First published by The Attitude Edge under permission from LIFE Studio Research © Copyright March 2004.  All rights reserved.  May be printed and shared freely in whole for personal use only.
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Metabolic Syndrome
The corporate disease of the 21st century

It may come as a shock to learn that Australia has now surpassed America in obesity statistics.  With now over 50% of our population being classed as overweight or obese, it has become a problem of epidemic proportions.  The frightening reality is that obesity is attacking our children younger than ever before and with devastating results.

Recent statistics indicate that obesity in Australia is growing (no pun intended) at the alarming rate of 26% per decade with now 58% of men and 42% of women being classed as overweight1.  Putting that in perspective, it means that half of the people you know are carrying more weight than is ideal for their health.

Obesity remains the single biggest risk factor for many serious diseases including heart disease and diabetes.

Obesity also has a significant impact on Australia’s workplaces.  Obesity often raises stress levels, in turn affecting the lower immune system.  Obese people are more at risk of contracting the flu and other contagious illnesses which are often spread through workplaces because of their weaker immunity.  The resulting downturn of productivity through absenteeism affects company profits, workplace morale and individual self-esteem.  Many overweight people also suffer from depression.

Yet here is a bizarre irony.  Conscious of their problem, many overweight people eat healthy food and many of them exercise.  Yet they continue to gain weight for no sensible reason, regardless of what they do or don’t do.

The benefits of addressing obesity hardly need to be stated.  With the positive trend towards healthier lifestyles, many people are recognising the benefits of trimming down and shaping up.  The explosion of personal training firms, weight loss centres, gymnasiums and even workplace sports is evidence enough that Australians at least recognise the value of good health.

So what is the problem?  If everybody wants to be healthy, why are the statistics painting a different picture?  Why are there more overweight people in Australia today than there were 10 years ago?

There’s hardly an overweight person alive who hasn’t at some time signed up to a weight loss program or at least tried to diet in an attempt to take charge of the problem.  Are the failures merely undisciplined people?  Are they cheating on their diets?  Not always.  But something is certainly preventing many well intentioned people from achieving the health goals they are striving for.

Take the example of Peter and Susie, a happily married couple in their late 30’s with two children who both…

Peter is as skinny as a rake yet Susie is about 25kg overweight and growing.  All the traditional factors supposedly contributing to weight gain have been eliminated because they both eat the same healthy food, do the same amount of exercise and are otherwise in good health.  Strange as it seems, this scenario is all too common.

The evidence suggests that there is something different about the way Peter and Susie’s bodies process food and respond to exercise.  It’s called metabolism.

Metabolism is simply the way our body processes the food we eat.  In a properly functioning human, food is converted into energy, stored in the fat cells and then released on demand.  If we only derived energy directly from eating food, we would feel energetic only for a short while after we had eaten.  This storage and release mechanism is an ingenious way of spreading available energy over a long period of time.

Many people however experience quite the opposite after eating food, often feeling drowsy and lethargic.  There is a reason for this and it is a signal that something is wrong with our metabolism.

Metabolic syndrome is fast becoming known as the disease of the 21st century.  The symptoms include…

The precise cause of metabolic syndrome is still the subject of medical debate, but the evidence suggests that a sudden trauma whether psychological or physical, is responsible for destabilising several key hormones that control metabolism.  Such traumas could include childbirth, adolescence, moving home (especially to a new country or city), a failed relationship, changing jobs, a death of a friend or relative, an accident or even heightened stress at work or home.

Once a person’s metabolism has been destabilised, all the evidence suggests that it cannot be corrected without intervention.  This means that unless something is actually done to reverse the hormonal imbalance, most people will continue gaining weight without any significant change in their lifestyle.

The problem is further complicated by the fact that obesity itself is cyclical.  The more fat we gain, the more the body craves the very things it has become sensitive or allergic to, predominantly starches and sugars.  In addition, we inherit symptoms of obesity which can become chronic (ie: lifelong) if left untreated. 

