How to Make Managing Diabetes Easier | Ben Tzeel, Diabetic Dietitian | Better Man Podcast Ep. 160

Dean Pohlman: Hey guys, it’s Dean. Welcome to the betterment podcast. Today’s episode is with guest Ben Ziel. He is a registered dietitian, a certified diabetes educator, and a strength coach. And in this episode, I basically ask all the questions that I have about diabetes. And we go through some of the big questions that Ben gets as a dietitian and diabetes expert.

Dean Pohlman: So this include things like sexual health for men in their 40s, 56 seconds with diabetes. We talk about how diabetes as an autoimmune disorder affects your health, and how you can’t get away with as much when you have diabetes. We talk about how it can impact your mobility, how to continue to build muscle even if you have diabetes.

Dean Pohlman: And we go through a whole bunch of random questions that I have about diabetes. So if you’re interested in an enlightening conversation, learning more about diabetes, if you if you don’t have it and you want to learn more about it, or if you have diabetes and you’re looking for more specific advice about how you can manage your own diabetes, this is a great episode.

Dean Pohlman: I was kind of surprised at how much I enjoyed it. I just didn’t know what to expect going in. But Ben was a great guest, and he answered all my questions and I learned a lot and had some fun in the process. So I hope this episode inspires you guys. And, I hope it inspires you to be a better man.

Dean Pohlman: Hey guys, it’s Dean. Welcome to the Betterment Podcast. Today I’ve got Ben Zeo on today and we’re going to be talking about diabetes. So Ben, thanks for, coming on and chatting.

Ben Tzeel: I’m excited to be here. I’m excited to hopefully get some quality education on the diabetes side of things and make people’s lives a little bit easier if they have to deal with it.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. So, you know, I have a few. I have, you know, some of questions that I’ve kind of worked up in some, some general, general inquiries that, you know, I have just about diabetes in general and how that would affect how someone approaches their wellness. But I know that you’ve got a lot more experience than I do. And so, you know what those questions are that people ask you.

Dean Pohlman: So, you know, some of the things like sexual health, how mobility can be impacted by this, how to continue to build muscle, nutritional differences like is there yoga for diabetes? Like, these are like all the kind of things that, you know, that I have questions. And you also brought up is good topics to have, but I’d love it if we could start with just kind of what is your, story and how did you get into what you do with Diabetes Insider?

Ben Tzeel: So effectively, I was diagnosed with type one diabetes when I was seven years old, so way back in the day. And at that point, it kind of felt like life was over. That was it. Everyone says, oh, cool, you can’t be really active. You’re not gonna be able to eat the same things as your friends. Do not be able to do all these things that you’ve always wanted to do, and it kind of gets to you after a while and you’re constantly being told no, especially from such a young age.

Ben Tzeel: So over time, I decided to say, hey, I like sports, I like being active. I’m going to try to defy some of these things. I’m going to try to build some muscle, but nobody could give me answers. They would say, oh, well, this is for people without diabetes. Or I go to a dietitian on my, you know, endocrinology team and they’d say, well, here’s a meal plan for an athlete.

Ben Tzeel: It would be for an offensive lineman. And I was playing baseball so that was just slightly different. And so I got really annoyed. And so I started figuring out, okay, nutrition is the X factor for building muscle and for blood sugar control. I love the working out side of things and so throughout college I said, hey, I’m going to start working towards becoming a registered dietitian.

Ben Tzeel: I’m going to go into the nutrition field. I’m going to do something with strength and conditioning. I ended up doing, you know, half a PhD said, hey, I want to work with the people instead of just with the data sets. Took that research knowledge, applied it to what I end up doing now as a dietitian, and then said, hey, I’ll become a diabetes educator too, so I can fill that void.

Ben Tzeel: And now I’ve got myself and my team, all of us are dietitians, all of us living with diabetes ourselves that are able to say, hey, we can fill that void of we can do the exercise, we can do the nutrition, we can do the diabetes management that so many people did not have access to. When I was growing up.

Dean Pohlman: Is that normal for people, for doctors to say like, hey, you have diabetes. So like sports are just not a thing for you? That sounds that sounds crazy.

Ben Tzeel: Back in the day, it was definitely more common than now. But there’s a lot of times where people will say, you know, if you’re diagnosed as a kid, hey, it’s going to be harder for you to be active or, hey, if you’re going to be active. But they almost make it seem like that’s a really daunting, huge task, an undertaking just to be able to start, which dissuades a lot of people.

Ben Tzeel: And then for a lot of people that are diagnosed later, because we keep seeing people now diagnosed with, you know, late onset, they might be diagnosed in their 30s or their 40s, the doctors just assume they’ll figure it out themselves. People have low blood sugars. They get kind of nervous about it, and then they just stop being as active as they once were, which is kind of scary.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah I mean there’s so many different I mean it just makes me think of how, how there are so many different conditions and there are so many different, you know, you have to figure out what are the different approaches for each of these conditions. But you know, it’s it’s not like those information sources are readily available or they’re not like it’s not like extremely clear.

Dean Pohlman: Right? You don’t see your doctor and then you say, oh, okay, well, I’m going to bring in this expert for you to have the second part of this appointment. Right. He usually just says, like what he learned in med school. I’m like, well, this is what we learned in med school. So here I’m telling you this now, as opposed to, you know, getting specific information, I would expect that also having, I would expect that, you know, the information is helpful.

Dean Pohlman: But, you know, I would also expect that just having, being able to talk to someone who is in a similar position to yourself, like, oh, you have diabetes too. It’s like, oh, there’s a whole community of people, with diabetes, people who are interested in, you know, improving their health. I just thought of a guy, I Kimberly, I forgot this, Ben.

Dean Pohlman: Check. It’s. Who is the founder of Ron? Have you heard of wrong? It’s a men’s apparel brand.

Ben Tzeel: I think I have recently, but it took me a while to come across.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. He’s, He has. I think it’s called Beyond Type one, but he has a nonprofit that we’ve. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So we’ve done some work with them in the past. But yeah, I know Ben’s dancer, like, super active guy, right? I mean, literally founded a workout company for men. Anyways, just thought of that, but, anyway, so has the community aspect of that been super helpful for people?

Ben Tzeel: I would say absolutely. And whether it’s us facilitating some of it with, you know, Q&A for our patients or just people online in general, say, hey, there are people that understand me, that understand what I go through. They know what it’s like to wake up at three in the morning with a low blood sugar and want to eat the whole fridge, or what it’s like to have a high blood pressure after eating, you know, a meal that maybe, maybe didn’t count the carbs right for whatever it might have been.

Ben Tzeel: People really, really like that. And I’d say one of the biggest things people come to us for is they’re saying, hey, my care team is not doing it. You guys get it, you live with it like you understand what it’s like, what I’m going through. And I think that’s a huge differentiator versus you get the diabetes educator that, you know, you go to the endocrinologist, you get your ten minutes of glory.

