The Slippery Path to Metabolic Syndrome

Feed Me More! Feed Me More!

Do you watch the hit reality TV show The Biggest Loser? If you do, then you know what it's like to be overweight. You get to see the trials and obstacles the contestants in the show have to face. Being big and overweight is hard. Trying to lose weight is a lot harder. So, the question is:

Why do you still continue with your unhealthy lifestyle? What is considered as a healthy lifestyle?

You eat what you want, when you want. You don't take a minute to think about the nutrition you're getting, or maybe there is no nutrition in the food you’re eating to begin with. You watch your favorite TV series late at night still gorging on those potato chips, chocolate bars and bucket of soft drink. You just ate two servings of dinner before watching TV. You fell asleep on the couch with food still undigested in your stomach. You wake up the following morning, take a bath and discover leftover cake your mother brought home last night. Burp! That's the stuff, now it's time to get dressed. Uh-oh, your favorite jeans no longer fit your waistline. Do any of these statements sound familiar?

Don't you think prevention sounds better than cure? 154239529

To fully understand the meaning of metabolic syndrome, let us first separate the two terms. Metabolism means a series of biochemical reactions necessary to sustain life. Syndrome encompasses a constellation of symptoms, signs and characteristics that often occur together which will help the doctor in diagnosing your disease. Putting them together, metabolic syndrome means the collection of risk factors that increase your likelihood of acquiring or developing diabetes, coronary heart disease and other related health diseases. Risk factors are a set of variables (habits, conditions or traits) which increase your chances of having certain diseases like coronary heart disease and diabetes.

What are the Risk Factors?

Before you're diagnosed as having metabolic syndrome, you need to have 3 or more of the following five risk factors. The goal is to modify your lifestyle so that as much as possible you can delay the onset or prevent the development of metabolic syndrome altogether.

High Blood Pressure. This may come as no surprise to you. Long standing high blood pressure brings a lot of damage to your arteries especially your coronary arteries (these arteries supply oxygen and nutrient rich blood to your precious heart). Damage to the arteries allows the buildup of plaque which significantly narrows the lumen of the arteries. The resulting decrease in blood flow will undoubtedly weaken your heart. Elevated Blood Sugar Level. What's that? You thought sugar is sweet and kind? Guess again. A high fasting blood sugar (tested after a period of fasting for at least 8 hours) can make the cells in your body insulin resistant. This is just the start. Low Good Cholesterol Levels. Do you remember the good and bad cholesterol? The good cholesterol is HDL while the bad one is LDL. HDL cholesterol was thought to contribute to the clean up process involving the removal of LDL (bad cholesterol) from your system. Recent studies are now saying that there is no good and bad cholesterol. Cholesterol (whether good or bad) is good for you. Period. High Triglyceride Levels. Through the years, it was accepted without question that saturated fat is bad for you. A new way of thinking backed by scientific studies is that its not the saturated fat that raises the triglycerides, but actually the sugar and refined carbohydrates. Overweight - Can't Fit Pants

Large Waistline. Among the risk factors in the metabolic syndrome, this one is the most obvious. You don't even have to take a laboratory test to figure this out. By the way, can you still see your feet? Don't worry, it's not too late. You can do something about it.

You Versus the Risk Factors (Prevention)

In order to prevent having metabolic syndrome, you will have to address the different risk factors. Do you have any one of them? Having no risk factors can prolong and improve your quality of life. There are two main areas where you can effectively prevent the formation of metabolic syndrome namely: diet and exercise. Diet. To establish which specific foods are right and wrong for you would be a guaranteed snooze-fest. Instead, a recent theory which contradicts the diet norm is laid out here to guide you in your quest to help improve your health.

There is now a growing trend among experts in nutrition saying that saturated fats and cholesterol are not bad for you. For many years, we believed in the lipid hypothesis which states that the more saturated fat and cholesterol we eat, the higher our chance of developing coronary heart disease. The study this hypothesis was based on was discovered to be largely flawed. The experts stated that the data only came from countries which have high saturated fat in the diet and at the same time developed coronary heart disease. Data from other countries with high saturated fat in the diet and low incidence of coronary heart disease were hidden from the public. They also did not account for other variables such as the sugar content of the diet. This may seem like a contradiction.... The main point of this article is to open your mind to the new possibilities. Do your own research about these conflicting theories, consider them all objectively. Is eating too much carbohydrates bad for you? Make your own decision. Warming Up for Excercise

Exercise. As we grow old, we tend to walk and not run anymore. Instead of playing outside, we stay indoors and eat on the couch while watching TV. We are not what we used to be when we were young. Our physical activities have slowly and unconsciously declined. It isn't that our metabolism has slowed down (though this can happen as we age), it is we who have ceased to move around and became sedentary. Because of our sedentary lifestyles we need to make more of an effort to incorporate exercise into our day. Find an exercise routine that you can live with, and even enjoy. You're not alone. We’re all heading in the same direction. The path towards having metabolic syndrome is something you don't want to take. This path is paved with ice cream, unlimited soft drinks and all the comfort foods you can imagine. After you have it and continue maintaining it, the road will most certainly be cut short for you. Prevention is just as important as cure, if not more. Your greatest weapon is knowledge. Think about it.