Cut From Steel

DIABETIC AT 35. GOLD AT 38.

Steve Redgrave won his fourth straight Olympic gold medal in rowing at Atlanta in 1996. He was spent when it was over. Minutes after the final, he told a television crew that anyone who saw him in a boat again had his permission to shoot him.

Redgrave changed his mind and went back to training. In late 1997, doctors told him he had diabetes. He was 35 and already living with ulcerative colitis, diagnosed in 1992. A fifth Olympics was already in his sights.

Doctors first thought it was type 1 diabetes, then settled on type 2. Sports Illustrated reported that he was injecting insulin several times a day. Most people assumed his racing career was finished. He refused to let the diagnosis decide for him.

Redgrave learned to manage his blood sugar the way he managed a race. He tested and adjusted, then tested again. At the Sydney Olympics in 2000, aged 38, he won gold in the coxless four. That made five golds at five straight Games.

You will not row for Britain. But you can borrow his approach. Measure your blood sugar instead of guessing at it. Redgrave left nothing to guesswork, and his body paid him back.

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THE BLUR YOU BLAME ON AGE

You notice it in the evening. The television looks soft around the edges. By morning your eyes seem fine again, so you blame a long day or your age.

I did the same thing for a while. My excuse was that I needed stronger readers. Nobody mentioned that blurry vision can also be a blood sugar sign.

You are not imagining it, and you are not just getting old. A symptom like this is worth one phone call.

You should know how that works. The American Academy of Ophthalmology explains that high blood sugar can make the lens of the eye swell. That swelling bends the light the wrong way. When sugar comes back down, the blur often clears.

THREE THINGS THE BLUR CAN TELL YOU

You can read this symptom three ways. I will walk you through each one.

01 / Your sugar is swinging

You may be running high after meals without knowing it. Blur that comes and goes is one of the classic signs. CDC figures show about 11 million Americans with diabetes have never been diagnosed. That is more than 1 in 4 of everyone who has it.

02 / The small vessels take the hit

Mayo Clinic describes how extra sugar damages the tiny blood vessels that feed the retina. Those vessels can bulge, leak, or bleed. Your eyes are not the only place with vessels that small. In other words, the eye can act as a window on the rest of the body.

03 / Prediabetes hides well

You might not have diabetes at all yet. The CDC counts about 115 million American adults with prediabetes. More than 8 in 10 of them do not know it. Prediabetes is the stretch where you have the most room to turn things around.

WHAT TO BOOK THIS WEEK

You can find out where you stand with one blood draw. Ask your doctor for an A1c test, which shows your average blood sugar over the past few months. A fasting glucose reading is worth adding if you have not had one this year.

You should also book a dilated eye exam. An eye doctor can look at the vessels in your retina directly. Tell them about the blur, when it shows up, and how long it lasts.

You can ask for every result in writing. Keep the pages in a folder and compare them next year. A number that creeps up a little each year tells you more than one reading ever will.

You can start moving the number before the results come back. Walk for ten minutes after your biggest meal. Cut the sugar you drink first, since soda and juice are the easiest calories to drop.

I would never tell you to sit on a sudden change in vision. Sudden loss of sight, flashes, or a curtain over your view need same-day care. The slow, coming-and-going blur needs a test, not a guess.

One last thing. Your eyes keep score of your blood sugar. Read the score while it is still easy to change.

— Travis

Insider Member's Corner

6 free habits that keep your sugar steady:

You didn't put in 45 years to settle for beige.

01 / Car · Mazda MX-5 Miata

Mazda showed the MX-5 at the Chicago Auto Show in February 1989. In 2000, Guinness named it the best-selling two-seat sports car in history. The recipe has barely changed: light weight, rear-wheel drive, a manual gearbox, and a roof you can drop at a red light. Pricing for 2026 starts at $31,665 with destination. You will grin the whole way to the hardware store.

02 / Watch · Omega Seamaster Aqua Terra 150M

Omega added the Aqua Terra to the Seamaster line in 2002 as the dressier cousin of the dive watch. Daniel Craig's Bond wore one in Skyfall, Spectre, and No Time to Die. It works with a suit or a T-shirt. Omega's US site lists the 41mm on leather at $6,700.

03 / Book · Lonesome Dove

Larry McMurtry published Lonesome Dove in 1985, and it won the Pulitzer Prize the next year. Two retired Texas Rangers, Gus McCrae and Woodrow Call, drive a cattle herd north to Montana. CBS turned it into a miniseries in 1989 with Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones. Read the book first. You will think about Gus for years.