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Every day in my practice and through the sessions I do through the internet every day I meet people who have metabolic syndrome and for many reasons their doctor has not informed them. Metabolic syndrome is extremely important and we should all know what it is because it is the last bell before we assume any major health problem. As if to say that metabolic syndrome is the yellow card that shows us that we must immediately make drastic changes in our lives to avoid the worst. It is important to know what metabolic syndrome is and what we can do to treat it. Metabolic syndrome is defined as a set of five factors that when at least three coexist we consider someone to be suffering from metabolic syndrome. These five factors are: Hypertension. Hypertension is defined as blood pressure greater than 13 major or 8.5 minor, or taking antihypertensive medications. Increased sugar. Which means morning sugar over 100. Elevated triglycerides. Which means triglycerides over 150. Low good cholesterol. Which means good cholesterol under 40 for men or under 50 for women. Abdominal obesity. Which means waist circumference over 102cm for men or over 88cm for women. All of these factors greatly increase someone's chance of having heart disease or stroke, but when three or more of these factors are present the possibility increases steeply and to ring the bell to the patient we say that he suffers from metabolic syndrome, which is the anteroom of heart attack and stroke. It is currently estimated that in Western societies one in three adults over 50 suffer from metabolic syndrome. So if you are over 50 the possibility that you have it is very high and it is a good idea to look for it. Metabolic syndrome increases your chance of suffering a number of complications, including diabetes mellitus, atherosclerosis, heart attack, kidney disease, stroke, and fatty liver. If one of the following complications occurs, then it puts the health at risk for even more health problems. The best part of the story is that metabolic syndrome is completely reversible. This means that if you take some steps to take care of your health you can cure it completely. These measures include weight loss, which is usually the most important measure you can implement, proper diet, which helps regardless of weight loss, exercise, which also helps regardless of weight loss, and addressing some other heart health risk factors such as smoking cessation if one smokes. By implementing one or more of these measures you can completely cure metabolic syndrome and stay out of the danger zone for those complications I described earlier. But the predisposition will remain, meaning that the wrong lifestyle that brought you metabolic syndrome will bring you back even if you had treated it properly. Simply put, if you make lifestyle changes and deal with it metabolic syndrome, if you stop them you will get metabolic syndrome again. Losing weight is the single most important thing someone can do to deal with metabolic syndrome. However, there are also some medications that can help and someone might be worth taking them, but only under the supervision of a doctor. The drug that can help the most is metformin, the active ingredient in the very famous drug glucophage, which helps stabilize blood sugar, as well as helping with weight loss. Other medicines that may help also are drugs that reduce cholesterol and blood clotting. If you suffer from metabolic syndrome it is important to discuss this with your doctor because you may need to take some medication. Metabolic syndrome concerns us all because a large percentage of people suffer from it and we can do something to fully address it. Thank you very much.
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