The Metabolic Syndrome is an endocrine condition where your body is absolutely screaming for help! These conditions, when combined, produce the metabolic syndrome and dramatically increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

There are 2 criteria for the metabolic syndrome: the World Health Organization (WHO) and Adult Treatment Panel III (ATPIII). I typically use the ATPIII criteria. You need 3 of the following:

  1. Waist circumference: 40″ (males) or 35″ (females)
  2. Triglycerides: >150 mg/dl
  3. HDL: <40 mg/dl
  4. High blood pressure: > 130/85 (or on a blood pressure medicine)
  5. Blood sugar: > 110 mg/dl

In short, your body is in the process of freaking out due to the metabolic derangement. Typically this is due to being overweight, inactive, and having an improper diet.

This whole process – the dyslipidemia, obesity, insulin resistance, hyperglycemia, and hypertension – are ALL due to the metabolic derangement. The cure for this condition is fixing the metabolic derangement

I cannot over-emphasize the importance of addressing this issue early!

Treatment is centered around treating the causes of the derangement (inactivity and poor nutrition). The prescription is the same as for many other things – addressing the 3 primary tenets of health (proper nutrition, proper exercise, and proper rest/stress reduction).

The same treatment approach for Pre-Diabetes will work for the metabolic syndrome as well.

You can also consider the risks and benefits of taking aspirin to decrease the risk of an acute thrombotic event (heart attack) as the metabolic syndrome is a pro-thrombotic state.

However, as we address the ‘Healthy Trinity’ our health will improve (or shift to the right). When this happens, metabolic derangement improves as does hypertension, obesity, diabetes, cholesterol problems, metabolic syndrome, etc also improves.