What is Metabolic Syndrome and What Does It Mean for Your Health?
What is Metabolic Syndrome and What Does It Mean for Your Health?
If you are wondering exactly what metabolic syndrome is you may have heard the term from a doctor, or perhaps a friend or family member. When a patient is diagnosed by a physician with metabolic syndrome, and they ask, “what is metabolic syndrome,” they are actually wondering exactly how it is going to affect their health.
Any time your metabolism is affected positively or negatively, there is an immediate correlation in your body. Your metabolic process regulates many body functions and performances that in turn dictate your level of health. Let’s start off with a definition of metabolic syndrome to get a little better understanding of how it affects your health.
What Exactly Is Metabolic Syndrome?
The Mayo Clinic is a globally respected health and wellness institution. They define metabolic syndrome as a group of conditions which exist together. When you experience them, your risk of developing heart disease and diabetes, or experiencing a stroke, are elevated greatly. Those conditions are …
- A high blood sugar level
- Low HDL levels (good cholesterol)
- High blood pressure
- Too much body fat around your midsection
- Excessively high levels of triglycerides
How Does Metabolic Syndrome Affect Your Health?
If you have any of these conditions, you should probably consider a healthy solution. If you possess only one of the risk factors just mentioned you may not develop metabolic syndrome. However, if 2 or more of the traditional metabolic syndrome symptoms are present, you raise your risk risk of developing the following cardiovascular diseases:
- Stroke
- Hypertension
- Ischemic heart disease
- Rheumatic heart disease
- Atrial fibrillation
- Congenital heart failure
- Cardiomyopathy
- Endocarditis
- Peripheral artery disease
All of those conditions can lead to heart failure, and even death. That is why it is important to contact your physician as soon as you show multiple metabolic syndrome symptoms.
How to Treat or Beat Metabolic Syndrome
Doctors notice fewer symptoms of metabolic syndrome in healthy, active individuals that enjoy a nutritious diet. Eat foods with high calcium, magnesium and vitamin D levels. Keep your weight in check. Stand more and sit less. Stay active as much as possible. Cut back on saturated fats, and eliminate deadly trans fats altogether.
Regarding exercise, any time that you physically exert yourself 50% to 75% of your maximum, you are doing your body and your health a lot of good. This can be as simple as enjoying a 15 minute brisk walk around your neighborhood with a friend. Playing with your children or grandchildren is also a form of exercise. Any physical activity that that gets your heart pumping and blood and oxygen flowing through your body can help lower your risk of developing metabolic syndrome, and experiencing the heart diseases it can lead to if left untreated.
