Syndrome X - How To Avoid The Silent Killer

 By Niall Wogan
 

        You can't see it or feel it. It creeps up on many people and catches them by surprise. Your doctor will often miss it, and may not even test for it. The Journal of the American Medical Association reported that it increases your odds of having a stroke threefold, and increases your risk of death from coronary heart disease by 2.9 - 4.2 times (Lakka 2002). In addition, it can help destroy your vision, kidney and neural functions. What's most disturbing is that it affects approximately 44% of the U.S. population over 50 years of age (Alexander 2003).

 

Syndrome x, or 'metabolic syndrome' as it is sometimes called, was first identified by Stanford researcher Dr. Gerald Reaven in 1988. Dr. Reaven noticed that people suffering from insulin resistance and diabetes were very likely to have a cluster of problems associated with it—namely obesity, high blood pressure, high triglycerides and high blood sugar. Instead of focusing on the individual problems, the Stanford doctor coined the term 'syndrome x' to address the connected symptoms as one condition.

 

Resist Insulin

Insulin resistance is the driving force behind this syndrome. After you eat foods containing carbohydrates, glucose enters your blood stream. Your pancreas responds by releasing the hormone insulin to carry some of the sugar to your cells where it is burned as fuel. Insulin converts excess sugar into small fat particles called triglycerides and stores them on your body as fat.

Since insulin helps convert your food to fat, too much of it can cause weight gain. Unfortunately, as you put on excess weight, your cells become resistant to insulin—a common condition known as insulin resistance. This results in a vicious cycle where your cells are resistant to insulin and your pancreas produces even more of this hormone to try overcome the resistance.

Insulin resistance often precedes diabetes, heart disease and blood pressure problems. It may cause you to feel tired all the time since your cells aren't getting the fuel they require and because the extra insulin in your body drives your blood sugar below optimal levels.

 

A Recent Phenomenon
         Problems such as diabetes and heart disease were almost unheard of 100 years ago.'Heart attacks used to be so rare that the first case wasn't even described until 1912' (Atkins 2000). In fact, by 1930 heart attacks claimed no more than three thousand lives.

For millennia, the human diet contained whole, natural foods which kept blood sugar levels within a normal range. However, in the latter half of the twentieth century, Western countries increased their consumption of refined processed carbohydrates dramatically. Foods such as white bread, cereals and sugar became more prominent in many diets. These foods can cause a spike in blood sugar and your body reacts by releasing more insulin to deal with it.

 

Do You Have Syndrome X?

One of the most common predictors of insulin resistance and syndrome x is excess body weight, particularly around the waist area. According to the National Institutes of Health, the presence of three or more of the following conditions means you have metabolic syndrome.

•    Is your waistline to wide? (> 35 inches for women or > 40 for men)

•    Have you got high blood pressure? (> 130/85 mmHg)

•    Do you have high blood sugar? ( > 110 mg/dL>

•    Are your triglycerides high? (>150 mg/dL)

•    Is your cholesterol high? (HDL cholesterol < 40 mg/dL for women or < 50            mg/dL for men)

It is estimated that 47 million Americans meet these criteria (Hu 2003). If you suspect you might have insulin resistance, a simple, inexpensive test will let you find out for sure. Ask your doctor for a glucose tolerance test—a procedure familiar to most doctors. A score of 110 mg/dL or higher means you may be at risk for metabolic syndrome while a reading above 140 mg/dL or higher means you have insulin resistance (Joffe 1998).

 

What are the Main Causes of Syndrome X?

A sedentary lifestyle and increasing food  portions have been blamed for the recent surge in syndrome x cases. In addition, the rise in blood sugar and obesity problems have closely followed the increased consumption of refined, processed carbohydrates, such as sugar — which raise insulin levels and blood sugar.

In 1815, the average person consumed just 15 pounds of sugar annually. By 1974, this had climbed to about 120 pounds per year (Moss 2002). In 1999 the Center for Science in the Public Interest reported that annual sugar consumption had reached a staggering 158 pounds per person. It is believed that the foods containing refined processed carbohydrates, which can cause blood sugar imbalances, are the main culprits.