Consider the following story…

Frank is a 46 year old happily married man with 3 children is the retail manager of a large furniture chain.  He has worked for the company for 12 years and has always been well respected by both his superiors and subordinates alike.  Frank was renowned for always being at work early and among the last to leave every day and had only taken 7 sick days in the entire time he had worked for the company.  Frank had been slim all his life until 2 years ago when he was involved in a car accident.  The accident was not his fault and Frank was practically unharmed, but a passenger in the other vehicle died in hospital a few days after. In the 12 months since the accident, Frank…

One year ago, Frank signed up at the gymnasium down the road from his office in the belief that he could exercise his way to being slim again.  Experiencing no significant reduction is his weight and with declining energy levels, Frank embarked on a prominent calorie-based weight loss program, lost 6kg in 3 months and then gave up out of frustration with the slow progress and restrictive diet.  Within 2 months, Frank had not only gained the weight he had lost, but had added another 5kg on top.  Today, Frank suffers from the following…

Along with thousands of other corporate executives and managers, Frank is a prime candidate for heart disease and diabetes.  Simply put, he has Metabolic Syndrome.

So what did Frank do wrong?  Nothing!  There is probably nothing Frank or anybody else could’ve done to change the chain of events that led him to where he is today.  Whilst that in itself is a tragedy, the real problem lays with the lack of information and education about Metabolic Syndrome.  Had Frank’s doctor done his homework, he might have instructed Frank to change his lifestyle and nutritional habits much sooner.  Without a lifestyle change, Frank’s health problems are not about to improve.

But why did the calorie-based weight loss program not work for Frank?  Calories or kilojoules are measurements of energy from which an eating and exercise program can be formulated to bring about a gain or drop in a person’s weight.  It is basically a system of credits and debits where the energy value of food eaten is offset by the energy expended through exercise.  The problem with the ‘calorie theory’ is that it only works when the person doesn’t have an underlying metabolic problem.  People with Metabolic Syndrome do not respond well to calorie based programs for that reason.

Another commonly misunderstood aspect of weight management is the role of exercise.  Most people have been led to believe that unless they exercise they will not lose weight, and that if they do exercise, they will lose weight.  Neither is necessarily true.  Exercise draws on available energy, but if the hormone responsible for releasing stored energy from the fat cells is abnormally low (as it is with Metabolic Syndrome), exercise can make an overweight person feel terrible and can even be hazardous to their health.  Under such circumstances, any weight lost is more likely to be muscle and water loss rather than actual fat loss.  The benefits of exercise are primarily in strengthening the cardio-vascular system, respiratory system and building or maintaining muscle tone, not correcting metabolism.

Proper metabolism can often be restored simply by changing our eating habits.  The key lifestyle elements required to stay slim and healthy include…

Remember; the more you eat the foods that are bad for you, the more your body craves them.  Good health is an acquired taste that’s worth developing!

 

References:
1. Australian Bureau of Statistics – 4364.0 National Health Survey 2001 www.abs.gov.au

About the author:
Health researcher and former director of a prominent weight management program in Australia, Tim Davies has been studying health and lifestyle issues for over 8 years.  Previously published articles include “The HRT Titanic: Are you going down with it?”, “Staying Healthy in the 21st Century” and “Allergic to the 21st Century”.  An advocate of healthy lifestyle choices, Tim is committed to providing plain English education to assist people make the right health choices.  Tim has recently been studying cholesterol reduction through nutritional changes and orthomolecular medicine.  He is currently working on a review paper about hormone interactivity and its relationship to body composition changes.

The information above is based on extensive generic research and is presented for educational purposes only.
No implications should necessarily be drawn from the above information as to the effectiveness or otherwise of any specific product or treatment.
Consultation with your preferred healthcare professional is strongly recommended prior to changing your diet or lifestyle.
No responsibility will be accepted for injury or incident to any persons acting solely on the information presented above.

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