4. - Metabolic Syndrome

You can't see it, you can't feel it and you can't even diagnose it. This "sin" drome is in fact a cluster of risk factors indicating a severely out-of-kilter body chemistry affecting as many as one in four adults in Australia and NZ today.

Metabolic syndrome is not a new disease by any means, it is rather a cluster of conditions as you will read below. The numbers are going up all the time, it appears to be a major problem in the Western world and is one of the major diseases of the 21st century, a "disease of modern civilisation".   

What exactly is Metabolic Syndrome?

In 1988, a man called Gerald Reaven noted that several risk factors such as high cholesterol, high blood pressure and high blood sugar are commonly clustered together in over weight individuals. This clustering he called Syndrome X, and he recognised it as a high risk factor for cardio- vascular disease.

• Fatigue, sleepiness almost immediately after a high carbohydrate meal. (hypoglycemia) 
• High blood sugar and cortisol levels 
• Hypertension (high blood-pressure) 
• Dyslipidemia (high cholesterol - LDL and triglycerides) 
• Microalbuminurea. A micro albumin urine test determines the presence of the albumin (protein) in the urine. In a properly functioning body, albumin is not normally present in urine because it is retained in the bloodstream by your kidneys. 
• Inflammation (elevated CRP and/or ESR) 
• Brain fogginess & inability to focus 
• Visceral obesity, fat around the tummy, a “spare tyre”. 
• Does your stomach precede you? 
• Do you have an apple-shaped body type? and do you have your own personal spare tire? 
• Insulin resistance is now well known to be associated with intra-abdominal fat as opposed to total fat distribution 
• Intestinal bloating, flatulence, constipation and/or diarrhoea 
• Depression independent of depressive events 
• Erectile dysfunction (ED) 

System malfunction

Metabolic syndrome is a basic malfunction of several systems that keep your body fuelled with blood sugar. Imagine you have a piece of toast for breakfast or a bowl of cereal. In a healthy person, insulin, a hormone produced by your pancreas will rise gradually after you eat, gently persuading your body's cells to absorb the blood sugar after your breakfast. In metabolic syndrome, your body's cells are not obeying insulin's signals, they become "deaf" or resistant to insulin.

Central or abdominal fat can release some surprising chemicals into your bloodstream, including highly reactive immune cell messengers called cytokines. These cytokines have the ability to block insulin's signals to your cells, leaving your cells starving for fuel and your blood sugar piling up in your bloodstream. Your pancreas keeps on producing more and more insulin until eventually the cells get the blood sugar they need as the cytokines get bombarded with lots of insulin and lose their effectiveness.

Sustained insulin resistance can be a silent killer

People with metabolic syndrome can have insulin levels two to three times higher than healthy people, and these levels can remain elevated for many years, creating much damage. A continual and elevated supply of insulin creates a dangerous situation, it is a recipe for disaster as far as your heart is concerned. Triglyceride levels get boosted right up, levels of HDL ("good" cholesterol) get lowered and all this allows fats to remain elevated for several hours in your bloodstream after a meal.

Insulin, like oxidised LDLs, allows normal LDL to more easily enter artery walls, assisting in the formation of dangerous plaque. Further, insulin allows fibrinogen into your bloodstream, allowing blood to clot more rapidly. Can you now see the dangerous cascade of effects which can potentially occur with insulin resistance?

 Your main risk factors

You may already have metabolic syndrome if you have at least three of the following warning signs. High insulin levels may be threatening your heart more than you or your doctor may be realising.

•  Central obesity - do you have a waist measurement of more than 100cm (40 inches) if you are a male, or 90cm (35 inches) if you are a female?  
• High blood pressure - 140/90 mm/Hg or higher. 
• High triglycerides - 1.7 mmol/L or higher. 
• Low HDL - under 0.9 mmol/L for men or 1.00 mmol/L for women. 
• Type 2 diabetes (or impaired glucose tolerance) producing a result of 7.8 mmol/L or greater at 2 hours on an oral GTT test. (glucose tolerance test)  

 Other risk factors

• Overweight -Having a BMI (body mass index) greater than 30. 
• "Sitting disease" - Leading a sedentary lifestyle. 
• Microalbuminurea - Protein in the urine as a result of kidney disease is a classic marker for damage caused by diabetes. 
• Being over 40 - Being older makes you more prone to developing Metabolic syndrome. 
• Being of Maori, Pacific Island, Torres Straight Island or of Aboriginal descent. 
• Family history of Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure or cardiovascular disease. 
• Acanthosis nigrans - patches of thick, brownish, velvety skin at the neck, armpits, groin or under the breasts (women). 
• PCOS - polycystic ovary syndrome (a female infertility health problem) 
• Gestational diabetes. 