Ben Tzeel: They send you to the educator. The educator is probably just regurgitating whatever they learned in the textbook, which is typically, I hate to say, outdated, but I went to what I thought was a pretty good dietitian school, and I was giving the type one diabetes lecture by the third slide because everything was so outdated. There were insulins they were talking about that had been discontinued when I was in middle school.

Ben Tzeel: So that was pretty damning to me.

Dean Pohlman: Wow. Okay. So like that brings up the question. So what are things that that I would not know that, about being diabetic, that everyone who has a diabetes knows and other people don’t understand about that.

Dean Pohlman: Of the terrible way that I’ve been, it was it was super inefficient. But you know what I mean, I guess.

Ben Tzeel: Yeah. What are the things that, like, are just, oh, this is second nature to me. But you’re like, wait, why would you even think about that?

Dean Pohlman: Right.

Ben Tzeel: So I think some of those things, I mean, they could be as simple as, hey, you know, some people say, I’m just going to go leave the house, right? I’m going to go leave. I’m going to go do X, Y and Z. We have diabetes. Like, okay, do I have backup insulin or do I have low blood sugar snacks just in case?

Ben Tzeel: Do I have, you know, a backup meter in case my continuous glucose monitor dies? You know, how long am I going to be active for? Do I need to adjust my insulin like these are just a few things that would go through. And we can do this in like 15 seconds. Right. But people don’t think about all the extra decisions.

Ben Tzeel: I think the average is 180 additional decisions per day for people with diabetes, just to live normal life.

Dean Pohlman: It’s the only analogy I can draw to that is like going out for the day as a, as a person without kids, and then like going through the checklist of, oh, baby bag, do we have all the stuff? Do we have snacks? Do we have this? Do we have the blanket ones nap where we’re doing that? Like, that’s the only person I can think of it.

Ben Tzeel: That’s a good thing. Like, I, I don’t have kids as of now, but that’s from everyone I know who has had kids. That seems to be almost spot on. And that would just be one example, right? Because then you’re thinking about what if they don’t eat our case? You know what? If, you know, I, I’m about to be really active.

Ben Tzeel: My blood sugar falls off a cliff. Do I have enough low snacks? Are we near other places I can get food right? Do I need to plan for hours in advance to be able to go on a hike versus, you know, just kind of say, oh, I’m going to go do it and just walk over and start.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. So if there’s if any few do get into a situation and you don’t have, you don’t have snacks, you don’t have insulin. Like what? What can happen.

Ben Tzeel: Oof. Well, the dark, dire side of it would be if, let’s say your blood sugar goes really low. Let’s say you’re I don’t know, you’re hiking the Grand Canyon and your blood sugar go super low. You eat through all your low snacks. If you don’t have your blood sugar gets low enough or you don’t have anything that can treat it technically, you could end up having a seizure.

Ben Tzeel: And if you don’t have glucagon or something to make your blood sugar go up, you could have your blood sugar go all the way to zero and you die. So not to be super dark, but that’s that’s one side. On the flip side, if your blood sugar goes really high, let’s say that it’s really hot out these days.

Ben Tzeel: So you’re insulin, get in the car, it gets overheated, it doesn’t work. And you think it’s working, but it’s not. Your blood pressure starts to go up and up and up. As your number gets higher. Your body can’t process any of the glucose sitting in your blood. If you eat anything, it can’t process that either because the insulin is not there.

Ben Tzeel: And that’s what effectively puts it into the cell. And so then your body starts to breakdown fat as ketone. And at that point, because it’s breaking it down there’s ketones. Then you start to feel really lousy. You start to throw up. You can end up in diabetic ketoacidosis, which basically your blood turns esthetic. And then you could also end up in a coma or die.

Ben Tzeel: So it’s kind of scary. I mean, that’s just like the most extreme examples, but no insulin for a long time if you’re on it. Problem to low blood sugar problem. Usually we’re hanging out somewhere in the middle okay.

Dean Pohlman: How quickly can that happen. Like if you don’t eat for if you don’t have the right thing for like two hours or like three hours or for like what? I mean, how quickly.

Ben Tzeel: I’d say for for DKA if you going having a super high blood sugar. I mean, within a couple hours. Let’s just pretend. Easy example. You’re on an insulin pump, right? The insulin pumps constantly pump it a little bit of insulin all day long. And, you know, let’s say a disconnect. So there’s a problem with this. You’re not getting insulin the first hour or so.

Ben Tzeel: You’re not going to load as much the next hour. You might start noticing your numbers creeping up a little bit. But then as time goes on, I’d say three, 4 or 5 hours, it’ll start to get exponentially worse, and you’ll start to feel it. You’ll probably start to feel it within about an hour and a half to two hours.

Ben Tzeel: And then from there it’s a matter of if you intervene, which hopefully you do. But there are areas this is where you just don’t have any idea. So that that’s usually a scary one. I remember one time I was in grad school and my pump, somehow I was on a pump by the time I rolled over while I was sleeping, the site just yanked out, which it happens.

Ben Tzeel: And so at that point, I woke up probably four hours later, and I saw my number, did exactly that start to get parabolic. And so I was able to, fortunately, you know, take an injection of insulin and I’ll add something and move on. But those situations can get very, very, very scary on the low blood trigger side. Depends what you’re doing.

Ben Tzeel: Like if you’re way too much insulin on board, you’re super active and depleted. You can crash really fast. But it’s something where again, most of the time you’re preparing it. You don’t have to worry about it.

Dean Pohlman: Are there certain countries where diabetes is more prevalent in other also countries where like diet, diabetics say like, oh no, we can’t be in there because they don’t know what diabetes is. And there’s no like, support in place for us.

Ben Tzeel: That’s a really good question. I don’t think I’ve ever actually thought about the the don’t go here because of diabetes situation. Yeah. But in terms of the prevalence, from what I know, that’s ironic. We talked about it briefly before we started, but Scandinavia seems to have a higher incidence of diabetes for whatever reason. And then in the US it’s I think the numbers used to be way less, but they just keep getting higher and higher.

Ben Tzeel: I wouldn’t be shocked if it’s closer to like one out of 150 people. For type one, I was like one out of 400 back in the day. But in terms of infrastructure, ideally you don’t have to worry about what’s there because you have everything you need. And I always tell people for trips, right. Day two. After three times what you think you’ll need, just in case things hit the fan.

Ben Tzeel: But I would. I mean, I wouldn’t really avoid anything, per se. I would just have an idea of. Okay, do you have, you know, international medical insurance for this particular trip? If you’re leaving the country, you know, do you have the ability to to, you know, reach medical care? Are you going to some desolate area and then just be smart about your prep?

Dean Pohlman: Okay. Now I have more questions. So is how much of this information is, is like, is like publicly available? Like, are there are there things that are part of health insurance? So like if you have diabetes, you can easily get something that’s like that’s covered with this or you’re kind of like easily directed to okay, cool, here’s the resources for you.

