What is Metabolic Syndrome, Exactly?

It is a cluster of conditions, including obesity, insulin resistance or Type 2 diabetes, hypertension, high triglycerides and low HDL cholesterol levels that, in combination, raise the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. It is also linked to infertility and cancers of the breast, prostate and colon.

The condition is a basic malfunction of the systems that keep your cells fuelled with blood sugar. Suppose you’ve just eaten a bowl of oatmeal. Normally, levels of the hormone insulin rise slightly after you eat a meal, persuading cells to absorb the blood sugar provided by your breakfast. In metabolic syndrome, the cells cannot obey insulin’s signal. It appears that central fat—the abdominal fat you’ve already read about—releases some surprising chemicals into the bloodstream, including immune system messengers called cytokines.

Cytokines block signals from insulin to cells to let sugar in, so then your cells have no fuel and blood sugar is building up in the bloodstream. Your pancreas responds by producing more insulin until, eventually, insulin overcomes cytokines and cells get the blood sugar they need.

People with metabolic syndrome can have insulin levels two or three times higher than normal—levels that can stay elevated for decades.

Why It’s Dangerous

All that excess insulin is a recipe for heart disease. It boosts triglycerides in your bloodstream, lowers levels of “good” HDLs and allows higher than normal amounts of fat to end up in your bloodstream after a meal—and stay there longer. Insulin also converts “bad” LDLs into smaller, denser particles that can easily enter artery walls forming the foundation for plaque.

Additionally, it raises concentrations of fibrinogen in the bloodstream, allowing blood to clot more easily. It is hardly surprising that metabolic syndrome is so dangerous for your heart.

Why Is Metabolic Syndrome So Widespread?

The main reasons for its current prevalence are simple—pot-bellies and too little exercise. The numbers are going up in direct proportion to Canada’s epidemics of obesity and inactivity. Interestingly, researchers have found that insulin resistance seems also to be linked with poor fetal nutrition, especially in combination with rapid growth in childhood.

How Is It Diagnosed?

There’s no simple test for it, though your doctor may use a two-hour glucose-tolerance test as an indicator. The only signs are a few slightly worrying symptoms that, individually, may not even bother you or your doctor.