Don’t slaughter sheep for metabolic syndrome? Fatal risks creep in

The National Health Administration announced the top ten causes of death in June this year, among which diseases derived from metabolic syndrome climbed from 40% last year to 50%, and hypertension returned to the 9th place as a warning. Expert doctors believe that although metabolic syndrome is not a disease, it may cause the risk of diabetes, hypertension, high blood lipids, heart disease and cerebral stroke in the future, which is as high as 2 to 6 times; if the waist is 1 cm thicker, the risk of suffering a minor stroke will also increase by 2 to 20%. However, the survey found that people in the five counties and cities generally knew what "metabolic syndrome" was but did not know why.

According to a "2011 Metabolic Syndrome Awareness Survey" released by the Millennium Love Foundation, the Department of Health's top ten causes of death are most common in Hualien County, Taitung County, Nantou County, Chiayi County, and Miaoli County, where the risk of death is twice that of the Greater Taipei area. Sun Luxi, chairman of the Millennium Love Health Foundation, pointed out that the study also found that more than 50% (53.2%) of the people in these five counties had never heard of healthy waist circumference promotion, and only 14% could answer the standard of healthy waist circumference.

This regional social epidemiological survey shows that the Hualien and Taitung regions are at first or second risk for metabolic syndrome among the top ten causes of death in Taiwan due to their remote location and relatively backward information. The survey also found that nearly 40% of people in these five counties and cities have a high blood pressure rate, while other factors such as waist circumference and body fat rate are only about 20% each. 60% of people lack knowledge about metabolic syndrome and healthy waist circumference.

Zhu Nianfeng, director of the Department of Community Medicine at Taipei Medical University's Shuang Ho Hospital, said that obesity plays an important role in metabolic syndrome. Weight, BMI, body fat, waist circumference, and even body fat can all be measured, but waist circumference is the simplest and most uniform to measure. Waist circumference will not fluctuate, so men over 90 cm and women over 80 cm should check whether they have metabolic syndrome.

Although metabolic syndrome is not a disease, it may become a fatal risk for cardiovascular disease.

He said that diabetes and hypertension are actually inseparable from metabolic syndrome. About 80% to 90% of diabetic patients and at least 50% of hypertensive patients are inseparable from metabolic syndrome. Clinically, he also found that many patients have wrong cognitions, including thinking that blood sugar levels will not exceed the standard if they do not eat sugar, eating five fruits and vegetables a day but instead eating five fruits and no vegetables, and mistakenly believing that they can stop taking medication if their blood pressure is lowered.

In daily life, in addition to controlling the "three highs" of blood pressure, blood sugar, and blood lipids, more attention should be paid to waist circumference health. Zhu Nianfeng reminded that people should master healthy living and dietary strategies, follow the cooking principles of low-fat, high-fiber, more fruits and vegetables, less oil, less salt, and less sugar, do it in sections and calculate cumulatively, and achieve 30 minutes of exercise a day to stay away from metabolic syndrome.