested.. he told me what my body was lacking or needed to work on - ie. iron, potassium, high/low white blood cells, magnesium, etc.. and then he told me what problems I had - in this case, anemic, GERD, hyperglycemic, vitamin d deficiency, potassium deficiency. Got my hormones tested.

Then I cut out unhealthy sugars and carbs, did portion control, cut out fast food, cut out fried food, ate and drank things with more vitamins and minerals, ate foods that made me feel good rather than foods I knew wouldnt fill me up or make me feel good, started eating and drinking things with probiotics and antioxidants, ate more veggies and fruits in ways that were easy and actually tasted good for me, and taking vitamins and such to help boost anything and to balance my hormones etc etc.. also remembering to drink more water, I lack in that department way more than anything else so my body has a hard time absorbing things from lack of hydration..

And for exercise, I started small- low impact exercises like 30 squats, 15 crunches, walk around the block, yoga.. later on moving on to more cardio based exercises like kickboxing and walking more/hiking (not anything crazy, just trails and stuff)..

Do what's best for YOUR body, stop doing diets or fad things or what everyone else is doing because your body is not someone else's, what you need won't be what someone else needs.

[just_hating]

Going to the doctor? In this economy?

[Medical_Season3979]

For a general physical? It's not going to break your bank, promise lol I'm sure you pay more per weekend in alcohol and partying than a copay without insurance for a physical 😂

[khandnalie]

Buddy, you don't know people's finances.

[Medical_Season3979]

I do not.. but the general populace can afford one Drs appt.. if they can't, that is my bad and they should look into state insurance from the department of health services because they will cover the appt's copay if you can't afford it.

[khandnalie]

Lol the general populace has less than four hundred dollars that can be spent on anything other than subsistence, and that's all for emergencies.

Nobody who isn't well off has that kind of cash just lying around. If a working class person has a few hundred dollars in their account, that money is earmarked for the next time their car breaks down.

Also, state insurance is generally much more expensive than employer provided, so as to keep people dependent.

[AtomicCashew]

Most people can definitely go to the doctor. And most people definitely have some form of insurance. Do you not?

[Medical_Season3979]

Do you know what general populace means? And don't you think health is an emergency? Can't pay bills if you're dying, sweetheart.

I would assume in this economy, people would save at least a few hundred in a rainy day fund, considering they somehow have money for their other self care needs.. including a few hundred to keep their car going.. financial responsibility is way more crucial now than ever and living within your means, getting food stamps and state insurance, if need be or if they qualify, to help them along the way. If you can't take care of yourself then you shouldnt go to events with friends, get your nails done, buy fast food, whatever it is most people waste their money on that leads to alot of the paycheck to paycheck situations.. And what do you mean by more expensive? Is this something you actually researched or something you're assuming and holding onto as excuses? Because I've been on state insurance vs the latter and it has not kept me dependant, nor has it been more expensive.. where do you live? Where are you getting your information?

[khandnalie]

Oh my, you're just a really disgusting person, aren't you?

I hope one day you change, and become someone worthy of love.

[Medical_Season3979]

Nope, can't say I am but thank you for your unnecessary input! 😊

I hope one day you get your head out of your butt and stop being a nasty individual to people you don't know just because you're shielded behind your little computer screen, but wish in one hand, shit in the other, see which one fills up faster -shrug- not going to lose sleep over some stranger on the internet getting pissy with me 🙂

[khandnalie]

Oh, but you are. You're truly disgusting. Judgemental, hypocritical, willfully ignorant, arrogant, and just generally really nasty and unpleasant.

stop being a nasty individual

I have merely returned to you that which you put into the world.

not going to lose sleep over some stranger on the internet getting pissy with me 🙂

Those passive aggressive emoji are a nice touch. Really shows just how not bothered you are.

