The diagnosis metabolic syndrome dates back to the 1950’s. It became more popular around the late 1970’s when the low fat diets first became popular. Today, it is a diagnosis used regularly to define an ever growing percentage of our population. We doctors make it sound like a “disease” requiring our intervention to overcome this life threatening syndrome. In reality, it is a state of dysfunction caused PRIMARILY by the consumer.
What is Metabolic Syndrome? It is a state of diminishing health based on an individual diagnosed with any three of the following five conditions:
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elevated blood pressure (≥ 130/85mmHg)
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elevated fasting blood sugar (≥100mg/dL)
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excess body fat around the waste (abdominal obesity >35 inches in women and >40 inches in men)
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HDL cholesterol ≤40 mg/dL for men or 50 mg/dL for women
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elevated triglycerides (≥150 mg/dL)
In real numbers, these conditions exist in the United States population as follows:
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as of 2015, approximately 75 million had elevated blood pressure (29% of the adult U.S. population)
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as of 2015, approximately 84.1 million had elevated fasting blood sugar (26% of the adult U.S. population)
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as of 2014, approximately 114.7 million had obese levels of body fat around the waste (35% of the adult U.S. population)
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as of 2014, approximately 40 million had reduced HDL “good cholesterol” (20% of adults between 18-65 years of age)
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as of 2014, approximately 66 million had elevated triglycerides (33% of adults between 18-65 years of age)
YOU DON’T “CATCH” METABOLIC SYNDROME
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You develop it PRIMARILY by ignoring necessary lifestyle behaviors every doctor explains to their patient. These include:
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REASONABLE exercise (3X/week for at least 20 minutes)
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REASONABLE eating (80-90% healthy and 10-20% comfort foods)
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Stress reduction (yoga, meditating, walking, reading, listening to music or anything that restores breathing, pulse rate, heart rate and hormones to normal functioning levels)
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Restful sleep (6-9 hours each night)
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Proper hydration (at least half of one’s body weight measured in pounds) (ex body weight 200lbs, consumption should equal 100 ounces.
Incorporating these lifestyle habits PREVENT metabolic syndrome (to a large extent), while supporting healthy body and mind function.
Stop with the EXCUSES
It is NOT OUR JOB as doctors to maintain your self induced health maladies. It is our job to teach you your role and your responsibilities. It is our job to intervene when healthy living falls short of healthy outcomes. It is our job to support the body’s needs for the LIMITED time it takes to restore healthy balance. Naturally, there will be exceptions where lifetime support will be required. This, however, will be the minority of situations as opposed to the majority that currently exists.
Metabolic Syndrome isn’t cured with prescription drugs!
Choosing to follow a REALISTIC healthy lifestyle that meets all essential needs of the body and mind is the only CURE to metabolic syndrome. Medicating this syndrome only attempts to “stabilize” it while placing the individual at greater risk for additional health problems resulting from their side effects. How many more pills must be swallowed before realizing you’re no closer to overcoming metabolic syndrome? Do you really want to rely on your doctor’s attempt to CONTROL your body’s function, or would you rather take back CONTROL, restore health and enjoy a quality of life you haven’t known for YEARS?
THIS IS A REAL OPTION IF YOU DECIDE TO ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR FOLLOWING A LIFESTYLE DESIGNED TO ACHIEVE THIS OUTCOME
All About Healthy Choices 
Loved this post, Jonathan. I particular love the way you are so clear and concise with how you explain these issues. I truly hope your posts reach many people because you have such an important message. Thank you, as always.
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So appreciated. Hopefully these messages reach those MINDS ready and willing to change. In reality, these are the people who will likely benefit the most.
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Wow I love this one where I learn of a new ‘disease’. More pills to be popoed , more elaborate research studies and more puzzles to the big big one. What can we do ourselves to help ourselves??? As for me and my boys I will do all it takes to make the best choices possible to spare us these buzz ‘diseases’. Thanks for all the info you share doc
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Always a pleasure. You are doing an amazing job with those children. They will thank you down the road as they mature!
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They already do doc and their just adapting so to veggies is my biggest joy. Carrots and cucumbers are their snacks of choice. Ice cream or chips are a weekly treat.
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That medicine cabinet on the left…!!! Hard to imagine. It illustrates your point very effectively.
