It’s estimated that up to 30% of American adults have metabolic syndrome: a cluster of conditions that occur together and can significantly increase your risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. These conditions include high blood pressure, high blood sugar, excess body fat around the waist, and abnormal cholesterol or triglyceride levels.
When these factors combine, they can disrupt your body’s metabolic processes — which often leads to a serious impact on your overall health. Kunal Patel, MD, and our team at NJ Cardiovascular Institute offer care for high blood pressure and heart disease, and we're here to help you understand how metabolic syndrome affects your heart.
So if you’ve been diagnosed with metabolic syndrome or you’re at risk, here’s what you need to know about it.
Metabolic syndrome isn’t a single disease. To meet the criteria for a diagnosis of metabolic syndrome, a person must have three of the following risk factors that raise the risk of cardiovascular complications:
Having just one of these conditions doesn’t mean you have metabolic syndrome, but having three of them increases your chances of developing heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and stroke.
High blood pressure is one of the main components of metabolic syndrome, and it directly impacts your heart health. When you have high blood pressure, your heart must work harder to pump blood throughout your body.
Along with high blood pressure, high triglycerides and low HDL cholesterol levels may contribute to plaque buildup in your arteries — a condition known as atherosclerosis. Your arteries get narrower and stiffer as plaque builds up, which limits blood flow to your heart and other organs.
Over time, the strain of high blood pressure can damage your arteries and increase your risk of heart attack or stroke. Atherosclerosis can also eventually lead to serious complications like coronary artery disease, heart attack, and stroke.
Insulin resistance develops when your body becomes less effective at using the hormone insulin to regulate your blood sugar, and it’s a key driver of metabolic syndrome. When your body doesn't respond properly to insulin, your blood sugar levels remain high, which is called hyperglycemia.
Chronic high blood sugar damages your blood vessels over time and contributes to both diabetes and heart disease. Elevated blood sugar also prompts your pancreas to produce more insulin, further disrupting the body’s ability to regulate energy and fat storage.
Metabolic syndrome can have a significant impact on your heart health and your overall well-being. But the good news is that it’s largely preventable and manageable with lifestyle changes. That means if you have metabolic syndrome, heart disease and other complications aren’t inevitable.
In fact, healthy eating, regular physical activity, weight loss, and quitting smoking are some of the most effective ways to combat the risk factors associated with metabolic syndrome. Dr. Patel and our team offer the Heart Smart Program to help you make these changes in your own life.
The Heart Smart Program is a comprehensive cardiovascular health program designed to assess and manage your heart disease risk. It combines advanced diagnostic testing, personalized treatment plans, and lifestyle guidance to help you optimize your heart health and prevent future complications.
If you already have metabolic syndrome, we can prescribe blood pressure medicine and cholesterol-lowering medications, if you need them. We can also help you lose weight, if needed, and partner with you to manage your blood sugar if you have diabetes.
Regular check-ups with Dr. Patel are essential for monitoring your risk factors and ensuring they’re under control.
By making informed lifestyle choices and working closely with our team, metabolic syndrome doesn’t have to have a severe impact on your overall health. Learn more about your treatment options with a consultation at NJ Cardiovascular Institute. Call one of our offices in Elizabeth, Lakewood, Paramus, or Secaucus, New Jersey, or send us a message online.
