Sometimes you can end up with metabolic syndrome through no fault of your own due to the genetics you inherited from your family. Occasionally, you inherit things by learning an unhealthy behavior too – especially those that are diet related.
For example, if your family lived off fast food due to working all the time, you may inherit metabolic syndrome due to those poor eating habits. Either way, you’ve inherited it from your family in one way or another. The good news is that even if you’ve inherited the syndrome, you can still do things to make your life better.
Some metabolic conditions are totally inherited and not the fault of anyone. These conditions need to be treated by a health care professional and not by diet only. It’s always best to talk to your doctor before trying any treatment.
Amino Acid Metabolism Disorders
Normally your digestive system breaks down food into its basic parts: sugars, fats, and acids. When something goes wrong with the body’s ability to break down amino acids into its building blocks, it can lead to serious and even life-threatening health problems.
A problem with amino acid metabolism is something called phenylketonuria (PKU) in which phenylalanine builds up in the body. Untreated phenylketonuria can cause seizures, tremors, stunted growth, hyperactivity, and more.
Carbohydrate Metabolism Disorders
If you cannot metabolize the sugars in your body from carbohydrates, the sugars will accumulate in the body and can cause a variety of disorders like fructose intolerance, issues storing glycogen, and other problems that are very serious in nature. Treatment includes medication, supplements, and special diets.
Fatty Acid Metabolism Disorders
Several conditions can arise from a fatty acid metabolism disorder, which is an inherited condition where the number of enzymes needed to break down fat in the body is too low and cannot work properly. This issue will usually show up in infancy or young childhood. It can lead to life-threatening illnesses such as an enlarged heart or liver and anemia.
Purine and Pyrimidine Metabolism Disorders
Purine and pyrimidine play an active role in forming the building blocks for DNA and RNA, plus energy provision and more. When you have a defect in this area, you may end up with conditions like gout, immune deficiency, deafness, seizures, and even acute renal failure. If a child has Down syndrome, sickle cell anemia or other conditions, they may also have a purine and pyrimidine metabolism disorder.
Inherited conditions like this need to be diagnosed by a trained medical professional. Usually, this happens at birth for these particular conditions. If what you have instead is common or garden variety metabolic syndrome, you can treat it mostly with diet. For this reason, it’s imperative that you seek medical diagnosis so that you can do the right thing.