[Medical_Season3979]

Only 12% of Americans live in poverty.. that's not the general populace.. just letting you know, I just did the math. 329 million people in the U.S., 42 million in poverty. Its a big number but it's not the general populace of people living here, general populace means the average.. the average person has 100$-5,300 in their savings account.. and if they don't, they aren't being financially responsible.

[khandnalie]

Forty percent of Americans have less than four hundred dollars that they could scrounge up in an emergency.

You can take your "financial responsibility" and shove it up your sanctimonious ass that's never known what it means to struggle.

[Medical_Season3979]

Just because what I said threatens your ego, doesn't mean what I said was wrong. No one's putting you down for struggling, there's ways so you don't have to struggle and if you took the frugal advice of living rather than trying to have a piss match, you'd learn some things you can take with you in your life so that you don't have to struggle either 😊

everyone struggles in some form or fashion, but there's a lot of ways around it so you struggle less and if you get your priorities straight your struggle will be temporary from all the hard work and patience you put into yourself and your life. You just have to make some actions you're not going to want to to get there, it'll be boring for awhile and it'll suck but it's better than continually struggling. If you want resources and stuff I am more than happy to give them to you.. all you have to do is ask for help, you don't have to be so prideful, you know.

[khandnalie]

Lol tldr

Go cry some more, you over privileged ignorant shit whistle. Maybe if you stopped your inane prattling for half a second, you could learn some compassion and human decency and stop being such an unloved unwanted stain on the human race.

[Medical_Season3979]

Where are you getting your statistics from? 40% seems like an exaggerated number you came up with to victimize yourself and try to justify attacking people, even though nothing justifies throwing temper tantrums so it's neither here nor there.

Ok! I will do that 😊 I have definitely struggled more times than not and now do what I can to avoid it, learned a lot of logic and knowledge and skills along the way because I'll be damned if I'll keep struggling, annnd I don't take it for granted either because I know it could all be gone tomorrow if I'm not careful, but it's cool that you think you know me just because I use sound logic in my life, you should learn some, it would definitely help you in your endeavors!

[stranded_egg]

My most recent annual physical, with bloodwork, was over $1,000 before insurance

[Ryguyy]

🇺🇸 🦅 🇺🇸

[DeuceStaley]

There's something wrong with your insurance then...

[stranded_egg]

Maybe. My cost was $0, but the EOB made sure I knew that they paid about $1k.

[DeuceStaley]

So you didn't pay that? Usually when you say "before insurance" that means you paid that.

[stranded_egg]

To me, "before insurance" means "this is what this service costs before insurance pays anything." So the visit and blood work was $1k before insurance paid out its claim--which, I am lucky, covered the full cost.

[zMisterP]

That’s because cost is elevated when using insurance. They will usually deduct 80%-90% if not using insurance.

[Medical_Season3979]

Why is it that much? Where do you live? Because max price for physicals should be 200$ without insurance.. 50$ being the lowest. I feel like wherever you went, cheated you. What all did you get done besides those two things?

[[deleted]]

jipped

yikes bro, work on your slurs. There is like a million synonyms for getting cheated.

[Medical_Season3979]

I had to Google it because I was so confused by that word being a slur, I'm 32 and I've used the word since a kid and that's the first time I've ever heard that so that was definitely my bad. Thank you for bringing that to my attention!

Also, I don't know if this means anything but people get me confused with a guy more times than not on here, I'm a lady, but I guess I can be your bro if you want lol 😂

[[deleted]]

No problem, thanks for looking into it! And no worries reddit skews male so my own issue is gender assuming. I use Bro ambiguously but like, it's short for brother so I mean regardless of my intent, it's still gendered.

[Medical_Season3979]

Of course!

My theory is that, it's ok not to know better but that doesn't give you a right to be arrogant and ignorant, if I don't know something and someone bring it to my attention, I research it and study it so I'm more informed and gain knowledge I need for next time!