Ben Tzeel: I’d say there’s a good amount that’s publicly available, like from the stuff I’ve been telling you, it’s it’s predominantly stuff that you could find online. Sometimes it’s a matter of where you find it. But at the same time, in terms of the, you know, the research that’s out there, the evidence based stuff, that’s all going to be out there in the different journals.

Ben Tzeel: And then there’s advocacy groups like beyond type one, like, you know, JD, RF that can certainly help as well. But from an insurance standpoint, they typically which that’s a whole nother I feel like that’s a rabbit hole that some people love to go down. And I’m just like, you know, it just kind of is insurance lies they often cover, you know, the meds to a certain extent, the insulin pump supplies, etc. but from an educational standpoint, a lot of them do cover registered dietitian.

Ben Tzeel: So like our teams in that work with insurance, which is awesome. And so you can, you know, see dietitians, you can see diabetes educators. And you can get a lot of this info. The key is of course finding a good one. But that’s just like anything else okay.

Dean Pohlman: Got it. Are there any other I mean, do you have any idea why diabetes has been going up?

Ben Tzeel: The best thing I can think of as the current hypothesis is it’s usually dormant in people’s bodies. So like it’s there, but something has to activate it. And so people have thought for a long time that some sort of, you know, virus used to be Coxsackie virus was the one that everyone thought would kind of start the process.

Ben Tzeel: Lately it’s been Covid. A lot of people during Covid would get Covid. And then, you know, six, eight months later they developed type one. So with respect to type one, I’m speaking to you, I yeah, a lot of times it’s just you were sick. I remember as a kid I was sick, I think I was like six or yeah, six years old or I just turned seven, got sick eight months later, had diabetes.

Ben Tzeel: So like, it seems to be instigated by that. Just no one knows exactly what the virus is or what. You know, portions of the virus are the things that cause it, which if they did, ideally you could prevent it from starting in the first place.

Dean Pohlman: And the more you learn about medicine, the more you just don’t want to learn about it. You know, like, oh, that sounds scary. And I don’t want to worry about.

Ben Tzeel: What if we walk around like, oh God, if I get sick, am I going to get diabetes? Like, again, any autoimmune could be like that, but deadly type one. It just like it’s been a lot more prevalent in the last few years.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah, like like my wife’s, she’s a dpt. OCS. And so she learns about all these different, you know, conditions. And so there’s all these things that she just doesn’t do because she’s like, no, no, no, I learned about that and I learned what can cause that. So like, you know, there are certain things that she looks at and she’s like, no, no, not doing that.

Dean Pohlman: I know what can happen. And so like, the more you know, like the more scared you can be about, you know, life, you know, anyways, it’s.

Ben Tzeel: Like almost a, it’s a good to know it to your point. But then like, my wife works in the ICU as a pharmacist, as if she sees all sorts of stuff. And she’s like, there are times where I don’t even want to go down the rabbit hole. And then even with diabetes, she’s like, I thought I knew a lot coming in.

Ben Tzeel: I didn’t know anything until I realized we started dating and I was like, whoa, I don’t know anything about diabetes. This is wild. And so it’s all this. It’s all relative, right? No, it’s like, to your point, do I want to be scared about looking up these things, but sometimes just still facing the music and saying, hey, this is what I’m going to do.

Ben Tzeel: I’m just going to make sure that none of these detrimental things happen.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. All right. Now, my last general interest question. And then we can get to what people ask you guys specifically if they have diabetes. What’s the difference between type one diabetes and type two diabetes? And should they even be called diabetes one and diabetes? Should it be called like something else? There’s a two similar. Like what?

Ben Tzeel: It’s it’s so tough because they are similar enough for I feel like it’s okay to classify them. But the problem is some people just use the blanket term diabetes. Then they get lumped in together. So the people with type one that may have very different characteristics. And type two, you know, you think if someone says, oh, diabetes and they assume it’s, you know, someone who’s morbidly obese who doesn’t take care of themselves, then you find someone to walk in who’s going to 12 years old and weighs 100 pounds and is active.

Ben Tzeel: It’s kind of like, oh, okay. The main difference is, you know, type one is autoimmune, right? So something like we talked about instigates a response in the body where the body says, hey, I’m going to attack the beta cells of the pancreas. You’re not going to make any insulin anymore. And then over time your pancreas just stops working.

Ben Tzeel: So you have to get insulin from the outside. If you don’t, you can’t process any of the stuff you’re eating. The battery go super high and that’s why back in the day before it was discovered, people with type one diabetes were, you know, I think they had between three months and maybe a year or so to live because they would just wither away.

Ben Tzeel: They couldn’t use energy. It was bad. Like if you ever wow, who came back to the topic of things that are scary, go look up, you know, before and after insulin. If you ever want to see something where like there’s skeleton looking children and suddenly they’re look normal and they got insulin. But that’s that’s type one. Type two is more of like usually because of lifestyle factors, your body is just not able to keep up with the insulin demand.

Ben Tzeel: So you’re there. You’re like, okay, I’m living my life. I’m eating my food, but your body’s like, I can’t make enough insulin. And so as a result, the pancreas keeps working harder and harder and harder to try to meet the demand at some point. And eventually burns out. And then you need to get insulin from the outside also.

Ben Tzeel: But people with type two, they always hear about, oh, you can reverse it, because if you get your body more efficient, if you change the lifestyle habits, maybe you’re losing some weight. Maybe you’re changing your nutrition. Suddenly you can keep up with the demand and then your blood sugar goes back to normal again. So it’s more of a gradual, which if you don’t intervene soon enough, you’re on insulin.

Ben Tzeel: That’s it. But you have the possibility of still turning things around. Type one at once. It’s there, it’s there. Like that’s it.

Dean Pohlman: And then what’s what is pre-diabetic mean?

Ben Tzeel: So prediabetes would be more along the lines of type two where like for technical A1, C, which is the measure of basically the rough average of what your blood sugars been over the last three months. It’s a little more, you know, and complex than that, but that’s like an easy way to think about it for your A1. C if you’re 6.5, you’re technically diagnosed with diabetes.

Ben Tzeel: And for type two especially, but for prediabetes, it’s usually you’re at 5.7 to 6.4. So you’re just in front of the type two range. So your numbers are elevated and they’re not where they’re supposed to be. But there’s you know, you don’t have the full blown diagnosis yet because you haven’t qualified for it because of the A1, C and there’s your type and there’s other things to look for as well.

Ben Tzeel: But for type two, that’s usually what people say when they say, oh, I’m pre-diabetic. Well you’re A1, C is higher than it should. You still have time to intervene and figure it out?

Dean Pohlman: Okay, all right. My my curiosity has been has been there has been addressed. Thank you for, for for that.

Ben Tzeel: These are your questions I there are some I’ve never answered some of these questions that you’ve asked. I’ve never gotten answered them before.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. Well, you know, I try not to just go with whatever the I try not to go with whatever the general questions are. Try to like, you know, what questions am I genuinely interested in asking? Even if it’s even if there’s no one but me who wants to ask the question? But, you know, if there’s if I want to answer, if I want to ask the question, there’s there’s got to be at least like ten other people who want to ask a question.

