Metabolic Syndrome Affects 35% of Americans

Nearly 35% of Americans have been diagnosed with metabolic syndrome which is an association of risk factors for cardiovascular diseases.

The percentage of Americans which are affected by this syndrome has been growing steadily since 2003, but it seems to have reached a plateau in 2015.

Scientists who have studied the matter believe that, after receiving proper education and being made aware of the health risks that the metabolic syndrome entails, people have taken proper measures and the prevalence of the disease did not continue its ascending trend.

However, in order to register a drop in the number of those affected by this disease, cardiologists all over the country continue to promote healthy lifestyle changes. They are trying to explain the need for a low calorie and low fat diet and they promote the benefits that fruits and vegetables bring. They also advise people, especially adolescents and young adults to engage in moderate forms of exercise routinely so as to avoid accumulating cardiovascular risk factors and thus put an end to this veritable epidemic.

From the study that was conducted, it was revealed that 46.% of people aged 60 or more suffered from metabolic syndrome. For people in the age group of 20-39 the percentage was of 18.3%.

There is good news for metabolic syndrome in women seeing as the percentage of women affected dropped from 39.4% in 2007-2008 to 36.6% in 2012.

Metabolic syndrome consists primarily of three factors: high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity. This means that if you accumulate this triad of factors, your chances of developing a cardiovascular illness are far greater than the ones of a person who does not have metabolic syndrome.

But these are just the more serious and common signs of metabolic syndrome and just because you don`t have all three of them, it does not mean that you do not have that syndrome.

Below are all of the factors that define metabolic syndrome and your doctor needs three of them in order to be able to diagnose you with this disease:

– Your waist circumference has to be above 102 cm – men or 88 cm – women

– Your serum triglycerides have to be above 150 mg/dL

– You have to have a blood pressure of at least 130/85 or you have to be on antihypertensive medication

– You have to have a fasting level of glucose in your plasma of 100 mg/dL or more; or you have to be under diabetes medication.

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