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Five features with one shared root — which is why all five move when one place is addressed. The cheapest measuring device is a tape measure.
Also known as: metabolic syndrome · abdominal fat · blood pressure · blood sugar · blood lipids
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
The metabolic syndrome is not an illness in itself but a bundle: when three out of five features come together, that is what it is called. The five are waist circumference, blood pressure, fasting sugar, triglycerides and HDL cholesterol. The usual limits lie at a waist from ninety-four centimetres in men and eighty in women, a blood pressure from one hundred and thirty over eighty-five, a fasting sugar from five point six, triglycerides from one point seven and an HDL below one in men or one point three in women. The point of the whole thing is not the number but the observation behind it: these five rarely appear alone, because they share a root — a fading effect of insulin, driven by fat in the belly and in the liver. Which is why all five move in the same direction when that root is addressed. Five to seven per cent less body weight improves every feature at once in studies, and endurance and strength training work in addition, even without the weight changing. The cheapest measuring device here is a tape measure, and the fatty liver is the part most often overlooked.
A reduced action of insulin often shows itself first in the cycle and the skin in women. PMOS, called PCOS until 2026, is the commonest condition in which the two meet — and it occurs at a normal weight too.
Halfway between the lowest rib and the hip bone, after breathing out. One number, one date, one slip of paper — no more is needed to see a direction.
Even this share of body weight improves sugar, blood pressure, blood fats and liver fat at once. A reachable goal works better here than a large one that gets abandoned.
The combination works better than either alone — and part of the benefit appears even when the scales stay put. Muscle takes up sugar without insulin having to help.
Sweet drinks, fruit juices and alcohol drive the triglycerides and the liver fat in particular. Leaving them out is the change with the best ratio of effort to effect.
An ultrasound and the liver values belong with it. Fatty liver is the part of the bundle that reverses best — and that is spoken about least.
Loud snoring, observed pauses and falling asleep in the day. If it is treated, everything else becomes easier — blood pressure, sugar, and the energy to change anything at all.
About one adult in four to five meets the criteria, considerably more with age. It is not a disease of its own but a collective label for five measurements — three of them suffice. Each one is measurable and each one can be shifted; that is the actual point of the grouping.
There is no drug for the syndrome itself — each part is treated separately: blood pressure, sugar, fats. That is why five tablets end up on the table and none of them changes the thing at its core. What moves all five parts together is waist size: five to ten per cent less weight lowers blood pressure, fasting sugar and triglycerides at once — measurable in three to six months.
Measured halfway between the lowest rib and the hip bone, after breathing out, without pulling the belly in. That number says more about risk than body weight does.
Values from one hundred and thirty over eighty-five count towards the bundle — even when they do not yet count as high blood pressure needing treatment.
On the neck, in the armpits or in the groin. This sign points fairly reliably to a fading insulin effect and is visible from the outside.
Both belong to the same picture although they are not in the list. Anyone with one of them often finds the rest as well.
Sleep apnoea strengthens every one of the five features and is rarely considered alongside. Treating it makes everything else easier.
One of the five features. From five point six it counts — clearly below the threshold for diabetes and exactly the range in which much can still be moved.
React faster to alcohol, sugary drinks and the last meal than any other blood fat. So measure fasting — and that is why they often fall within a few weeks.
The only one of the five features where a low value counts. It rises little through supplements, but through movement and weight loss.
The view across weeks rather than one morning. It shows the early stage that the fasting value alone sometimes misses.
Fatty liver is the quiet sixth part of the bundle. A slightly raised value without alcohol is the commonest sign of it and does not belong merely watched for years.
Effective when deficient; effects on sleep and stress plausible but moderate. Too much causes loose stool.
Studied as a form of calorie reduction; not superior, but easier for some to keep up.