Dean Pohlman: I’m not I’m not special in that regard. Anyways. So like I get I get requests like all the time for yoga, for specific things, you know. So I love to ask the question, like people ask me, like, do you have yoga for like widening your lips and like what? Like, do you have yoga for for this? Do you have yoga for you know.

Ben Tzeel: Like.

Dean Pohlman: Do you want to do you want yoga for something or do you want a solution for something? Because there’s a there’s a big difference here. But like yoga for diabetes, like how would that be. Is that a thing. Like, would that be different? Like what? How would that work?

Ben Tzeel: I think so I know a couple people that are, you know, they teach yoga, they have diabetes, they’ve marketed things as yoga for diabetes. And I’ve taken a few of them. I think one of them was really prominent during Covid when everything initially happened, and it felt like a normal type of yoga flow. But I think the bigger thing with diabetes is because there’s so much with yoga.

Ben Tzeel: There’s the same thing with the mind body connection. Because of that and IBS stress will wreck your blood sugar, right? There’s that 40 over that has over 40 things that will wreck your blood sugar. But stress and you know, breathwork and intentionality is even more important for people with diabetes because once the cortisol goes up, good luck getting your blood sugar down for a while.

Ben Tzeel: And so that coupled with the fact that because people with diabetes, blood sugars are bouncing more, there’s the possibility of these advanced glycated end products that can basically taste a little, you know, globs of sugar that end up on their joints, which over time they continue to accumulate. And it makes your mobility a little more difficult to have happen.

Ben Tzeel: So frozen shoulder has a propensity in diabetes as well. So I could see it. Yoga for diabetes being specific to let’s make sure shoulder mobility is good. Let’s make sure overall mobility is good. And let’s make sure that, you know, breath work and and you’re paying attention to that. But I don’t really see how that would be formally different than yoga for someone without.

Ben Tzeel: It’s just, you know, maybe marketing it to people with diabetes because you have it.

Dean Pohlman: Okay. Yeah. So that makes I mean, so, you know, whenever there is autoimmune diseases like, you know, I can think of someone off the top of my head. I won’t say who it is, but I can think of someone off the top of my head who has an autoimmune disease. And, you know, for her example and for other people with autoimmune diseases, it just means that you have to, like other people, can just get away with more.

Dean Pohlman: But if you have an autoimmune disease, you you just you can’t get away with as much. So you have to be on top of lifestyle. You have to be on top of stress management. You have to do things that other people, you know, other people might be able to get away with not exercising, you know, multiple times a week.

Dean Pohlman: But you know, you’re going to have to just because, like you are, you’re just at a higher at a different level than other people. So okay, so understanding that, type one diabetes is an autoimmune disorder and that you just are at a, you just can’t get away with as much that that helps. That helps me. The, the frozen shoulder thing.

Dean Pohlman: So there are, there are sugar deposits that end up on. But where do they end up, like on bones, on soft tissue.

Ben Tzeel: So I won’t even say that I’m an expert on this at all. But from what I know of, with it, you basically have you all this extra glucose you have floating around. That’s kind of what they do and they measure A1. See, it’s like, okay, what percentage of your hemoglobin in your blood is glycated. But you get these basically these, you know, the they call them AG is the advanced glycated end products.

Ben Tzeel: And from what I know they stick to the joint. So it’s kind of like they just kind of get in there and they keep sticking on there. Will eventually suddenly your shoulder can’t be lifted without, you know, dealing with a lot of pain. I don’t even I don’t know the etiology as well as I probably should, but I know that people with diabetes, and especially type one, tend to have that as a possible outcome, as they’ve had it for longer and longer, especially if they don’t take care of their blood sugar.

Ben Tzeel: And let’s say, you know, don’t take care of their mobility as well, which again, from a diabetes standpoint, you should want to be active because it’s going to boost your instance and sense. It’s easier to keep your numbers in range and you’re going to feel better. But you know, like you said, the you can’t get away with as much.

Ben Tzeel: I feel like is a great analogy for it. You can get away with some, but it’s probably not ideal.

Dean Pohlman: Okay. Tell me more about, the frozen shoulder thing. So is that like, is that a common thing that people send you a message about? They’re like, hey, I’ve got diabetes and I have frozen shoulder and I can’t, you know, I can’t move my shoulders like I used to or what? What happens there?

Ben Tzeel: I’d say probably because I’d talk with lots of people, but I’d say probably one out of every like 10 to 12 will say something like I had frozen shoulder. I have frozen shoulder at my shoulder. Mobility is not great. And again, it doesn’t have to necessarily be shoulder exclusive. It just seems to be more shoulder, you know, prominent than hip, for example.

Ben Tzeel: But it really feels like a lot of times the longer duration, like the ones who are have had type one diabetes for 35 years. I’ve had, you know, type one for 50 years, and my numbers were not good for a good chunk of that time. That’s where it tends to, at least from what I’ve seen in my experience, it tends to be more prominent.

Ben Tzeel: But a lot of these things can ideally be avoided by if your numbers are in great control and you’re not bouncing all over the place all the time, it tends to be less likely. Similar to the complication conversation, right? Everyone wants to bring up complications. Well, if you have solid blood sugar control and you’re well controlled in a perfect world, you don’t really have to worry about them that much relative to, you know, someone without diabetes.

Dean Pohlman: Okay, cool. All right. So it sounds like if you are maintaining your if you’re doing the right lifestyle choices and then also having, you know, the, the appropriate regular treatments, that it sounds like your risk of these issues goes down.

Ben Tzeel: And they still can happen. But like ideally the the you know, potential risk goes considerably down. And something I remember one of my it’s my friend now but once upon a time was one of my practitioners. But he had told me for every point over seven that you’re A1, C is you have an increased complication risk by like 33%.

Ben Tzeel: So if you were to have an A1, C of eight, you have about a one inch three chance. If you’re there for a very, very, very long time, if you temporarily pop up to eight and come down like you’re probably okay. But if you’re eight for years and years and years and years and years, you have an increased likelihood.

Ben Tzeel: And if it’s a nine, it’s even more. If you’re ten, you’re almost you know, guaranteeing something. But of course, ideally you’re intervening. It’s not an issue.

Dean Pohlman: Okay, okay. All right. Well let’s talk about sexual health because that’s always a big question for people. And I didn’t even know that that was a minute that I knew that sexual health was a thing. Those are definitely our most popular podcast episodes. But I didn’t know that sexual health as it was impacted by diabetes was a thing.

Dean Pohlman: So what’s the story there?

Ben Tzeel: I was going to say, it’s so much fun, but I feel like for from the dude side of things a lot of times similar to everything else with diabetes, right? You aren’t. If you’re not in control, the possibilities of things not going as well increases. And so with this, I think of, you know, your dude, think of your you know, thick as your fifth appendage, right?

