Life-threatening Metabolic Syndrome Every third person is already affected!

A prosperity disease is spreading

About every third person in Germany suffers from the metabolic syndrome - and the trend is rising. Many do not even know that they are affected. This syndrome reflects a combination of four physical conditions that are often the result of a modern lifestyle: obesity, high blood pressure, high blood lipid levels and high blood sugar. Doctors warn of the serious consequences of this condition, which is ticking in our body like an inner time bomb.

Heart attack, stroke, heart failure, diabetes, gout, kidney, eye and nerve damage are just some of the consequences that favors a metabolic syndrome. Why this condition is so dangerous Eric Martin at an international advanced training congress of the Federal Chamber of Pharmacists.

Physicians warn that the metabolic syndrome in us progresses without much suffering until it comes to a sudden outbreak. (Image: El Gaucho / fotolia.com)

The deadly quartet

"Untreated, the metabolic syndrome is still a time bomb today," explains Dr. med. Martin in a press release of the Federal Association of German Pharmacist Associations. The widespread combination of obesity, high blood pressure, elevated blood lipid and blood glucose levels dramatically increases the risk of heart disease and diabetes. These four states of health, also known as the deadly quartet, bring together a whole range of risk factors for complications.

Why is the metabolic syndrome so dangerous

"Obesity and obesity are not just cosmetic problems," says the expert. Especially the accumulation of fat in the abdominal region ("apple type") is associated with a greatly increased number of inflammatory messengers, which are formed by the abdominal fat and have a negative effect on the whole body. At the same time, excess fats from the blood deposit as plaque in the blood vessels, promoting atherosclerosis (arteriosclerosis) - a major trigger for heart attack and stroke. The hypertension promotes chronic heart failure and could also lead to kidney and eye damage. Constantly elevated blood sugar contributes to the onset of type 2 diabetes. In addition, patients with metabolic syndrome often also show elevated uric acid levels, which in turn favor gout.

Dangerous insulin resistance

"Most important consequence of the inflammatory obesity and thus triggers the metabolic syndrome is an insulin resistance", emphasize the experts of the Federal Chamber of Pharmacists. As a result, the effect of the body's own hormone insulin is significantly disturbed. For a while, the body can correct this by increasing insulin production independently, until it finally comes to a diabetes development. At the same time, the oversupply of insulin also fuels other morbid conditions such as high blood pressure, lipid metabolism disorders and arteriosclerosis.

What can one do against the metabolic syndrome?

"The earlier this cycle is interrupted, the more the harmful effects on health can be avoided," Dr. Martin. Lifestyle changes with healthier diet, weight loss and more exercise are an indispensable basis for treating the syndrome.

Too late treatment due to lack of suffering

"Patients often do not understand the relationships between the individual factors," says Martin. In the developmental phase of the syndrome, there is often a lack of suffering - until the "bomb" takes its place. According to Dr. Martin also gives too many patients a more comfortable grip on the drug rather than facing lifestyle changes. However, this works only against individual aspects of the syndrome. Here there is still much education by doctors and pharmacists, sums up the expert. (Vb).