According to the NIH, about 1 in 3 adults have metabolic syndrome.
John Hopkins, one of the most prestigious medical institutions – defines metabolic syndrome by a combination of the following 5 criteria.
The first is abdominal obesity being defined as having a waist circumference of 35 and above for women and 40 inches and above for men.
The second is a blood pressure of 130/80 mm Hg or higher.
The third is impaired fasting glucose of greater than 100mg/dL.
The fourth is high triglyceride levels greater than 150mg/dL.
And the fifth is low HDL cholesterol of less than 40mg/dL for men and 50mg/dL for women.
The American Heart Association recommends a diagnosis when an individual presents with 3 of the aforementioned criteria.
Why It Matters
Unfortunately, most people living in the United States meet at least 3 of the criteria for metabolic syndrome.
Even meeting just 1 of the criterion puts you at significant risk for cardiovascular insult.
All this is to say that if you meet ANY of the criteria, you need to do something about it.
Not only for yourself but for your loved ones as well.
Metabolic disease starts well before the presentation of the obvious symptoms.
It is important to get ahead of these dangerous risk factors if you want to live a long healthy life and show up for yourself and your family.
Even in your early middle-age years, metabolic syndrome can start to develop and take hold.
The Consequences of Metabolic Syndrome
Metabolic syndrome is strongly associated with pre-type 2 diabetes and type 2 diabetes.
Individuals with type 2 and metabolic syndrome are often insulin resistant.
Your body makes insulin in order to transport sugar (glucose) into cells to use for energy.
The problem is when you become insulin resistant, your body no longer recognizes insulin and the result is high blood sugar levels in your bloodstream.
The consequence of high blood sugar levels over time is arterial hardening and vascular damage.
Think – heart disease.
Metabolic syndrome drastically increases your risk for heart disease.
They can almost be thought to be one and the same.
How Do You Tell if You Have Metabolic Syndrome
The first step to telling if you have metabolic syndrome is to get some tests and see if you meet any of the criteria.
Measure your waist size to rule out the first criteria.
Secondly, you are going to want to get an average blood pressure reading.
The reason I say an average reading is because your instantaneous blood pressure is often not indicative of your trend over time.
Your blood pressure can be affected significantly by nervousness, stress, caffeine, etc.
I recommend that my clients take their blood pressure first thing in the morning after they wake up before they drink their coffee.
Record that for a couple of weeks and then calculate your average.
To get a sense of where your glucose levels are, you are going to need a blood test.
It is super simple and your primary care can order it for you.
Make sure you get the fasting glucose panel because of course your blood glucose will be higher if you have already eaten.
The last two criteria – your triglyceride and your HDL levels can also be found with a simple metabolic panel which you can also ask your primary care for.
Once you get some baseline metrics for the 5 criteria I mentioned, you can start to do something about the numbers.
How to Reverse Abdominal Obesity
In order to cure metabolic syndrome, you will need to take care of the first inclusion criteria – abdominal obesity.
The best way to decrease your waistline is through diet and exercise modulation.
I have written extensively about how to lose body fat and you can find those articles here.
But to be brief, in order to get rid of abdominal obesity you need to be in a sustained calorie deficit and liberate your stores of fatty acids.
A calorie deficit occurs when you burn more energy than you consume.
So you will also need to implement some exercise in the form of strength training and cardiovascular training to reverse abdominal obesity.
This coupled with restricted feeding will allow your fat stores to be liberated and used by your body for energy.
The net result is decreasing your fat stores and thus reversing your abdominal obesity.
It really is that simple.
Get Help to Reclaim Your Metabolic Health
I know it may seem obvious and in reality, the challenging part is not what you need to do but rather how you will do it.
And for that reason, I highly recommend that you hire a professional to help you.
I have helped hundreds of my clients reverse abdominal obesity and get their health back on track so that they can start feeling confident again in their body and most importantly – improve their metabolic health.
You can send me an email to find out more about my personalized coaching even if we can’t meet in person.
I offer diet plans and exercise plans that are specific to your needs and lifestyle to help reverse metabolic syndrome.
How to Reduce High Blood Pressure
The second criterion for metabolic syndrome is high blood pressure defined as 130 mm Hg and above.
The best way to reduce high blood pressure is NOT by eliminating salt from your diet.
The best way to reduce high blood pressure is by implementing a cardiovascular strategy.
When you perform cardiovascular exercise, your blood vessels dilate and allow blood to flow with less pressure and this places less stress on your vascular system.
That’s why I recommend zone 2 training for all of my clients.
You can learn more about that type of training here.
But basically, it is a form of cardio that is low intensity.
It has immense cardiovascular and metabolic benefits and is easily performed no matter what your fitness level is.
Implementing a several times a week cardio program will lower your blood pressure in just weeks.
Thus you will be able to cross off high blood pressure from your metabolic syndrome inclusion criteria.
How to Lower Fasting Glucose
The third criterion for metabolic syndrome is a fasting glucose level of 100mg/dL or more.
The best way to reduce your glucose levels is by consuming less sugar, specifically in the form of sucrose and fructose.
Your personal carbohydrate tolerance is relative to you and thus giving a hard recommendation for this would not be helpful.
However, you should aim to cut out the majority of added sugars from your diet as a first step.
Added sugar is in almost everything that you get in the supermarket which is packaged.
That’s why I recommend my clients to shop in the outside aisles of the grocery store.
Whole foods which do not have added sugars.
Just implementing this one strategy will drastically reduce your overall sugar consumption and thus lower your fasting glucose.
How to Lower Your Triglyceride Levels
The fourth criterion is a triglyceride level of above 150mg/dL.
The best way to lower your triglyceride levels is through exercise.
Zone 2 training as I mentioned before in the blood pressure section is one way to lower those trig levels.
It will help to liberate stored fatty acids and get those triglyceride levels down.
You should also aim to decrease your body fat levels through a calorie deficit.
The two of these will drastically decrease your triglyceride levels.
We arent going to get into the fifth criterion because it is a bit more complicated and harder to modulate.
Focus on the four aforementioned criteria as your focus if you want to cure metabolic syndrome.
Recap: Metabolic Syndrome and How to Cure It
Especially when you hit that middle-age phase of life it is incredibly important to focus on your metabolic health.
Your risk of cardiovascular events drastically increases with age and one of the best ways to prevent this is by curing metabolic syndrome.
Even if you don’t meet any of the criteria, you need to be focusing on preventing metabolic syndrome.
Because if you are not doing anything to prevent it, chances are you will end up developing it.
If you have any questions or need any help please feel free to reach out to me.
This world is becoming super automated and digitized and I want to make sure health is still personal and personalized.
Send me an email or leave a comment below and I promise I will get back to you.