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Thank you. I have seen MANY medications in my patient’s houses like the one on the left. What’s amazing to me is how UNHEALTHY these patients are with all these pharmaceuticals they’ve purchased. It’s never occurred to them to step back and evaluate the quality of their own life and the impact these drugs have had. Mindlessly, they assume doctors know what’s best and swallow their pills. They continue to maintain their harmful lifestyles and continue to receive more and more prescriptions over time. What does it take for a person to ask, “what’s missing in this equation?”
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Why are people who claim to have a “food addiction” always “addicted” to processed crap junk food? When is the last time you saw someone who couldn’t stop stuffing their face with celery and bean sprouts? Metabolic syndrome, food addiction…whatever. It’s all just a medical excuse for people who are too lazy & unmotivated to take care of themselves.
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I understand your sentiments, but the problem is a little more complicated than discipline. Bean sprouts and celery aren’t advertised the same way Doritos chips and coke are advertised. These “cheap” products create true hormonal disruption affecting brain function. This is not to say people can’t overcome their issues; it simply is intended to show a greater complication than may be recognized.
Living a healthy lifestyle requires work and effort. If it was easy, everyone would be healthy.
I agree with you, however, that people should be more accountable for their choices. It should financially cost a person CHOOSING unhealthy behaviors on a regular basis because they are at greater risk of developing chronic diseases. Our current health care system does not take this into account when determining health care premiums. Provide financial incentives to become healthy and see how many more people will participate in the process. The “pain” of loss of quality of life does not appear to offer enough motivation to reverse this trend.
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Speaking of being held accountable for choices, coincidentally, just today a coworker told me that under our new insurance plan, smokers are going to be charged an extra $1600/year (he is a smoker). So his habit is going to cost him $133/month more than what the rest of us pay. We work for a large company with very generous healthcare benefits. I can understand why they want to control costs while keeping the current benefit level. Money is tight for all of us and I feel bad for the guy, but as you say, we make our choices…
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Guess ??? A good point well illustrated…It leaves me wondering though why don’t doctors get together within their areas and get the message out there???? You do a wonderful job online and I am sure off line..Even if they went into schools…Governments they need to be more proactive…I know it should come from the individual but reduce taxes on good foods and hike them up on the rest…It needs to be a concerted effort by everyone..Shared 🙂
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My approach to health receives tremendous resistance from the medical community, the media and the average patient. There are billions of dollars that could be impacted by lifestyle changes. There is great pressure from lobbying groups to support unhealthy food products. Recently, trans fats were finally banned from manufacturing. Initially, manufacturers were permitted to continue using these fats for 3 years beyond the ban. Now, this has been extended for another 3 years. The only way to override the strength of lobbying is to convince the consumer directly. This is a very challenging task.
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I am just stunned that this is allowed..I am surprised these people sleep at nights….
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Reblogged this on One Regular Guy Writing about Food, Exercise and Living Past 100 and commented:
Herewith a wonderful write up on Metabolic Syndrome, a medical condition that sadly seems to be gaining in popularity. Dr. Jonathan gives a great explanation of it and what you can do to avoid succumbing to it.
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Thank you so much for sharing, Tony
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It’s so true that “metabolic syndrome” has become a thing these past few years and it didn’t dawn on me until just reading your post that it’s a made up disease. The symptoms of course are real and dangerous but like you said, it’s not a “syndrome” that people just catch. Amazing what we can be lead to believe. Great info as always Jonathan!
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Thank you Tricia. Metabolic disease (predominantly) is caused by an unhealthy lifestyle. Instead of the medical field addressing this root cause, they choose instead to medicate EACH COMPONENT (high blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, etc…) How are patients ever to restore health if these medical treatments are designed to maintain these diseases? When is the last time you remember a patient asking how much longer it will be until “I am cured of “X” disease”? We go to doctors who diagnose chronic diseases and conditions we accept living with for the rest of our lives. How did we learn to accept this level of negligence? Are they really providing all the education and support needed (in addition to their pharmaceutical recommendations) to helping patients successfully OVERCOME/CURE these diseases and conditions?
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It is each persons choice! I am trying to get back on track and this surely reminds me!!!! Thanks for the informative and real article!
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Hope this info helps you discover the right path.
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Thanks
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Mine is the medicine cabinet on the right (except sub in Aleve for the Advil – I like the good stuff). I don’t exhibit one of the five traits listed and my wife and I take no prescription meds (not bad for almost 50).
