How to Adjust Your Life to Avoid Metabolic Syndrome
With a metabolic syndrome diagnosis, it’s imperative that you make some lifestyle adjustments to avoid the development of serious diseases which can interfere with your lifestyle and shorten your lifespan.
If you’ve lived a life of inactivity and are obese, you’re likely to develop metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is linked to insulin resistance, which stems from your digestive system’s inability to break down the foods you eat and produce sugar (glucose).
The result in this inability is that your glucose levels rise because your body can’t control the glucose and keeps secreting more insulin. When your body becomes unable to produce enough insulin to keep the glucose at normal levels, diabetes may develop.
When you’re given a diagnosis of metabolic syndrome from your health care provider, it means that you have several conditions at once – high blood sugar, excess fat surrounding the waist, abnormal cholesterol levels and high blood pressure.
All of these conditions, when occurring at the same time, can increase your risk of heart disease, diabetes and stroke – but being diagnosed with one of the conditions doesn’t indicate that you have metabolic syndrome.
It does, however, mean that you’re at greater risk for these diseases. You’re at risk for metabolic syndrome if you fit into one or all of the categories below:
Over the age of 60
Hispanic or Asian
Diabetes during pregnancy or a family history of type 2 diabetes
Have or had nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, polycystic ovary syndrome or cardiovascular disease
Obesity (especially fat around the stomach area)
You can make aggressive changes in your lifestyle to prevent these metabolic syndrome diseases by adjusting your diet and exercise to lose weight and lower the harmful levels causing the problems.
Seniors should be on the lookout for symptoms of metabolic syndrome to avoid developing serious health problems. A low-caloric and low-carbohydrate diet plan can help you lose weight and a good regimen of exercise can help sculpt your body back into shape and burn the calories you do consume.
Include cardiovascular and stretching exercises for an overall workout of the body’s muscles and for good bone health. See your healthcare provider for a metabolic syndrome test if you have the symptoms of increased thirst, frequent urination, extreme fatigue and blurred vision. Also see your doctor if you have a large waist circumference. An “apple” shape of the body usually indicates a metabolic problem.
