Next Steps for Metabolic Syndrome

Treatment of metabolic syndrome is aimed at preventing heart diseases. First steps include working with you to lowering your high LDL (bad) cholesterol, blood pressure, and managing diabetes if applicable.

Treatment involves making lifestyle changes such as:

• Eating healthy, nutrient- rich foods that help fuel your body and help prevent cardiovascular disease. Your dietary recommendations will be personalized for your body based on your health history, family health history, and your lab work. Simple changes like avoiding excess salt, refined food, fats and added sugars will go a long way because these tend to promote development of heart disease. Alcohol will be limited because it tends to limit nutrient absorption as well as making other goals including weight loss harder. Your body has to metabolize alcohol in the liver which is also where fat tissue is broken down during weight loss. If we have to choose, we want to use your liver resources to help break down that fat tissue!
• Losing weight: If weight is a struggle of yours we’ll want to address that. One of the conditions that can lead to a Metabolic Syndrome diagnosis is an elevated waist to hip ratio. If you tend to gain weight around just your hips, your risk for metabolic syndrome (and indeed heart disease) are much lower. If you have started gaining weight around your abdomen that’s when we need to be concerned. And address the problem. We’ll work with you to design a healthy lifestyle plan to help you shed those extra pounds with a focus on the dangerous ones- the ones around your waist. Your muffin top matters and we want to help you get rid of it.
• Exercising and being physically active: We’ve all heard this before. Exercise is good for our hearts. But it’s also good for our energy, focus, motivation, digestion, mental clarity, hormone balance, blood sugar control, inflammatory control, eye sight and so much more. Even moderate amounts of exercises can add to healthy living. There are four main types of exercises that you can follow and we want to help you figure out what’s best for your body: bone strengthening, muscle-strengthening, aerobic and stretching.
• Quit smoking: Smoking can increase your risk of heart disease. Patients with metabolic syndrome significantly increase their risk for a cardiovascular event (stroke, heart attack, TIA, etc.) by smoking as well. If you’re ready to quit smoking, let us help you take the next steps.
• Reduce stress: Employ certain relaxation techniques to lower your levels of stress. Don’t know any? Let us teach you! Stress relaxation doesn’t just mean yoga. There are a lot of ways to lower stress levels. And if you’re thinking right now, “I just don’t have time for any of that!” then we’re definitely in need of stress reduction.

Let’s get started! We can’t wait to help you reduce your risk and get your health to where you want it to be.