What is metabolic syndrome?
Metabolic syndrome refers to a cluster of risk factors for cardiovascular disease. The syndrome increases your risk of developing diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.
What are the risk factors?
The cluster of metabolic factors involved includes:
Abdominal obesity: Women with a hip circumference of more than 89cm and men with a hip circumference of more than 102cm, are considered abdominally obese. This form of obesity highly correlates with metabolic syndrome.
High blood pressure: 130/80mm Hg or higher. Normal blood pressure is defined as less than 120mm Hg for systolic pressure (the top number) and less than 80mm Hg for diastolic (the bottom number). High blood pressure highly correlates with obesity and is often found in people with Type 2 Diabetes (insulin resistance).
Impaired fasting blood glucose: ≥ 100mg/dL
High triglyceride levels: > 150mg/dL. Triglycerides are a type of fat in the blood.
Low HDL (good) cholesterol: Less than 40mg/dL for men and less than 50mg/dL for women is considered low.
An individual with more than three of the risk factors may be diagnosed with metabolic syndrome.
Who is at risk for metabolic syndrome?
Risk factors most closely tied to metabolic syndrome include:
- Age
- BMI greater than 25.
- Personal or family history of diabetes.
- Smoking
- History of heavy alcohol consumption
- Stress
- High-fat diet
- Sedentary lifestyle
How to prevent metabolic syndrome
- Lifestyle management: This includes losing weight, eating a balanced diet and getting more exercise.
- Diet: Including a variety of foods in your diet, eating healthy fats, whole grains, fruit, vegetables.
- Exercise
- Medicine: Possible prescription of medicine to manage high blood pressure, insulin metabolism, lower LDL, etc.
- Getting at least 30 minutes of physical activity most days
- Eating plenty of vegetables, fruits, lean protein and whole grains
- Limiting saturated fat and salt in your diet
- Maintaining a healthy weight
- Not smoking
