Bev's Blogs.

Now It’s a Syndrome

I’ve been curious as to why being overweight or obese is linked to so many health problems. Now, this may not be on your top 10 list of things to do on a wet day (and not on mine either) but I decided to do some research and wanted to share this with you.

It turns out that there is a very good explanation, and it has a name – Metabolic Syndrome.

Metabolic syndrome is the name for a group of risk factors linked to overweight and obesity. These risk factors increase your chance of having heart disease and other health problems, such as diabetes and stroke.

Metabolic Risk Factors

The National Heart, Lung & Blood Institute (http://www.nhlbi.nih.gov/) defines the five  metabolic risk factors:

You can develop any one of these risk factors by itself, but they tend to occur together. Metabolic syndrome is diagnosed if you have at least three of these metabolic risk factors.

• A large waistline. This also is called abdominal obesity or “having an apple shape.” Excess fat in the abdominal area is a greater risk factor for heart disease than excess fat in other parts of the body, such as on the hips.
• A higher than normal triglyceride level (or you’re on medicine to treat high triglycerides). Triglycerides are a type of fat found in the blood.
• A lower than normal HDL cholesterol level (or you’re on medicine to treat low HDL cholesterol). HDL is sometimes called “good” cholesterol because it helps remove cholesterol from your arteries. A low HDL cholesterol level raises your risk of heart disease.
• Higher than normal blood pressure (or you’re on medicine to treat high blood pressure). Blood pressure is the force of blood pushing against the walls of your arteries as your heart pumps out blood. If this pressure rises and stays high over time, it can damage your heart and lead to plaque build-up.
• Higher than normal fasting blood sugar (or you’re on medicine to treat high blood sugar). Mildly high blood sugar may be an early sign of diabetes.

Dr. Lawrence Sperling is a Cardiologist and the Director of Emory University’s Center for Heart Disease Prevention.

In this video he discusses the Metabolic Syndrome, the value of addressing lifestyle, and the results of the Diabetes Prevention Program.

Causes

According to the Mayo Clinic, Metabolic syndrome is linked to your body’s metabolism, possibly to a condition called insulin resistance. Insulin is a hormone made by your pancreas that helps control the amount of sugar in your bloodstream.

Normally, your digestive system breaks down the foods you eat into sugar (glucose). Your blood carries the glucose to your body’s tissues, where the cells use it as fuel. Glucose enters your cells with the help of insulin. In people with insulin resistance, cells don’t respond normally to insulin, and glucose can’t enter the cells as easily. Your body reacts by churning out more and more insulin to help glucose get into your cells. The result is higher than normal levels of insulin in your blood. This can eventually lead to diabetes when your body is unable to make enough insulin to control the blood glucose to the normal range.

Even if your levels aren’t high enough to be considered diabetes, an elevated glucose level can still be harmful. In fact, some doctors refer to this condition as “pre-diabetes.” Increased insulin raises your triglyceride level and other blood fat levels. It also interferes with how your kidneys work, leading to higher blood pressure. These combined effects of insulin resistance put you at risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes and other conditions.

Lifestyle Changes

Clearly, lifestyle changes are the one thing that is in our power to control. It seems to me that, regardless of our own BMI or level of body fat, that we should make these obvious lifestyle changes anyway. After all, prevention is better than cure.

1. Become more active – at least 30 minutes 5 times a week. This doesn’t mean necessarily going to the gym or playing sports; just get more active.
2. Make changes in our diet and make healthier food choices (a low glycemic approach is well documented and effective on multiple levels. Check out the web site of the centre of excellence for research in this area).
3. And, of course lose weight.

Lose Weight or Lose Fat?

Losing weight seems to be, for some, an almost perpetual pastime. From one great diet to the next and then the yoyo effect as the weight comes off, the diet ends, the weight comes back, and most of the time the weight has gone up.

Why?

Because the diet was about weight and not fat. Losing weight can often be achieved with results that are not what we wanted (or expected):

we can lose fluids – generally only very temporary,

we can lose bone density – not at all a good idea,

we can lose lean muscle – definitely a very bad idea.

But, they all result in less weight.

Lean muscle weighs more per centimetre (or inch) than fat so a loss of lean muscle shows up as a big weight loss on the scales. But it reduces our core strength and it reduces our ability to burn calories.

Science now shows that a higher percentage of protein as part of a reduced-kilojoule diet can help you to shed unwanted centimetres without sacrificing lean muscle. And by maintaining lean muscle, you can help keep your metabolism high, and burn more kilojoules!

Supporting a fat loss programme with supplements make sense if the science is solid and the clinical trials support our expectations.

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