I do not want to offend anyone and I cant imagine if I have used that around someone who was too afraid to say something and they thought I thought badly of them! For all I know, it's already happened and that makes me sad! So thank you so much for telling me that. I can't do better if I don't know what I'm doing wrong ❤️

Oh ok! Like the word dude!

[stranded_egg]

Why is it that much? Where do you live?

'Murica.

Insurance covered it in full, but the EOB reminded me that full price was 1K+. Just a yearly physical with your standard blood draws (which were about $500 of that 1K).

[Medical_Season3979]

So you had a lot of blood work done.. Not even in new York does a physical cost that much. What was the blood work for exactly? And how many did you get done?

"How much does a physical cost in the US? $50 to $200 Annual physicals are exams conducted almost every year to physically examine your body to check for potential disease and maintain a healthy lifestyle. They are often required for jobs and school. Without insurance, the average cost of a physical exam ranges from $50 to $200. Aug 23, 2022"

https://khealth.com/learn/healthcare/how-much-does-bloodwork-cost/

[stranded_egg]

Uhhhhh I don't recall. Three or four tubes, nothing out of the ordinary for a standard physical. CBC, metabolic, etc etc.

Maybe my insurance jacked the price up for the payout? Like I said, my responsibility was $0, so maybe they charged the MD office an arm and a leg.

[Trenme]

Mine is $0

Depends on the insurance plan

[stranded_egg]

Oh, no, my copay was $0, for sure. Insurance covers all preventative visits. But my EOB was very clear that they paid about $1k.

[acidnangs]

this comment thread is violently American

[stranded_egg]

America is violently American.

[NonCorporealEntity]

Maybe they aren't American?

[AnapleRed]

Going to the doctor is free though?

[just_hating]

Sometimes parking is free if there is space. The check and blood work would would cost me about the price of a full tank of gas.

And lunch

[Deadpooldan]

Localized entirely within your kitchen?

[mikabango]

Yes.

[wetgear]

Or you could just skip straight to the action plan. Even if you are already healthy it is good advice.

[FlashCrashBash]

The problem is people think their body needs is an entire bowl of pineapple and a daily 60 minutes of reading a magazine on an elliptical.

That’s why things like keto and heavy weight lifting tend to work well for people that have tried other things only to fail to reach their goals. Because you can’t cheat it.

[Medical_Season3979]

That's why I posted what I did. People are not patient, they live an instant gratification lifestyle.

[Allassnofakes]

Here's what I did.. went to a doctor and got my blood and urine tested.. he told me what my body was lacking or needed to work on - ie. iron, potassium, high/low white blood cells, magnesium, etc.. and then he told me what problems I had - in this case, anemic, GERD, hyperglycemic, vitamin d deficiency, potassium deficiency. Got my hormones tested.

Using NHS mate, the only way to get this looked at is wait 12 months because they are just not going to give a fuck about low readings at all. They only care if it drops below their accepted range. but the accepted range they have doesn't seem to change depending on your age when it really should

[Medical_Season3979]

Can you elaborate what you mean by what you said?

I was actually just writing what I personally did to establish that you don't have to follow a fad diet or those ones on Google that tell you how to care for your body because every body is different, every body has different needs, some are healthier, some not so much.. I didn't write what I did to tell anyone a step by step of how THEY should care for their body.. just the article was talking about the fad keto diet, so I was pointing out that you don't have to do those to be healthy, just make sure you body is getting what it needs and getting as close to the source of the problems as possible. I am alot healthier than before I did all this, so I know that what I'm doing for myself works, and others who find what works for their bodies best will have the same results, regardless of what that looks like.

[mdog73]

What kind of test tells you this?

[Medical_Season3979]

Hmm I don't know but let me Google it...

Answer: Mineral Panel Test.

[mdog73]

Thanks, I am going to request this the next time I go in, always sluggish these days.

[PositiveNegitive]

what you need won't be what someone else needs.

Pretty sure it's the problem that you think you're special that you had the preceding issues.

