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Are You at Risk for Metabolic Syndrome?
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By Stacey Colino
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MDminute Diabetes Winter 2008
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If your doctor tells you that you have either metabolic syndrome or prediabetes, you are at serious risk for developing full-blow type 2 diabetes.
According to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), a diagnosis of metabolic syndrome requires that you have three of the following five characteristics:
- Prediabetes, defined as a fasting blood sugar that is between 100 mg/dl and 125 mg/dl. Fasting blood sugar above 126 mg/dl is diabetes.
- Triglycerides of 150 mg/dl or more
- A waist circumference of 35 inches or greater for a woman, 40 inches or greater for a man
- HDL cholesterol of less than 50 mg/dl for women, 40 mg/dl for men
- Blood pressure of 130/85 or more.
Not only does metabolic syndrome increase a person’s risk of developing type 2 diabetes, it also boosts the chance of developing heart disease, stroke and peripheral vascular disease.
The dominant risk factors for this syndrome, says the American Heart Association, seem to be abdominal obesity and insulin resistance, in which the body can’t use insulin properly.
That’s why metabolic syndrome is also called insulin resistance syndrome.
It’s estimated that more than 50 million people in the U.S. suffer from the syndrome—and some research shows that almost half of them also have type 2 diabetes. And, according to the NHLBI, 85 percent of people with type 2 also have metabolic syndrome.
For anyone diagnosed with the syndrome or with prediabetes, the first step is to follow American Diabetes Association guidelines.
These focus on improving nutrition and increasing activity, and on taking medications, if need be, for high blood pressure and cholesterol abnormalities. Such lifestyle changes can have quite an impact:
In one study, people at risk for type 2 were able to reduce the likelihood of developing diabetes by 58 percent if they both cut their intake of fat and calories and walked at least 150 minutes a week.
Sources: Metabolic Syndrome: NHLBI, American Heart Association, American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists, New England Journal of Medicine, Feb, 2002. Walking: Metabolism, October, 2006. Food: Archives of Internal Medicine July 28, 2008.
A Boston University study of African-American women found that those
who drank two or more sugary soft or fruit drinks daily had a 25 to 30
percent increased risk of diabetes. But, according to a U.K. study,
people with the highest blood levels of vitamin C—a marker of vegetable
and fruit consumption—slashed their risk of diabetes by 62 percent.
Clearly, “lifestyle management can be incredibly powerful,” says John
Buse, M.D., Ph.D., American Diabetes Association president for medicine
and science. Research also shows that a Mediterranean diet (whole
grains, vegetables, fish and good fats like olive oil) is associated
with more favorable changes in blood glucose and insulin levels than is
a low-fat diet that eliminates or reduces the intake of healthy oils.
—Beth Howard
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Exercise helps keep blood glucose and blood pressure under control, raises good HDL cholesterol and lowers bad LDL cholesterol. What’s more, “it reduces insulin resistance, and that may delay or decrease the need for medication,” says Mark R. Burge, M.D., professor of medicine at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center in Albuquerque. Walking is the easiest way to get moving. A University of New Mexico study found that people with diabetes who walked 10,000 steps a day increased their metabolic rate and good HDL cholesterol, among other benefits.—Beth Howard
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