Ben Tzeel: So your blood flow with diabetes, the higher your blood sugar as your blood flow is going to move a lot slower, it’s not going to be as efficient. The oxygen, the nutrients are going to get where they need to go. And one of the main complications of diabetes, you know, it’s usually retinopathy. So like I say nephropathy kidneys and then neuropathy.

Ben Tzeel: So like the nerve endings because the you know the nerves aren’t working as well. The blood’s not flowing as well. That can happen. And so Ed can become a really big thing for men who don’t have well-controlled blood sugars as people with diabetes, of course, as the whole, you know, use it or lose it type of deal also.

Ben Tzeel: But within diabetes, the less control you have of your number, the more likely it is that Ed could become a part of your life. And that’s obviously not something that I think any man wants to go through, so that that can be massive. And of course, you know, the older you are, there’s already a higher risk of that anyway.

Ben Tzeel: Plus there’s other things going on underneath the surface. So that would be a really, really big one for women. I don’t know, to speak to it as much for that, but I know there can be a lot of, you know, for blood sugars are running higher. There can be a higher risk of yeast infections, there can be a higher risk of all sorts of other fun things going on down below.

Ben Tzeel: And then there’s the whole, do you want to get pregnant and start a family? Your blood sugar is likely going to control there. That can cause problems for the baby. So it becomes a huge cascade. Or a you could sum it up as keep your blood sugars arranged and you’ll be fine, but it’s obviously easier said than done.

Dean Pohlman: Okay, is erectile dysfunction. Is that the primarily that and specifically here we’re talking about inability to to get into maintain an erection or okay. Got it. Yeah I mean so I’ve you know there’s a there’s a there’s a lot that yoga does for erectile dysfunction and sexual dysfunction in general. I mean it helps pelvic floor. It helps with malfunction outs.

Dean Pohlman: There’s there’s so much I don’t I’ve you know, I’ve been exposed to a lot of this information. The other factor of erectile dysfunction isn’t blood flow, but it’s also the stress component. So, you know, indirectly, we can look at the, the added stress of just having type one diabetes that could also factor into. And then if people are on you know, if, if, if I don’t know if are diabetics allowed to take anxiety medications or is that that’s okay.

Ben Tzeel: I, I know it’s a thing because I know the of course, just to add more fun to it, the propensity of anxiety and depression in people with diabetes is much higher than the rest of the population as well. I’m sure you’re totally surprised based on the conversation, but yeah.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah, yeah. So like that’s another thing that, you know, when you’re on anti-anxiety medications, that does also lead to erectile dysfunction. I’ve got a lot of people who, you know, ask me questions like about that. And it’s kind of like, well, what do I do? I, I have erectile dysfunction. I’m like, well, you’re on anti-anxiety medication. And then I go, you know, you’re taking a medication that is very actively preventing you from having, you know, successful erection.

Dean Pohlman: So there’s there’s only so many Kegels that you can do, you know, to try and try and fix that. So, okay, so that’s, that’s another thing. So just the, the correlation, of anxiety can also lead to higher levels of ed. Yeah.

Ben Tzeel: I mean, I think for people with diabetes, two of the inflammations higher the oxidative stress is higher, like because of the blood sugars not constantly being in range. So it’s just extra stuff. But again, like it’s not going to be perfect regardless. Like you could do everything right for your blood sugar and still have something where the tech fails and the number goes high like it’s you’re not going to always be in range.

Dean Pohlman: I’m assuming the tech has gotten better.

Ben Tzeel: Yes. Oh my god. Yeah. Compared to when I was diagnosed with my meter was like the size of a brick. And it took a minute to read and I had to basically gouge my finger to get enough blood. And now you got meters that read in five seconds, you’ve got the CGM that read every five minutes. You have the prick your finger that off, and the insulin pumps have gotten smaller.

Ben Tzeel: They have algorithms like it’s it’s night and day compared to when I was diagnosed, which is amazing. But they’re obviously still tools and they’re still a user component where if you don’t try, your numbers aren’t guaranteed to be great just because you got the tech.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. Like like my, my early memory of, of diabetes is like that one kid at lunch who had to have the lunch lady help him with stuff or had to make sure that he was, you know, or like the one kid in gym class or like, hey, you know, you know, make sure that you’re like, he would know, like, that’s my that’s my I, that’s my experience.

Dean Pohlman: With that. So, anyways, glad that, the tech has improved because it sounds like that would be a huge, a huge part.

Ben Tzeel: Of CGM alone. Like, get it? I didn’t have a CGM for 14 years, and then I got one, and a month later, I was like, how did I go 14 years without one of these things? Because just having a constantly, every two hours, I was testing ten, 12 times a day, pricking my finger versus, yeah, yeah, this thing, this is reading it all the time.

Ben Tzeel: At any given moment, it’s like, oh, look, your blood triggers. I don’t know what I’m right now. It’s trying to load, but you know, you’re 140. Cool. Like I don’t have to see. I can see my trend. I can see up and down. I can, you know, see that I’m going down, for example, and be able to intervene before I would otherwise know.

Ben Tzeel: So that’s that stuff’s pretty cool. And then besides that, I mean, there’s obviously you can train a diabetes alert die, which is pretty cool also. But that’s a whole separate thing.

Dean Pohlman: Oh, okay. Cool. Emotional support animals. Just just lots of different lots of different use as well. Not emotional support. You get what I’m saying I know.

Ben Tzeel: I mean, are we trained to sniff my blood trigger? That’s way faster than any of the technology that’s out there. Really? Which is wild. Oh yeah. Like hell no. Like he’s we trained them for low blood sugar. So, like, if once I hit 70, he starts porn at me. He was able to figure out he’s an Australian shepherd, but he was able to figure out when I hit 180 to start doing the same thing.

Ben Tzeel: And then he also can figure out if I’m dropping really fast or for rising really fast. So if I’m like, oh, I feel fine, it’s okay, he’ll start pulling. We’ve trained him, you know, basically disobedience on purpose if there’s an issue. And so he’ll just keep going and I’ll test the book. Fine. There have been times where the CM’s off by 80 or 90 points, and he’s spot on.

Ben Tzeel: It’s unbelievable what they can do.

Dean Pohlman: I had I had no idea that was a thing. That’s that’s, that’s super cool. Yeah.

Ben Tzeel: It’s there’s there’s an we trained them ourselves. Like my wife mainly did it. I but people can buy them pre-trained, but they’re like 15 to 20 grand, obviously, because they’re doing a very, very, very specific job.

Dean Pohlman: Okay. When did that I mean, when did that first start? That sounds like,

Ben Tzeel: I don’t know, the first time I ever heard of it was, I think I was in high school, and I’m sure it was around before that. I just wasn’t exposed to it, cause I grew up in a relatively small town that just didn’t seem like it was worth it all the time. Like I used to drive an hour and a half to see a diabetes doctor.

