Heart Disease Risk Factor #5: Metabolic Syndrome and Diabetes (page 2 of 2)

Diabetes

About 5 to 10 percent of people with metabolic syndrome will go on to develop type 2 diabetes, and that percentage is probably rising, given the current obesity epidemic. Diabetes significantly increases heart disease risk. In fact, some 80 percent of people with diabetes eventually die of coronary heart disease. Diabetes can contribute to an imbalance between HDL and LDL. And like people with metabolic syndrome, diabetics tend to have smaller, denser LDL particles, which lead to more plaque. To make matters worse, glucose (blood sugar) latches onto lipoproteins, and sugar-coated LDL stays in the bloodstream longer than normal LDL, presenting more opportunity for oxidation.

Glucose also binds to proteins on the surface of endothelial cells, damaging the artery wall. This blood vessel assault is one of the factors that leads to blindness and kidney damage in people with diabetes, and researchers suspect the same forces are at work with coronary heart disease. But since the blood vessels leading to the eyes and kidneys are smaller and more delicate than those leading to the heart, that damage turns up sooner.

By the Numbers
There is no single test for metabolic syndrome, but if you have three or more of the following factors, you probably have it:

• Large waise circumference For men: larger than 40 inches. For women: larger than 35 inches.
• High fasting triglyceride level 150 mg/dl or higher.
• High blood pressure 130/85 mm/Hg or higher.
• High fasting glucose levels 110-125 mg/dl

You have diabetes if your fasting blood glucose levels are 126 mg/dl or higher. Normal fasting blood glucose levels are between 80 and 120 mg/dl.

Quick Tips

• Lose weight. Shedding excess pounds makes cells more sensitive to insulin, so less is required. The Finnish Diabetes Program and the Diabetes Prevention Program found that a 7 percent loss of body weight cut the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by more than half.


• Focus on complex, high-fiber carbohydrates, which help reduce the amount of insulin your body needs. This is because soluble fiber, abundant in many grains, beans, lentils, and some fruits and vegetables, slows the absorption of glucose into the bloodstream after a meal, which reduces both blood sugar levels and insulin requirements.

From Cut Your Cholesterol

 

• Healthy Heart
• Cholesterol
• Diabetes
• Heart Disease

• Heart Disease Risk Factor #3: Germs
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• Heart Disease Risk Factor #4: Homocysteine
• A potentially deadly amino acid.
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• Heart Disease Risk Factor #6: High Blood Pressure
• The symptom-less cause of damaged arteries.
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• Heart Disease Risk Factor #7: Depression
• The power of your mind over your heart.
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• Heart Disease Risk Factor #8: Uric Acid
• A controversial sign of heart disease.
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