Here's How To Manage Metabolic Syndrome: A Cluster Of Diseases

A metabolic syndrome is a collection of conditions that appear all at once and increase your risk of other diseases. Read on to know how you can manage it to avoid health complications.

A metabolic syndrome is a group of symptoms that occur at the same time and raise your risk of heart disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. Increased blood pressure, excessive blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride levels are all examples of these disorders.

Just because you have one of these symptoms doesn't mean you have metabolic syndrome. However, it does indicate that you are at a higher risk of developing a serious illness. And the more of these illnesses you have, the higher your chance of consequences like type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Dr Santosh Kumar Dora, Senior Cardiologist, Asian Heart Institute, Mumbai shares some insights on metabolic syndrome and what you can do to manage the condition.

What Are The Common Causes Of Metabolic Syndrome?

Dr Kumar Dora states that the following are the main causes of metabolic syndrome:

• Central obesity: The abdominal girth is more than 40 inches in men and more than 35 inches in women.
• High blood pressure: Blood pressure more than 130/85 mm Hg or on Bp medicines
• High glucose level or impaired glucose tolerance, Fasting blood sugar more than 100 mm Hg, 2 hr postprandial blood sugar more than 140 mm Hg, or on diabetic medicines
• High triglyceride levels of more than 150 mm Hg.
• Low HDL cholesterol levels, less than 40 mg/dl in men and less than 50 mg/dl in women

If a person has 3 or more of the above parameters, then he is considered to have metabolic syndrome. Some of the key reasons for metabolic syndrome include lack of physical activity, bad eating habits, family history of diabetes, obstructive sleep apnea etc.

How Can One Mitigate The Risk?

Further explaining how one can reduce the risk of developing metabolic syndrome, Dr Kumar Dora states:

Fight Obesity

The central feature of metabolic syndrome is obesity. Therefore, it is important to effectively control obesity through diet control and exercise. Once obesity is controlled effectively, other risk factors such as blood pressure and sugar levels can be managed effectively.

Metabolic syndrome increases with increasing age. Statistics suggest that as many as 40% of people aged more than 60 get metabolic syndrome. Therefore, it is crucial to maintain a healthy weight from a very early age.

Diet Control

One should have a healthy diet. Only 50% of calories should come from carbohydrates and 30% from fats. Good carbohydrates are foods with a low glycemic index (food that leads to a slow rise in blood sugar). For example, brown rice, whole grain/multigrain bread, legumes, nuts, fruits, vegetables etc. The good oils are olive oil, rice bran oil, canola oil etc. Non-vegetarian items should consist of skinless poultry, skinless fish, egg etc. Dinner should be early and light. For a properly balanced diet aiming towards weight loss, one should consult a dietician.

Physical Exercise Is A Must

Exercise is key to increasing metabolism and calorie output to reduce weight. Standard exercise recommendation is any kind of dynamic exercise of at least 30 mins/day, at least five days a week. Small weight-bearing exercises may also be included to maintain muscle tone and fasten weight loss.