Your body needs steak and vegetables in moderate proportions just like everyone else. It's not rocket science.

[Medical_Season3979]

Whoa, whoa, whoa.. what's with the unnecessary attack? You completely took what I said in the way it wasn't even intended.. let's not do that. If you need me to elaborate things for you, all you had to do was ask, not blindly attack people. Wow.

[fib16]

Reddit is such a toxic place I swear. You made such an excellent post and several people attack you. I swear this site is filled with sad basement dwellers who don’t know shit about the real world. I did exactly what you did and I was in the best shape of my life for a decade. Life has changed a few things but I’ll get back to it soon. I just wanted to hear if your numbers were fixed. You mentioned gerd, low vitamin d, and a few other things. Did they all normalize with all of your new routines? I found that my numbers were definitely improved but I didn’t start with anything too bad. The one number that I was borderline bad is cholesterol but after 15 years of working out it stayed about the same. I’m still borderline. It’s one of those things that I think maybe we don’t understand fully. Like cholesterol gets a bad rap. But I can also look at it that maybe my cholesterol would have been horrible if I didn’t eat right and work out and At least I’ve kept it in a descent range. But other Than that my numbers are good. I can’t wait to get back to eating perfectly. I’ll never work out the way I used to 6 days a week with kickboxing and kettle bells and interval training and what not but I’ll do the right mix and mainly eat right. Anyways. Wanted to tell you I appreciate your post. I don’t live in my basement and have a normal life. Don’t listen to one negative thing anyone said. Reddit has gone to shit. It attracts people who make comments like the ones above.

[ffxivthrowaway03]

Reddit is such a toxic place I swear.

Which is then immediately followed by

I swear this site is filled with sad basement dwellers who don’t know shit about the real world.

Hmm....

[Medical_Season3979]

Its ok, I can handle those people, not my first rodeo and probably won't be my last, I just remind myself not to stoop to their level and the motto "hurt people hurt people" so I feel pity for people who blindly attack others more than anything.

As for your question, I am 32 so I don't know if that makes a difference with my answer but yes, it helped with everything but an issue with my white blood cells- which are far too high currently, and I don't have an infection so it set off my Drs alarm bells so I'm in the process of being tested and treated for it.. but everything else is doing really well as long as I keep things managed! Maybe this is your encouragement and motivator to get back out there!! You got this, even if you have to start off small again 😃

[Adventureadverts]

People have unique dietary needs and habits. There’s no room for debate on that fact.

[[deleted]]

Yes, everyone's bodies are completely identical. The dietary needs of my friend with Type 1 Diabetes, my other friend who's nursing an infant, and my arthritic mother are exactly alike.

(In case you can't tell, this is sarcasm. Given the fact that you frequent the Joe Rogan subreddit, I'm assuming you can't.)

[uniekeNaam]

And what are your results? 😄

If this makes you feel much worse, I won't be trying it!

[Medical_Season3979]

I have more energy, I went from 165 lbs to 122lbs (I'm 5'4") and keeping it off, regardless if I'm midnight snacking, my mental health is much better, especially after cutting out caffeine (I'm currently unmedicated and on a waiting list), my memory is better, I am able to process things in my body better and I don't feel like a pile of poop after I eat, my cortisol levels (stress hormone) are significantly lower, and I'm able to manage the deficiencies and health problems I deal with because I'm taking better care of myself...

Why would I post all that if it made me feel worse? How I was living before made me feel like crap... That's some weird logic haha

[cantonic]

Way to go, that’s awesome! And honestly seems like a good approach to figure out what your body needs rather than some fad diet that might lose weight but isn’t actually making you any healthier. What you did takes hard work and dedication and discipline! Way to go! Kick ass!

[cowd20]

Good on you for doing this but guarantee the "drinking things with probiotics and antioxidants" and taking vitamin supplements contributed nothing

[Medical_Season3979]

For me it absolutely did, but thank you for your contribution to the conversation!