Low energy levels and frequent urination, with fairly well controlled blood sugars

Type 1 and LADA
1

Hey everyone,

I’ve had type 1 diabetes for 23 years, with an A1C of 6.2-7.0 for most of that time. Although my A1C has been pretty good for a long time, I used to have a lot of wild swings in blood sugar throughout the day. Over the last few years, my blood sugars have been more stable and my A1C has been around 6.2, with blood sugars in range 70%+ of the time. I know this could be better, but it doesn’t seem bad enough to cause this much sleepiness. I also have Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, which is well managed/medicated. I always ask about my thyroid, but it’s always within normal range. Whenever routine blood tests are performed, nothing remarkable is ever found.

For most of my life, outside of diabetes itself, I’ve been fortunate enough
to stay pretty healthy except that I often feel out of it/unfocused and spacey, my energy levels are never great and I urinate frequently, every 30 minutes or so, whether or not my blood sugars are high. I drink 3-4 cups of coffee or espresso drinks every day and drink sugar-free, caffeine-free soda or flavored water throughout the day, in addition to regular water- I take in more than enough fluids for my size. I make sure not to drink caffeine after 2 pm so that it doesn’t mess with my sleep. I exercise for ~30 minutes, 5-6 days a week. My diet is mostly meat, cheese, nuts/seeds, garden oils, lots of vegetables and a small amount of fruit (usually between 50 and 100 g of carbs a day). I’m overweight, but not obese and working on losing weight now, with a normal/conservative calorie reduction on a daily basis.

Please let me know if you guys can think of anything. Thank you.

2

I, too, live with a low thyroid function. Most doctors, including almost all endocrinologists, often only test for TSH and then prescribe synthetic thyroid T4 med. Free T3 is the active hormone that does the work. This is not usually tested.

The lab “normal range” for TSH is very wide. It’s basically the average number for 100s of thousands of people +/- two standard deviations. I believe it’s not enough to just be in the normal range.

What you want is to be at an optimal level for you. Most functional medicine doctors will work with their patients to relieve their symptoms and not simply call it quits when the lab number ends up in the normal range. The presence or absence of symptoms is what defines success.

A poorly functioning thyroid system can leave you feeling lethargic. I recommend that you seek out a functional medicine doctor or a Naturopathic physician to treat your thyroid.

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3

Thank you Terry!