Ben Tzeel: That was good. So it was. It was definitely. I probably was more, you know, not apt to seeing all the new advances back then, but I’m sure they’ve been around for at least a few decades.

Dean Pohlman: Okay. Very cool. So, nutritional differences, that kind of leads me to the next question. So like if you are, you know, experiencing a dip or two, I, I would assume that if it’s a dip, that’s when you need that’s when you need a snack. So like what are the what are the things that you just have with you.

Dean Pohlman: It’s like are they sugar gummies or like what do you what do you bring with you?

Ben Tzeel: So for low blood sugar, the goal is always, how can I get back in the range as fast as possible? So exactly like what you said, anything that’s basically pure sugar, pure carbs, that’s going to make your number go up right away. And of course, if it’s a liquid, it’ll be faster. So a lot of people like juice.

Ben Tzeel: Some people like Gatorade. Okay. Sometimes people say, oh, I want, you know, Starburst or, you know, gummy worms or, you know, glucose tablets taste like chocolate, but they’re just straight glucose. So any of those things will work with people like, oh, I want to treat it with normal food like you can, but then your body starts to digest it.

Ben Tzeel: And if there’s a lot of fat with it or like you have a chocolate bar, it’ll work, but it might take longer. So the whole goal is, how can I get it up into range? You know, how can I get from 55 to, you know, 90 or I’m in range as quick as I possibly can?

Dean Pohlman: Okay. Got it. Or are there other considerations that like how how do you have to modify what you eat versus what your wife does, for example?

Ben Tzeel: So I was a really good question. So I think it really depends like on of course as a dietitian too. Right. Like we’re out here saying, okay, 9010 rule, 90% of the time, you know, make the quality choices. That would be, you know, what anybody else would consider a quality option, right? You’ve got your protein, you’ve got your fiber, you got your veggie, your fruit, whatever.

Ben Tzeel: You’ve got the things that you need to just live a healthy life. The biggest thing is, as people with diabetes, we have to consider, okay, if we’re on insulin, what’s the, so there goes the camera. There we go. All right. If we’re on insulin, you know what? What has to be the, you know, the carb count.

Ben Tzeel: So we have to say, okay, we’re going to try to match the insulin to the carbs. And then second is looking at the fat look, protein, which most people forget about that can come back if there’s enough of it to hit your blood sugar at three, 4 or 5, six, eight hours later. So often people focus. I know I have to count my carb, count my carbs, take my insulin, which is good.

Ben Tzeel: It’s a good first step. But then other times people have to think about, okay, I just had a giant dinner at a restaurant, or I just had a bunch of chicken Alfredo Pasteur. I just I’m making all this. I just had pizza. I was always the classic one. There’s that fat that’s going to hit me later. I need to be aware of that.

Ben Tzeel: So my wife might say, I’ll come and eat this meal and then eat it and begun, I have to say here today, okay, is it hitting my goals nutritionally? But also, what am I doing for insulin? Is this going to come back and bite me later? What do I need to consider for when I’m dosing a certain types of carbs make you rise faster than others.

Ben Tzeel: Like for example, those gummies you’re talking about that’ll make this spike faster than if I, you know, a sweet potato. So there’s a bunch of different nuances as you start getting in the weeds of, like this can be a lot, but we start making these decisions and, you know, 20 30s.

Dean Pohlman: Oh, I assume that, you know, you will intuitively remember things like, I assume that like, if you go to this one restaurant and you have, you know, this particular dish and you wake up, you know, at 3 a.m., then you’ll remember that in the future when you’re at the restaurant like, oh, wait, last time I did this, I woke up.

Dean Pohlman: So I guess, I guess I would assume, like a lot of this stuff, you just kind of intuitively recognize as, oh, if I do a that leads to be, are there do you like, do you, do you just remember to do those things or are there like, do you have to remind yourself, I mean, as a dietitian you’re probably much more, you know, cognitive of that.

Dean Pohlman: But if someone is not really that mindful and they’re just doing whatever, I guess you, I don’t know, you can start talking at any point here.

Ben Tzeel: It’s kind of like a no, I mean, it’s it’s really just in my mind, right? Yes. You want ideally have the reference experience. But to an extent people in my mind start to make a bigger deal out of, oh my God, I went to this place and I ate this food in my Chinese food, and my blood sugar went to 350.

Ben Tzeel: I never can eat that again. But instead of that, I would challenge them to think, okay, you went to 350. Let’s figure out why that could have happened. You know, could it have been you under dosed on the rice? Could it have been you had more rice than you expected it, right? Could it be there were hidden carb sources in the sources and then from there saying, okay, you could either order the same thing and modify what you’re doing dosing wise.

Ben Tzeel: Of course you’re talking with their care team first. Could it be, an order or something different and see, you know, how I’m able to adjust to this, but it’s really in my mind just taking it as a data point, whether it’s a win or a loss, to say, okay, there’s a win, I did this great. There was a there, I can do it again.

Ben Tzeel: If it was a loss, okay, what can I improve, what needs to get change next time. And then some people write notes. Some people just kind of remember. But I think the biggest thing is just not continuing to do the same thing. That obviously didn’t work again and again, because I’ve seen that plenty of times too. I’m just like, you’re expecting a different answer.

Ben Tzeel: So definition of insanity.

Dean Pohlman: So like it sounds like you have to moderate your carbon, take significantly. Like that’s something that you have to like. That’s that’s the lever of okay, this this creates higher blood sugar levels versus or is that the biggest. Is that the most important part or you have that like what are the considerations there.

Ben Tzeel: Carbs are usually the fastest thing to launch your blood sugar in terms of going up. So that’s why everybody out of the gate focuses on carbs, carbs, carbs, like, oh, if you eat this sandwich, you have to make sure you does is going to raise your blood sugar. You eat this banana, your blood sugar is going to go up.

Ben Tzeel: But the thing is, if people say, oh, well, I’m just going to remove all the carbs and just not eat any carbs. What they’re forgetting is then carbs also spare the protein. And this is where my nutrition nerd comes out. So because it spares the protein, the protein, or then breakdown into glucose. So you might eat, you know, I’ll make this up.

Ben Tzeel: You know, you have a bunch of roast beef and you have some, you know, broccoli. And you’re like, all right, cool. This was really good. Well, 45 minutes, 60 minutes later, your blood sugar may start creeping up because all that protein is going to start breaking down too. So you’re still not quite out of the woods. So it’s really just a matter of hey, what is the best way of eating?

Ben Tzeel: Like, how do you feel your best? I don’t care if someone wants low carb. Someone wants high carb. How do you how does your body feel when you’re a range of this. And then it just becomes, once you have carbs, how are you going to address that? Like, to me, I don’t think it’s a problem. If people want carbs, I like carbs, I think they taste great.

Ben Tzeel: I think they do good things as long as I’m dosing appropriately for them and I’m able to fit them into my overall nutrition target.