Key things you need to know about Metabolic Syndrome

How metabolic syndrome happens - I tend to call this a "sin-drome", and the main reasons it exists are simple - potbellied, too much food and far too little exercise! Metabolic syndrome is the ultimate lifestyle disease, and most always results from far too little activity and exercise and too much central fat. Eventually, too much of the "good life" causes the sedentary lifestyle and tummy fat to work together to make the muscle and liver cells resist the messages they are receiving from insulin. Your body keeps on pumping out more and more insulin. Your cells eventually do absorb the blood sugar but the insulin levels can remain dangerously high for many years.

Why are high insulin levels dangerous? - High levels of insulin cause several problems: one of them is high blood pressure. One of the roles of insulin is to assist the storing of blood sugar, but insulin also plays a role in storing magnesium.

• Magnesium loss - But if your cells become resistant to insulin, you can't store magnesium so you may lose it through urination. Intra-cellular magnesium relaxes muscles. What happens when you can't store magnesium because the cell is resistant? You lose magnesium and your blood vessels constrict. This causes an increase in blood pressure.    
• Sodium retention - Insulin also causes the retention of sodium, which causes fluid retention, which causes high blood pressure and congestive heart failure. 
• Homocysteine elevation - A recent study¹ showed that overweight children with high levels of insulin in their blood are also likely to have high levels of homocysteine, a substance which appears to raise the risk of heart disease and stroke. 
• Cancer - Insulin increases cellular proliferation. How does this affect cancer? It helps it grow. And there are some pretty strong studies which show that one of the strongest correlations to breast and colon cancers are levels of insulin ^{2, 3}. 

References

1. Diabetes Care 2000;23:1348-1352  
2. Annual meeting of Am. Soc. of Clinical Oncology, New Orleans, 2002  
3. National Cancer Institute 2002 September 4;94(17):1293-300 

Detecting metabolic syndrome- Your doctor can authorise a standard medical test for measuring your insulin levels as well as your blood glucose levels during and after a GTT (glucose tolerance test). However, this syndrome can be picked up even without testing, providing you have three or more of the warning signs on this page.

Standard medical care for metabolic syndrome- Doctors will usually advise the patient to lose weight and to increase their levels of physical activity. They may also recommend a statin drug to lower cholesterol and possibly drugs to control high blood pressure symptoms.

The possibility of self-treatment - Very high for most people with metabolic syndrome, and self-care is the best treatment but you will need to look after your whole body - eat right and exercise are the most important factors. Even a little bit of regular exercise will help burn fat and reduce your insulin levels as well as boost insulin sensitivity. Weight loss is one of the best things you can do here, your cells will become much more sensitive to insulin and your pancreas doesn't have to pump out large quantities of insulin continually. 

Heart Drops is a 100% natural herbal formula which can assist and support your heart and circulation, Heart Drops is New Zealand's leading proprietary herbal medicine formula created since 2004 to assist in supporting those with high blood pressure and high cholesterol concerns in a safe, drug free way. Many Australians and New Zealanders have benefited from this formula, and so can you.

If you are overweight and have high blood pressure, heart or circulatory concerns, high cholesterol, chronic inflammation, oxidative stress or metabolic syndrome, then why not try heart Drops?

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Heart Drops were designed to help support your healthy lifestyle and diet thereby optimising your success with your quest for a healthy circulation and heart. Heart Drops were never meant to substitute for your doctor's professional advice or treatment, they play a supportive role and work on an entirely different and more of a nutritional level than drugs do. Whilst drugs do a good job of controlling symptoms, the unique combination of the herbal medicines helps to encourage the development of healthy tissue and assists in healthy blood vessel growth.

The primary action of herbs used in circulatory disorders is to increase the flow of blood to the body’s extremities (arms, legs, fingers and toes) and to improve the health of heart and blood vessel walls in general.

In conjunction with a healthy heart diet and stress management, the traditional herbs used in Heart Drops are the perfect preventive measure for people who have a family history of heart disease. They can be used in combination with drugs as a safe and effective program for combating the gradual loss of heart and circulatory function that comes with age.

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Please Note: Our herbal medicine formulations are not cures nor a remedy for any medical disorder, nor are they a substitute for professional health-care attention, diagnosis and/or treatment.  We never advocate that you stop drugs for blood pressure, high cholesterol or heart disease, but that you get professional advice regarding your treatment and your options. Do not exceed stated dosages without professional advice. Our herbal preparations are not pharmaceutical drugs and are prescribed for nutritional purposes only to support and assist the body to heal itself. Refrigeration not required. Keep out of reach of children. If symptoms persist, see your health-care professional. People sensitive or allergic to any of the ingredients of Heart Drops should avoid this product. 

Disclaimer - While we cannot make any medical claims, the testimonials on this website speak for themselves. The information contained herein is general commentary and not medical advice. If you have concerns or questions about a medical condition, you are advised to consult your health care professional.