Cut From Steel

HE GOT THE NEWS IN 1979. HE SPENT DECADES SHARING IT.

Wilford Brimley dropped out of high school at 14 to work as a cowboy. He rode for ranches in Arizona, Idaho, and Nevada. After that came three years with the Marines in the Aleutian Islands. Back home, Brimley shod horses for a living and worked as a bodyguard for Howard Hughes.

Robert Duvall, a close friend, talked him into riding as an extra in Western films. Small parts led to The Waltons on TV. In 1979 he landed his first credited film role, in The China Syndrome. Six years later he starred in Cocoon.

Brimley got a second piece of news in 1979. A doctor told him he had type 2 diabetes. Plenty of men would keep a diagnosis like that to themselves. Brimley went the other way and spent decades raising awareness of the disease.

Americans came to know him all over again from TV ads for diabetes testing supplies. In 2008 the American Diabetes Association honored him for his work. Brimley lived to 85 and died in Utah in August 2020. In other words, the old cowboy treated his diagnosis as something to talk about, not something to hide.

You do not need a diagnosis to start paying attention. The number you know about is the number you can work on. Brimley got his news in 1979. You can ask about yours this month.

Your Annual Checkup Is Missing Something Critical

There’s a test that could tell you exactly what’s happening inside your arteries right now.

Doctors used to order it routinely.

Not anymore.

It disappeared from standard checkups.

Why?

Because what it reveals could change how millions of people think about heart health… and put billions in heart medication sales at risk.

You won’t get this test at your next physical.

But you can still find out what it checks for and what to do about it.

=> See the test doctors stopped ordering… and what they don’t want you to know

P.S. If your last checkup came back “normal,” that doesn’t mean your heart is safe. This test checks something most panels completely miss.

THE PAGE SAID NORMAL

You had blood work this year, and the doctor said your sugar looked fine. Your A1c sat in the normal range. Nobody mentioned insulin, and you had no reason to ask. You put the page in a drawer and stopped thinking about it.

I want you to know what an A1c can and cannot see. Cleveland Clinic explains that it shows your average blood sugar over the past three months. It does not show how hard your body worked to keep that sugar in line. In other words, the test checks the result and skips the effort.

You can have a normal sugar reading while your body strains behind the scenes. Doctors call that strain insulin resistance, and a fasting insulin level is one way to look for it.

YOUR DOCTOR CHECKS SUGAR. NOT THE STRAIN.

You can picture insulin as the key that moves sugar out of your blood and into your muscles. Three facts explain why that key deserves a test.

01 / Your pancreas covers for you

Cleveland Clinic says that when your cells stop answering insulin, your pancreas makes more of it. That extra insulin can keep your blood sugar in range. You feel nothing at this stage. Your sugar test looks fine because your pancreas is working overtime.

02 / The sugar moves last

Whitehall II, a long study of British civil servants, followed 6,538 people without diabetes. Among the 505 who developed it, insulin sensitivity fell sharply during the five years before diagnosis. Fasting sugar did not climb steeply until about three years before. Put simply, the strain showed up first and the sugar showed up late.

03 / Most men never hear about it

CDC figures put about 98 million American adults in the prediabetes range. More than 8 in 10 of them do not know it. Cleveland Clinic adds that insulin resistance is hard to diagnose because there isn't routine testing for it.

ASK ONE MORE QUESTION

You do not need a specialist to start. At your next blood draw, ask your doctor: “Can we add a fasting insulin level next to my glucose?” Your doctor may read the two numbers together to judge how hard your body is working. Labs use different ranges, so go over the result with your doctor. Write the number down so you can compare it next year.

You can also check the signs you already carry. Cleveland Clinic says extra belly fat, especially the deep kind around your organs, raises your risk the most. A family history of type 2 diabetes is another reason to ask.

You have more control here than you might think. Cleveland Clinic says regular moderate activity improves how well your muscles answer insulin. Losing weight may help too. I would start with a walk after dinner and two days of lifting a week.

One last thing. A normal sugar reading tells you where you are. Your insulin may tell you where you are heading.

— Travis

Insider Member's Corner

6 free habits that keep insulin working for you:

You kept the engine running. Spend it on something built to last.

01 / Watch · Oris Aquis Date

Oris is a Swiss watchmaker, and the Aquis is its dive watch. The Calibre 400 version is water resistant to 300 meters. Its in-house movement stores five days of power, so it keeps running through a long weekend in the drawer. Oris backs that movement with a 10-year warranty. Expect to pay around $3,300 on a strap.

02 / Drink · The Paloma

You may think the margarita rules Mexico. Plenty of drinks writers say the Paloma is the country's real favorite. The classic is tequila over ice, topped with a grapefruit soda like Squirt. David Wondrich has called it the national drink of Mexico. Keep it to one, sipped slowly with dinner.

03 / Gear · YETI Tundra 45 Cooler

Roy and Ryan Seiders started YETI in Austin, Texas, in 2006. The brothers set out to build a cooler tough enough that it would not break. Locked with two padlocks, a Tundra is certified bear-resistant by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Committee. A Tundra 45 sells for a couple of hundred dollars. Fill it with fresh fish, not beer.