Dean Pohlman: Okay. Got it. And anyone who’s listening who already has diabetes probably understands this, but is someone who does not have diabetes and doesn’t understand this. So you can can you like can you can secrete or I don’t know what whatever the word is for your insulin dose. So you can give yourself a different insulin dose based on what you eat.

Dean Pohlman: And do you just kind of guess you’re like, okay, I’m going to give myself a level five dose here because I had this size of food with this proportion of carbs, like how does how does that work?

Ben Tzeel: That’s also a really good question. So I think with something like that, right. Insulin. Yes. You can absolutely titrate up and down. And typically if you’re dependent on insulin, if you’re on a pump, you’re taking boluses every time you eat. So you’re taking a larger amount of insulin. And then throughout the rest of the day there’s this background insulin keeping your numbers steady.

Ben Tzeel: If you’re on injections, they take a long acting that just covers the whole day. And then every time you eat, you take a bigger dose like a bolus, but it’s just through an injection. So with this, typically the team is at your care teams giving you you know, a carb ratio to start with. Right. So hey, for every unit of insulin you need I’ll make up a number ten grams of carbs.

Ben Tzeel: And so you know okay I have a plate of food in front of me. I’m going to sit here and add this up. You know, you can use my fitness pad to look up what foods are. If you’re not sure if there’s on a label. Okay, cool. I’m eating 62g of carbs. I ratio is one unit per ten carbs.

Ben Tzeel: I’m going to take six units of insulin if you’re on injections. For example, if you’re on a pump, you could take 6.2 and then you dose it ideally 50 minutes early. So the insulin has a chance to kick in because it takes about 15 minutes to start. And then you start eating. And ideally your number doesn’t go up a whole lot, but it goes up a little, comes down, and within a couple hours you’re back right around where you started.

Ben Tzeel: But yeah, you could say 13 carbs, 1.3 in this example, right? You know, 150 carbs, 15 like you can just go up and down at the dose.

Dean Pohlman: Okay? So the next level of technology is going to be taking a picture of the plate of food you’re about to eat. And then just hitting enter. And then it doses you accordingly if it can break down. Yeah it’s total fancy. But like it it analyzes the macros and it says okay, this is the carbs. It’s the proteins of the fats.

Dean Pohlman: This is the one they’re going to hit your system. And this is when you need the insulin to. Or it can even give you like notifications like it’ll say like six hours from now you’re going to need an insulin tablet or like a glucose tablet or something. There’s your next is just an idea. There you go.

Ben Tzeel: I was going to say, well, the first half of that’s already around, which is scary. Like their stuff. You take a picture of it and it’s like, we think that it is this many carbs in this much fat and this much protein. And from what I’ve seen, it’s like 85, 90% right. Which, I’m not going to lie, it’s not bad.

Dean Pohlman: There’s time is terrifyingly accurate.

Ben Tzeel: But there’s times where you get, you know, like you type you you go to like a Greek place. We get like moussaka and it’s like, oh, this is lasagna. It’s like, not quite. They’re not quite the same thing. So that’s where it needs, you know, a little bit of a improvement. But you go get, you know chicken sweet potato broccoli the brown meal.

Ben Tzeel: Right. And like it will nail that every time. So it’s almost there to your point to then there’s there’s other things you can get certain insulin pumps where they have these algorithms where you tell it, here’s the carbs. I mean there’s really one advanced when you tell it, the carbs, you can even tell it what kind of food you’re eating.

Ben Tzeel: And it’ll be like, oh, you’re having a high fat meal. Use this kind of dose instead, and it will know that it’s going to kick in in four hours and start giving you more insulin. So it’s wild. Some of the stuff that already exists, which I like to think means it’s only going to get better. But to your point, you get the integration of the pump and the food.

Ben Tzeel: That would be insane.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah, just the less you have to sink to. So if the technology does, does just stop working. One day we’re all just totally screwed.

Ben Tzeel: That’s what we’re.

Dean Pohlman: People. Yeah. It’s like, yeah, you.

Ben Tzeel: Get these people are like, oh, this pump is great. It does all these things and I only have to do these little pieces. And I’m like, if, God forbid, the pump has a problem, you are in deep shit for lack of a better term. Like you’re, you’re just there’s nothing that you know, you don’t know what to do because you’ve never been taught how to do the backup plan.

Ben Tzeel: Which is why I think it’s so important to know if you’re on an insulin pump. Hey, what is your backup plan? What are you going to do? How do you change to injections? How do you deal with long acting? It’s something we make sure we cover with all our patients. Because the last thing I want is you’re suddenly, you know, you’re on vacation, you’re on what you’re doing, and you’re like, well, now I’m in the middle of God knows where.

Ben Tzeel: Like you were talking about the beginning. I’m across the country. I have no idea what I’m supposed to do. So we never want people in those kinds of situations.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. So the the only other question that I had on my list of things that you had mentioned that people ask you about is, is building muscle. And if there’s any different considerations for building muscle for people who are diabetic.

Ben Tzeel: I think the biggest thing and that’s I’m going to sound kind of like a broken record, but the biggest thing is just from a blood sugar standpoint, it the more you can stay in range, the more effective the workouts are going to be, the more effective your recovery is going to be, and it’s just going to make your life that much easier.

Ben Tzeel: And I’d say this is someone who, when I was in college, my numbers weren’t great. Most people’s, when they go off to college, their numbers aren’t fantastic. You know, they’re eating food that they’re not making. They’re not at home. Everything’s kind of wild. And that, you know, first year I was not on my game at all. That made it a lot harder.

Ben Tzeel: Like I would work out and I’d wake up the next day way smaller than I should be because I just wasn’t recovering enough. My sleep quality was impacted, the nutrients weren’t getting where they needed to go. Meanwhile, you know, as I started dialing things in, I realized, oh, okay, I feel better. I’m growing muscle faster. It’s not as difficult.

Ben Tzeel: I don’t need to do as much, and it just doesn’t feel like my body is getting wrecked every single time I’m out there. Plus, hydration wise, once you hit 180, you start getting more dehydrated and so that becomes a major issue because, I mean, you know how much dehydration can wreck performance.

Dean Pohlman: Got it. Okay. So that makes sense. So if you’re diabetic the the best thing you can do to work. Best thing sounds like one of the best things you can do is just make sure that you’re maintaining your appropriate levels. And it’s not so much about like for for you, it means that if you’re not doing that, then everything else is just going to suffer like you’re it’s not going to be as efficient.

Dean Pohlman: So you can talk about, you know, the different practices that would go into building muscle for everybody. You know, doing enough strength training, eating enough protein, getting enough sleep. But for you, you also have to maintain the appropriate blood sugar levels. Otherwise that effectiveness is all going to go down.

Ben Tzeel: Absolutely. And like you’ll still get something from it. Like you’re not going to be like, oh, the workout doesn’t count because my blood sugar went to 230. But it’s just the impact of that may go down substantially. And I actually don’t think anybody’s researched it because it’s very, very esoteric. But at the same time, I think it’s something that it would be interesting to know how much it gets knocked down in terms of a performance standpoint, muscle building standpoint, how much you lose when you’re out of range.

