Atkins Diabetes Revolution by Robert C. Atkins Read Free Book Online Page B

blood sugar: 110 mg/dL or greater 7
    How many people fit those criteria? Far too many. Today, about 25 percent of all American adults have the metabolic syndrome. The older you get, the more likely you are to have it: Forty-four percent of the U.S. population over the age of 50 meets the criteria. 8
    In reality, even more than 44 percent of the population probably has it. The ATP III definition doesn’t include insulin resistance as a symptom—only high fasting blood sugar counts. Unfortunately, by the time you develop noticeably high blood sugar, you’ve probably had insulin resistance for many years—and the damage to your body has been ongoing for those many years. Dr. Atkins saw countless patients who were slightly overweight, had mild high blood pressure, and only slightly elevated triglycerides. Although they didn’t yet meet the formal definition of the metabolic syndrome, they already exhibited the early stages. He recommended intervention at this stage to avoid progression to diabetes and its complications.
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    THE WHO DEFINITION
    In 1998, the World Health Organization proposed a definition of the metabolic syndrome that is now widely used outside the United States. 9 There are some significant differences among the components in the WHO definition and the ATP III definition used in the United States. The WHO definition puts more emphasis on blood sugar, uses a higher cutoff point for high blood pressure, and includes the presence of small amounts of protein in the urine,known as microalbuminuria.
    According to the WHO definition,you have the metabolic syndrome if you have impaired glucose tolerance, impaired fasting glucose, diabetes, or insulin resistance, along with two or more of these other signs: 10
     
High blood pressure: 140/90 mmHg or higher
High triglycerides: 150 mm/dL or greater (1.7 mmol/L or greater)
Low HDL cholesterol:35 mg/dL or less (0.9 mmol/L or less) for men; 39 mg/dL (1.0 mmol/L) for women
Central obesity: waist-to-hip ratio greater than 0.90 for men; 0.85 or greater for women and/or a BMI greater than 30
Microalbuminuria: urinary albumin excretion rate of 20 µg/ min or more or an albumin-to-creatinine ratio of 30 mg/g or more
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    THE METABOLIC SYNDROME AND PREDIABETES
    The metabolic syndrome and prediabetes are essentially interchangeable. Both are precursors to full-blown diabetes. Only about 13 percent of people who go on to develop diabetes don’t meet the formal definition of the metabolic syndrome. 11 As a cardiologist, Dr. Atkins long ago recognized the link between gaining fat, insulin resistance, and the ultimate development of diabetes and heart disease. If you don’t have high blood sugar, the other criteria for the metabolic syndrome still put you at higher risk for heart disease and stroke. When you consider that the elevated triglycerides and low HDL that are part of the metabolic syndrome are a result of abnormal insulin/glucose metabolism, the link is clear. 12 These warning signs are all intertwined and interdependent, and when you combine a few of them, the resulting scenario is like a ticking bomb.
    LIFESTYLE CAUSE AND EFFECT
    The two main lifestyle factors that cause the metabolic syndrome are exactly the same as those that can lead to diabetes: a high-carb diet combined with physical inactivity. But just as lifestyle plays the most important role in causing the metabolic syndrome, lifestyle can play the most important role in preventing or reversing it. Therefore, with lifestyle in mind, let’s take a closer look at the five symptoms of the metabolic syndrome:
    Abdominal Obesity
    You might call it love handles, a spare tire, a potbelly, or even a beer gut. Doctors call it truncal obesity, abdominal obesity, central obesity, or visceral adiposity. Whatever the name, your protruding abdominal outline is caused by fat stored around your intestines and abdominal organs as well as right under your skin. Fat stored in this way is much more dangerous to your health