"Metabolic syndrome" is the name for a group of diseases that affect most Americans in their 40s and older. Metabolic syndrome is a group of symptoms that tend to show up at the same time. There is too much fat around your waist, high blood pressure, high LDL cholesterol, low HDL cholesterol, high triglyceride levels, and high blood sugar when you wake up.
Many Americans say they are starting to pay more attention to their health now that more of them have high-deductible health plans and health savings accounts. Health savings accounts (HSAs) let you save money before taxes to pay for medical costs in the future. Because deposits grow tax-free and medical withdrawals are not taxed, you could have hundreds of thousands of dollars in your HSA by the time you retire if you put money in it and stay healthy.
Insulin resistance seems to be the main metabolic problem that almost all people with metabolic syndrome seem to share. Insulin is a hormone that helps your body get the carbs you eat into your cells. If you are insulin resistant, your cells don't respond well to insulin, so your pancreas has to make more of it to keep your blood sugar from getting too high. (You get diabetes when your pancreas can't keep up with this increased demand.) If you are insulin sensitive, it means that your body works well with less insulin.
Metabolic syndrome can be avoided almost entirely, which is good news. If you don't do it, you'll have a much better chance of avoiding heart disease, breast cancer, colon cancer, prostate cancer, stroke, and a lot of other serious health problems. Even though not all of the reasons for metabolic syndrome have been found, there is a lot of evidence that combining several lifestyle changes is a very good way to prevent it.
Exercise
Exercise does more than just burn calories or build muscle. One of the most important ways that exercise helps is by making insulin work better. When you eat carbohydrates, insulin is released, and glucose transporters move to the surface of the cell to bring glucose into the cell. This transporter is called Glut-4 in muscle and fat cells. Exercise makes your muscle cells much more sensitive to insulin by helping Glut-4 move through the cell membrane and to the surface of the muscle cell. Even a single workout will make your muscles better at responding to insulin.
Eat foods with low levels of sugar
The glycemic index tells us how fast a food makes our blood sugar rise. The "white foods" make up most of the high-glycemic carbs in the American diet (bread, pasta, rice, white potatoes, and sugar). Many of the changes that come with metabolic syndrome are caused by these foods, such as lower HDL levels and higher triglycerides. When these foods are eaten year after year, insulin levels stay high for a long time. In the end, this makes the cells less sensitive to insulin, which increases the risk of obesity, high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes, and dying too soon. Most fruits and vegetables are low-glycemic carbohydrates. Your insulin sensitivity can improve a lot if you limit or avoid high-glycemic grains, potatoes, and sugars and eat more low-glycemic fruits and vegetables, fish, and lean meat.
What Fats to Eat
In past issues, we've talked about how fish oil seems to do amazing things for your health. Fish oil makes insulin work better. Even though Eskimos are often overweight, they rarely get diabetes because they eat a lot of fish oil. Even though no one knows how fish oil works yet, many researchers think that it makes the cell membrane more "fluid," which makes it easier for the Glut-4 transporters to move to the surface of the cell when insulin is present. Everyone who doesn't eat fish very often should think about taking a good fish oil.
Saturated and trans fats, on the other hand, make the cell membrane stiffer and less flexible, and they also make the cell less sensitive to insulin. Trans fats are found in processed foods, while saturated fats are mostly found in beef, pork, and dairy. Trans fats should be avoided as much as possible, and saturated fats should be kept to a minimum.
Get Plenty of Protein
If you don't eat starches, you'll need to get those calories from somewhere else. Lean protein is a good choice. Protein makes you feel fuller than any other macronutrient, speeds up your metabolism, and helps you lose weight. Lean meats like turkey breast and chicken breast, lean beef, fish, and eggs are the best sources of protein. And if you are overweight, losing weight is the fastest way to make insulin work better for you. In fact, losing weight helps all parts of metabolic syndrome a lot. If you eat the right foods, your body will tend to stay at the right weight without you having to count calories or starve yourself.
Do something
Remember that reading an article has never helped anyone get better health. Even though there are drugs that can treat some of the symptoms, there is no drug that can cure metabolic syndrome, and as people age, almost everyone becomes more insulin resistant. The length and quality of your life will be greatly affected by the lifestyle choices and actions you take today to improve your insulin sensitivity.
HSAs are liked by a lot of people because they reward people who are responsible for themselves. By saving money for future medical costs, you are being a good citizen and deserve the tax breaks that an HSA gives you. If you put the same amount of money into your health, you will not only be healthy enough to enjoy your retirement, but you will also have a lot of money saved up.