The key is in not being targeted or attacked for calling metabolic syndrome what it is. In certain circles, what is so rightly expressed here and in your post is labeled hate speech (via “fat shaming”). These are strange times indeed
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Glad to see you and your wife have discovered a successful path.
My audience knows my intent and knows the compassion I offer to the world. I may “say it like it is,” but always do so respectfully. Stepping on eggshells rarely motivates real change. I have an important message, but only want those receptive for new ideas and those seeking alternative paths hidden from their current perceptions to consider the ideas I provide.
Thank you for your comment and your willingness to spend your time reading my article. Like you, I am 58 and have no imbalances requiring pharmaceutical drugs. I pursue life with high energy and a structured lifestyle that provides essential needs for good mental and physical health.
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Another great one – and I like how you point out how simple it is to “cure” this disease. Almost anyone can eat healthily and get in exercise, but that small amount of effort it takes to do so seems beyond the desire/knowledge of so many. Your work to spread the word continues to be great!
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Thank you Sarah. I can’t wait for people to comment about their newly designed ACTION STEPS that have improved their quality of life. This is what people need to regularly see in order to consider becoming part of this new “club.”
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Oh Jonathan, when are some people going to wake up and smell the coffee !!!
Thank you for always putting awareness out there.
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Hopefully soon. My fingers are getting tired of typing!! 😀
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[…] In the United States, our rates of cancer, diabetes, cardiac disease and stroke have proven to be associated with unhealthy weight gain. As a precursor to these conditions, metabolic syndrome is a major factor crippling the health of our population. Metabolic syndrome leads to chronic inflammation within the body creating a conducive environment for life threatening diseases. For more about metabolic disease you can click on the following link: (What is metabolic syndrome?) […]
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I would like to balance your readers self-satisfied points of view, since every single one of them seemed to be congratulating themselves for NOT suffering from this problem, by pointing out that the single most prescribed drug by doctors in this country is Abilify, an anti-psychotic drug that is also used (and highly mis-used in my opinio) for boosting anti-depressants that don’t work, though really to avoid sparking mania…my point is that one of the most well-known side effect of this drug and other similar drugs, which are widely prescribed in the US, is “metabolic syndrome”. While this comdition may appear to be the result of consumer choices, if you have ever been forced, literally by legal order, to take a similar drug like, for instance, Zyprexa (olanzapine) and as a direct and well-established result, put on nearly 80 pounds, you can imagine how scornful and desparaging posts like yours would make someone feel. I no longer take Zyorexa but i do still have to take anti-psychotic drugs and while i have kept my weight under control, it is not easy by any means…i will continue to take issue with doctors blaming the very patients to whom they prescribe these dangerous and useless but nevertheless addictive drugs. Once you have taken them, been forced to take them, for decades they cannot be stopped easily if at all.
Stop blaming your victims and take the hippocratic oath for what it means: first and foremost, do no harm. Maybe you do not prescribe antipsychotic drugs, or only to those you feel “need them” but they do not work at all, and you should know this, not for me with a diagnosis, and not for anyone, they do much more harm than good. But once someone takes them, stop blaming the victim for “consumer choices” when so many of your drugs are likely at the root.
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Thank you for reading and having the courage to voice your opinion on this subject. You make many excellent points; many or which could never be fully understood unless one went through the experiences themselves.
“First do no harm” is an oath I take very seriously. My blog site offers FREE information sharing various approaches to health issues including information often undisclosed to the public.
I do not simply blame the patient. I blame ALL parties involved that contribute to the CAUSE of the underlying issues and either offer superficial “treatments” (that commonly focus on the symptoms rather than the true problems) or participate in behaviors that promulgate behaviors that encourage chronic disease.
There are certainly “victims” that suffer painful diagnoses independent of lifestyle behavior. These, however, are the minority of cases.
Rather than pointing fingers, I believe doctors and patients would be smarter to recognize each plays an important role in assisting the body to achieve a healthy outcome. It is NOT a unilateral relationship. Communication along with a dynamic plan of action is essential to achieve the best results. This means re-evaluation is needed to determine if the doctors recommendations need adjusting AND whether the patients ability to comply is succeeding. Both the doctor and patient must LISTEN and HEAR each other for this professional relationship to produce the best possible results.
Thank you again for sharing your perspective. My blog site is about respectful communication and an awareness that courteous dialogue with varying views are needed to better understand health problems along new treatment plans to addressing them.
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