It is thought that metabolic syndrome can explain most illnesses that are killing the population right now, such as heart attack. The signs that someone has metabolic syndrome include high blood pressure, high blood sugar levels, obesity, low good cholesterol (HDL) levels, and fat accumulation around the waist. It is estimated that one out of six Americans has metabolic syndrome in some form.
Most of the time it is caused by diet and lack of exercise, but it is also thought to be inherited in some cases – mostly in the form of passing on a poor diet. People who work too much and cannot cook their own meals are especially at risk due to consuming a diet high in processed ingredients like sugar.
If you want to prevent this type of metabolic syndrome from affecting you and your family, try these prevention tips.
* Encourage Activity and Movement – Moving more, especially at a moderate intensity every single day, is one of the best things you can do for your overall health – especially your cardiovascular health. Try fast walking after dinner for at least 10 to 20 minutes every night to start.
* Improve Everyone’s Diet – It’s hard to diet alone. The thing is, you don’t have to eat food that you don’t like in order to “diet” properly. You can eat a wide variety of food in reasonable portion sizes that includes lots of fresh veggies, fruit like berries, and whole grains like oats. Don’t act like it’s a diet. Just eat fresh food that is grown as close to your home as possible while cutting down on added saturated fats and ending eating any trans fats if possible.
* Reduce Sedentary Time – Exercise was mentioned but understand that it may not be enough to work out even every single day; if you’re super-sedentary due to a job or your interests are sedentary, you need to break that up. Try getting up and walking fast for 10 minutes for every four hours of sitting, and working your way up to moving more every 90 minutes or so.
* Set Yourself Up to Sleep Better – Sleep is vastly underestimated in terms of how it contributes to your overall health. Sleeping at least seven to nine hours a night is necessary. Until you’re used to it, it may seem indulgent, but you will be much healthier if you go to bed before midnight and sleep at least seven hours.
* Don’t Smoke Cigarettes – Cigarette smoking is one of the biggest killers of our time. Fortunately, every single year the number of people who smoke is being reduced due to education and understanding of the dangers. It’s bad on your blood pressure and your heart and can wreck your health even if you do everything else right.
* Maintain a Healthy Weight – Staying a healthy weight is best for everyone, especially if you can avoid yo-yo dieting. Even losing just 10 percent of your body weight if you are obese currently can make a huge difference in your overall health.
* Seek Medical Testing and Treatment – If you try diet and exercise but you still aren’t combatting your problems, seek medical help. They can do tests and offer medications that can help you beat your condition. You can always reduce your medications later as you get healthier under a doctor’s supervision.
Preventing problems in the first place is always the best course of action. If you still end up with any of the diseases associated with metabolic syndromes such as diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease, your doctor may be able to help you with medical intervention if diet and exercise alone won’t work. However, in most cases, it will.
Treatment Options Including Medication
Essentially, there are two options for the treatment of metabolic syndrome. It really boils down to a combination of medication and lifestyle changes. The fact is, most of the treatment is totally up to the patient. If the patient doesn’t make the lifestyle changes, necessary medication isn’t going to be enough to prevent complications in most cases.
Let’s look at the two types of treatment you can get for your metabolic syndrome.
Medication
Depending on the co-conditions you have, your doctor may want to prescribe medication to you for these conditions. Some issues are more important to tackle via meds than others, and your doctor is the best person to help you make that choice. You can always cut down or eliminate medication once your lifestyle changes take effect.
* High Blood Pressure – There are numerous drugs that your doctor can choose from to treat your high blood pressure. What type they choose will depend on the type of high blood pressure you have and what your doctor thinks the issue is, plus any other conditions you have and any meds you already take. They may choose diuretics, beta blockers, angiotensin II receptor blockers, ace inhibitors, or a combination of all the above.
* High Cholesterol – Reducing your bad cholesterol and improving your good cholesterol with medication means taking one of five different types of meds: statins, niacin, fibrates, bile acid resin drugs, and PCSK9 inhibitors. Again, it will largely depend on your own history plus your doctor’s experience and preferences.
* Diabetes – The type of diabetes you have will determine if you need meds or not, and if it’s a “try the med or diet first” approach. Some choices for diabetes are insulin, metformin, sulfonylureas, meglitinides, thiazolidinediones, DPP-4 inhibitors, GLP-1 receptor agonists, and SGLT2 inhibitors.
* Blood Clot Prevention – Blood clots can technically cause strokes and heart attack, so if you’re in danger of them your doctor may prescribe an aspirin regimen or some other blood thinning agent.
Whether you really need these drugs or not depends on your situation and all the factors. You can, however, sometimes use lifestyle changes to reverse your condition, depending on how bad it is and your willingness to change.
Lifestyle Changes
You and your doctor may prefer to get you to change your lifestyle. You have to be willing to do this, but you do have a lot of control over your health. The main lifestyle changes will be about eating right, losing weight, and moving more.
* Eat Healthily – Eating a diet high in nutrients while low in fat and processed food is an important way to combat metabolic syndrome and reverse any of the complications caused by it. If you’re unsure of what to do, ask your doctor for a referral to a dietician who is knowledgeable about metabolic syndrome.
* Lose Weight – If you’re overweight, you have a bigger chance of developing metabolic syndrome. In fact, 60 percent of people who are obese have metabolic syndrome. Losing weight will cut your chances exponentially.
* Exercise – Moving more is going to help your cardiovascular system, and it will help you keep your blood sugar lower. You don’t even have to do that much. Moving at a moderate pace for just 150 minutes a week will make all the difference.
* Quit Smoking – Does anything really have to be said about not smoking? Smoking is one of the most dangerous things you can do to your health. If you want to get healthier, you must quit.
Incorporating lifestyle changes will help combat metabolic syndrome. However, you must be committed to taking it seriously. One reason most doctors simply choose to medicate people is that patients are not compliant with requests to lose weight or change their lifestyle.