Metabolic syndrome is not itself a disease but is the collection of conditions such as increased blood sugar level, increased blood pressure, increased cholesterol level and excess of body fat on the waist portion. All the above conditions put together is likely to cause heart disease and stroke. Many people have these conditions for long time, but it is not necessary that you have developed metabolic syndrome.
These conditions will increase the risk of many serious diseases. It is necessary for you to take regular medications and modify your lifestyle to prevent any serious complications. Certain metabolic risk factors like high blood pressure, insulin resistance and cholesterol abnormalities can come together in the same individual, constituting metabolic syndrome. This syndrome is also called as syndrome X or dysmetabolic syndrome.
American Heart Association has considered some of the following features to be present on the individual to develop metabolic syndrome.
• The waistline of the individual should be measuring 102 cm or above in men and 85 cm or above in women
• His/her serum triglyceride score should be 150mg/dl or even more
• HDL cholesterol rating should be 40mg/dl or even below in men and 50mg/dl or below in women
• The individual should have high blood pressure measuring 130/85 or even more
• He/she should have blood sugar reading (fasting) of 100mg/dl or more
For a person to have metabolic syndrome he/she should have at least 3 of the above traits.
Symptoms :
The person affected with metabolic syndrome will be obese; will have increased blood pressure, high blood sugar level and high cholesterol level.
Having more number of symptoms poses greater risk to your health than having one or two metabolic conditions. On an average, 30-35% of the total population in the America have metabolic syndrome. The figure is almost the same in European countries also. Metabolic syndrome increases with age and aged people with one symptom is likely to develop more symptoms of this disorder.