How Modern Lifestyle Affects Metabolic Syndrome

We are experiencing a silent health epidemic everywhere, and a majority of the population is not even aware that it has a name. It is known as metabolic syndrome and the lifestyle we have today is one of the major causes why it continues to proliferate. Metabolic syndrome is not an isolated illness.

It is a cluster of diseases whereby they occur simultaneously in the body and increase an individual tendency of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke. Such conditions are high blood sugar levels, high blood pressure levels, too much fat around the waist, high triglycerides, and low HDL (the good cholesterol levels).

Image Source

When an individual has three or more of these together, the physicians state that the person is experiencing metabolic syndrome.
The International Diabetes Federation estimates that one out of four adults across the world can be classified as having metabolic syndrome.

It is not a surprising number when you consider the lifestyle of the people nowadays in contrast with that of fifty years ago. The contemporary lifestyle, its comfort, and convenience have silently become one of the biggest menaces to human health.

The Problem With What We Eat

Modern diet is considered to be one of the largest contributors of metabolic syndrome. I have observed that everywhere you go the processed food is the easiest and least expensive one that can be had. The entire foods that were meant to run the human bodies have been replaced by fast food restaurants, packaged snacks, sweet beverages, and refined carbohydrates.

A paper in the journal Nutrients (2020) has discovered that high consumption of ultra-processed foods was strongly associated with increased prevalence of the metabolic syndrome in several diverse populations. All these foods contain added sugar, bad fats, and excessive salt, which ruin the system of the body in managing the blood sugar and blood pressure in the long-term.

The body in response to increased blood glucose releases insulin in response to excess consumption of refined sugar and carbohydrate by the pancreas. In the long run, the body cells will cease to respond to insulin. This is referred to as insulin resistance and it is the ultimate center of metabolic syndrome.

The studies published in Diabetes Care have continuously indicated that insulin resistance is a cause and outcome of the other diseases comprising metabolic syndrome.

Sitting Too Much, Moving Too little.

Physical inactivity has also become the default of the modern world. Most individuals work over eight or more hours at a desk and at home they sit in front of a screen again. According to the reports provided by the World Health Organization, physical inactivity has become the fourth most predominant risk factor of global mortality.

Working out is not simply a matter of losing weight. It is a direct enhancing factor in both insulin sensitivity, blood pressure, HDL cholesterol and abdominal fat, all four factors of which are direct excellent combatants against metabolic syndrome.

A study conducted in the Journal of the American Medical Association demonstrated that a reasonable amount of physical exercise such as 30 minutes of brisk walking, taken five times a week, greatly decreased the chances of having metabolic syndrome among sedentary adults.

The body was constructed to move and when it constantly ceases moving then the systems of the body start to collapse.

Sleep, Stress, and the Silent Damage

Image Source

Poor sleep and chronic stress are two things that most individuals do not take seriously. These are what I believe should be discussed as they are commonly overlooked when it comes to discussing health. Nowadays, life is stressful, be it due to financial strain or social media stress or work overload, and there is a direct biological cost to this stress.

A hormone by the name cortisol is released in the body when one is under chronic stress. High cortisol in the long-term, promotes fat storage around the belly, elevates blood sugar, and promotes inflammation all which contribute to metabolic syndrome.

The same is the case with sleep deprivation. A study by Annals of Internal medicine reported that even a couple of nights of low sleep levels decreased insulin sensitivity by 25 percent. The current citizens are getting less sleep than ever and the body is paying the price.

The research is very clear. To a large extent, metabolic syndrome is a lifestyle disease. In a 2021 review of the literature in The Lancet, it was established that most cases of metabolic syndrome could be stopped or even reversed by modifying diet, physical exercise, sleeping, and managing stress. The positive thing is that lifestyle causes it, so it can be reversed through lifestyle.

Consuming less processed foods and sugar, exercising the body every day, getting seven or nine hours of sleep, and eliminating stress are not features that can be considered as extravagant. They are medicine to a person who leads a modern lifestyle.

In my opinion, knowing the reason the habits are important, biologically speaking, will provide individuals with more incentive to change, in fact. The body is sending the notification about a metabolic syndrome. It was formed by the modern lifestyle and can be reversed only with a conscious decision.

Thank You So Much For Reading Through My Post

My Reference Cites

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7352022

• https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)00527-7/fulltext

• https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/physical-activity

• https://diabetesjournals.org/care/article/44/1/3/33104/Insulin-Resistance-and-Metabolic-Syndrome

• https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/12/8/2265
  https://annals.org/aim/article-abstract/746773/sleep-deprivation-insulin-resistance

• https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/195495

• https://www.idf.org/our-activities/advocacy-awareness/resources-and-tools/104-the-idf-consensus-worldwide-definition-of-the-metabolic-syndrome.html

• https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/metabolic-syndrome/about-metabolic-syndrome

• https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fendo.2021.632491/full