Lifestyle habits to follow if you have been diagnosed with metabolic syndrome Professor Hong Jun-hwa, Department of Endocrinology, Daejeon Eulji University Hospital

1. What is metabolic syndrome?

Metabolic syndrome is not a difficult term. If you have abdominal obesity, if you have high levels of triglycerides in your blood test, if you have low HDL cholesterol called "good cholesterol," if your blood sugar is higher than normal even if you are not diabetic, or if there are factors that increase blood pressure, you may have metabolic syndrome. To give you an exact figure, abdominal obesity is defined as a waist circumference of more than 90 cm for men and 85 cm or more for women. It is called an abnormal finding when the triglyceride test result is above 150 mg/dL for both men and women.

HDL cholesterol is good cholesterol for dealing with cholesterol in the blood, so the higher the cholesterol, the better. So, if it's lower than 40 mg/dL for men and 50 mg/dL for women, it's also a threat factor for metabolic syndrome. As for blood pressure, systolic blood pressure is about 130 mmHg and diastolic blood pressure is about 85 mmHg, and this applies to people who are already taking medication for high blood pressure even if their blood pressure is not that high. Blood sugar is normal for fasting blood glucose to a double-digit number below 100 when tested after fasting for more than 8 hours.

The incidence of metabolic syndrome is rapidly increasing in men in their 30s~40s. In fact, the rate of increase with age is high. Normally, it is between 30~50%, but from the age of 30 or older, it is more than 1 in 3.

2. Lifestyle habits that people diagnosed with metabolic syndrome should follow

Don't think that metabolic syndrome is a disease. However, if this situation persists for a long time, it will eventually lead to complications and must be managed. Factors such as blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol, and obesity can lead to adult diseases such as dyslipidemia and diabetes, and even increased mortality.

Nowadays, there are quite a lot of cases of young patients going to the disease due to complications caused by metabolic syndrome. It's important to get prescribed medication to treat it, but the most important thing is to prevent it from getting to the point of developing such a disease before you do so. The first step in correcting your lifestyle is your diet. First of all, since it is metabolic syndrome that is based on obesity, treatment to reduce weight should be the first priority.

So, if you're obese, losing at least 5% of your body weight is a top priority. Then, if you have slightly higher blood sugar, you may want to reduce the proportion of carbohydrates. Many people mistakenly believe that triglycerides are caused by eating a lot of fatty foods. However, when there is an abnormality in blood sugar, simple sugars such as carbohydrates are converted into lipids in the blood, so it is very important for people with high triglyceride levels to reduce the amount of carbohydrates or increase protein intake first.

And then there's blood sugar, blood pressure, and dyslipidemia, which are fine, but sometimes it's just obesity. In this case, it's very important to manage your diet to reduce the overall amount. Exercise also helps. What I would like to emphasize more about exercise is that it's really hard to manage with exercise alone without reducing the amount of food you eat. Therefore, the most important thing to do is to adjust your diet first and then combine it with exercise. For those who don't usually exercise often, it is helpful in the long run to warm up for some time before starting to exercise in earnest, and then gradually increase the intensity of the exercise as you start doing aerobic exercise.

The next thing, which is a bit obvious, is that you need to cut down on alcohol, quit smoking, and be as stressless as possible. That's actually the most important thing. Even if you work hard, you can't beat a cigarette. When it comes to alcohol, the quantity is important. Alcohol is one of those foods that is truly unprofitable. It doesn't have any nutrients like minerals or vitamins. It is made up entirely of alcohol, which turns into oil when it enters the body.

Therefore, it is important for those who are high in triglycerides to reduce alcohol consumption first. It's better to reduce it gradually rather than drastically reduce it. There are many ways to relieve stress, right? Sleeping, screaming, etc. The most important thing is to find a way to relieve stress in a way that works for you.