Dean Pohlman: Okay. Cool. Any other big questions people ask you.

Ben Tzeel: We’ve covered a lot of good stuff on that. You’ve covered stuff like I told you I don’t. And he was asked for some of these before. I feel like we’ve done a lot.

Dean Pohlman: It’s my my brain’s kind of weird. I get different as different questions that, you know, who wants to know that? I want to know that. That’s why I asked. Hey.

Ben Tzeel: I’m all I’m all here for. Like, I’ll talk about anything diabetes related. But some of these, I’m like, wow, this is this is a good one. And like you mentioned to earlier, I’ve done one episode on on sex in general, and that was far and away from my own podcast. Like that was the most watched, listened, all of the things that people always want to know.

Dean Pohlman: People. People want to know, even if it’s fine. People want to know. How can it be better?

Ben Tzeel: Exactly. Yeah. You know.

Dean Pohlman: There’s there’s there’s reasons why my top performing YouTube videos have to do with yoga for better sex or one’s just called yoga for penis.

Ben Tzeel: I’m is a a.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah, yeah. I’ve got that search term owned. So, you know, there’s not a lot of competition for that. No one really, you know, as any who, Where are you based, by the way?

Ben Tzeel: I’m in good old Tampa. Florida.

Dean Pohlman: Tampa, Florida. I was in Tampa in 2016. I went on Russell Road Show. He’s a he’s a Fox News anchor, like a local Fox News Channel.

Ben Tzeel: I don’t know if he’s still here, but I know the Fox is Fox 13 at least here.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah. Fox 13. Yeah.

Ben Tzeel: I know exactly where the office is. I know that’s wild. Tampa looks nothing like when you were here last. It looks nothing like it, which is terrifying, but also awesome.

Dean Pohlman: Okay. Yeah. Like our city now.

Ben Tzeel: Oh, yeah. They built up, I mean, even where we were initially, like, downtown where we we moved in there in 2020. And within three years you wouldn’t even recognize it. Like they’ve built so many buildings, restaurants, bars, hotels, everything.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah, yeah. You know, there’s a lot of Midwesterners who figure out that the weather down south is, more tolerable. And so we move. What can I say?

Ben Tzeel: That was me. You know, Wisconsin left Wisconsin.

Dean Pohlman: Oh, nice. I went to school on UW Madison.

Ben Tzeel: Okay. Yeah, that’s where I used to get all my diabetes stuff. And I, Tanya, drive 90 miles when I was a kid. That’s where I would go for liability.

Dean Pohlman: Okay. You from a small, small Wisconsin town?

Ben Tzeel: What’s it called? Good little town with more cows than people. I think we have like, 15,000 people in my town, which was bigger for the area. But like, there was nothing. It was just you know how it is. You got your there’s like your your housing development is just like cows, corn farm, nothing to eat ten miles down the road.

Ben Tzeel: Oh, look, another little town. I’m like, that’s kind of how it was.

Dean Pohlman: Yep. Nice. Well, where are you that. Where? Me? I’m in Austin, Texas now.

Ben Tzeel: Okay.

Dean Pohlman: I grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. My family in Door County. Oh yeah. So yeah, yeah, I got, I got, I got Midwestern.

Ben Tzeel: You work that Wisconsin roots?

Dean Pohlman: No, I, I.

Ben Tzeel: Figured you were, weren’t there anymore. I’m like, there’s no way.

Dean Pohlman: Yeah, yeah. No, I got I got stuck in I got stuck in Austin. And then we left, you know, you, you get married, have some kids, and buy a house, and, you know, you’re you’re kind of kind of stuck. Yeah.

Ben Tzeel: I mean, stuck.

Dean Pohlman: That’s the wrong term. But, you know.

Ben Tzeel: I know what you mean.

Dean Pohlman: It’s a good place. Yes. And you can people or, learn more about you, or should I be directing people?

Ben Tzeel: People? Some people can find me, Instagram, TikTok app. Man of zeal. So man left. Well, and then the website for my team and I, as your diabetes insider.com, if people are interested in learning how to get better blood sugars and without restricting any part of their life from diabetes, okay.

Dean Pohlman: Cool. Is it primarily I do you do like 30 minute calls or do you like programs or like how does how does it work?

Ben Tzeel: We’ve got a little bit of everything we’ve got from, you know, hey, I just want to meet with someone for, you know, 30, 45 or 60 minutes, you know, every couple of weeks to hey, I want to meet once a month to hey, I want hands on, you know, messaging calls, written check ins, workouts, all the nutrition stuff, all the blood sugar.

Ben Tzeel: So it’s pretty much, you know, however however detailed you want to get, we’ve probably got it.

Dean Pohlman: Sweet. Okay, so guys, check the shownotes for links. Ben, thanks for coming on. I appreciate you answering all my questions and sharing your knowledge. That was, that was enlightening. So thank you.

Ben Tzeel: I appreciate you having me. And I’m just grateful we got to have some fun. Like, I said, I got to answer some new questions, which is awesome.

Dean Pohlman: Yes, exactly. And, And go sca.

Ben Tzeel: Oh, I can’t say that even though I’m word right. I can’t say that, unfortunately.

Dean Pohlman: All right, I know I read this episode.

Ben Tzeel: You’re like, we’re done. You know, it’s okay. I talked to my chair. I won’t tell you where my family went to school because I didn’t go there. So it doesn’t count. But I went to unsee, so there’s no problem. You guys are big time warriors. It’s fine.

Dean Pohlman: Okay, cool. So. All right. Yeah. Sweet. All right, guys, I hope you enjoyed listening to this episode, and I hope inspires you to be a better man. And I’ll see you on the next one. Thanks, Ben.

Ben Tzeel: Thank you. Dude.

Dean Pohlman: All right, guys, I hope you enjoyed that interview again. This is benzyl from your Diabetes Insider. Ben has a great Instagram and YouTube account. He’s also a TikTok. And if you are interested in working with him directly or someone from his team, check out his website you’re at about your diabetes insider.com. I hope you enjoyed this episode.

Dean Pohlman: I again, I enjoyed this interview. I encourage you to go check out his links and learn more. If you enjoyed this podcast, please leave a review if you haven’t already. We’re on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and lots of other, podcast platforms. You can do video versions of the podcast on the Betterment Podcast YouTube channel or in the Mental yoga app and members area.

Dean Pohlman: And if you want to join our community, we do have a free seven day trial. You can sign up for any time we have for yoga.com/join. And if you want to get started with yoga and you’re not quite ready to do a trial, we do have a free seven day challenge yoga for men for beginners. You can sign up for that at Mansur Yoga.

Dean Pohlman: Com slash 70 C. All right guys thanks for watching. Hope you enjoyed this episode. I hope it inspires you to be a better man. And I’ll see you on the next one.

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