 

Does a Low-Fat Diet Help?

Dr. Gerald Reaven, who discovered syndrome x, pointed out that low-fat recommendations are partially to blame for the problem. "In the absence of associated weight loss, the usually recommended low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet makes the manifestations of syndrome X worse (Reaven 2001)."

In fact, observing the data on obesity trends supports these findings. In 1976 just 26% of American adults were overweight when the Dietary Goals for the United States first recommended low-fat eating. When the USDA food pyramid was introduced in 1992, the number of overweight Americans had shot up to 56%. The food pyramid banished fats and oils into a "use sparingly" category, while American's were told to base their diet on refined carbohydrates such as bread, cereal and pasta—the very foods now known to raise blood sugar and the dreaded insulin levels. By 2000, 64% of U.S. adults were overweight. More worryingly, 24% of all Americans were classified as obese in 2000 —an increase of 74% since 1991.

By 2002, the New York Times revealed that "the public health authorities told us unwittingly, but with the best of intentions, to eat precisely those foods that would make us fat, and we did. We ate more fat-free carbohydrates, which, in turn, made us hungrier and then heavier (Taubes 2002)."

 

Rule of Twenty Years

In 1974, an accomplished surgeon, Dr. TL Cleave, made a careful study of third world nations in order to examine whether or not the current Western diet was to blame for the recent rise in blood sugar and cardiovascular problems. He was amazed to see that the absence of modern Western foods was always accompanied by the complete absence of Western diseases such as obesity, colon cancer and diabetes.

His meticulous research revealed a very definite trend in all the countries he studied. Within twenty years of Western foods entering the diet, diseases such as heart disease and diabetes began to appear (Cleave 1974). He called this the 'Rule of Twenty Years." Within forty years, the problems would reach epidemic proportions. This trend has been borne out every culture he studied ranging from the Prima Indians of Arizona to the Yemenites in Israel and Pacific Islanders. This rule is currently proving to be true in Japan and Mexico.

 

Much Needed Hope

There are several different approaches you could take in tackling this modern lifestyle disease. If your physician treats the symptoms of the syndrome individually, you could end up on a different medication for each problem, without even addressing the root cause of poor diet and insufficient exercise.

Dr. TL Cleave believed that "the first step in the treatment of a disease lies in the removal of the cause (Cleave 1974)." In this case, your blood sugar could be helped if you swap your sugars, breads, pastas and cereals for traditional foods such as fruit and vegetables, unprocessed meats and fiber.

Dr. Joseph Mercola, of the Optimal Wellness Center in Illinois, believes that sugar "is one of the biggest enemies we face in our pursuit of a healthy eating program" (Mercola 2004). He even states that "soda should be almost illegal to give to children. I can't think of any reason to continue such a disease-promoting practice. (Mercola 2003)."

Emerging research provides much needed hope in preventing and combating blood sugar problems. In a study from the Diabetes Prevention Program, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers discovered that an improved diet and 30 minutes of mild exercise daily could reduce diabetes risk by 58%—almost twice the rate of the diabetes drug metformin(Glucophage ®) (Knowler 2002).

 

Best Medication

Sethu Reddy M.D. is an endocrinologist at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation who has been carefully studying the problem. He believes that if you're not diagnosed too late, lifestyle changes could slow, or maybe even reverse the development of metabolic syndrome. He says that the best medication for metabolic syndrome is a "healthy dose of common sense." He points to studies which have shown that small decreases in weight— even in persons considered obese—"can result in significant improvements in a number of parameters—dyslipidemia (high LDL, low HDL), high blood pressure, and high blood glucose levels. These are the key components of the metabolic syndrome criteria (Cleveland Clinic Foundation 2004)."

 

Good Health Is Simple

The good news is that this lifestyle disease may be addressed inexpensively with simple dietary changes. Unfortunately, nutritional advice can often be conflicting— leaving many people confused and frustrated. One week we are told to eat margarine, the next butter. One study trumpets low fat eating, while another promotes the low carbohydrate approach. In a 2000 interview on the Larry King CNN show, ninety year old Jack La Lanne summed up the secret of his amazing health and longevity; "If man made it, don't eat it."