Wednesday, November 05, 2008 Syndrome of the belly By Zosimo T. Literatus, R.M.T. Breakthroughs
THERE is a common way that medical practitioners name symptoms they can’t place among specific ailments or diseases.
They call the condition a “syndrome.”
We have heard, of course, of Down syndrome, premenstrual syndrome and acquired immune deficiency syndrome, which have become so popular we usually equate it with disease in the same way we look at liver cirrhosis, diabetes, and even prostate cancer.
We may also have heard syndromes that are getting noticed not so long ago among Cebuanos at least—such as irritable bowel syndrome, carpal tunnel syndrome, and severe acute respiratory syndrome.
But there are syndromes we have not heard much of: overlap syndrome, gastric dumping syndrome, sick building syndrome, and battered person syndrome.
Elliott Carroll of the US Senate architect’s office even noticed another syndrome among US senators who, by tradition, carve their initials on desks: “It’s strictly the schoolboy syndrome [and] seems to last well into adulthood.”
The term “metabolic syndrome,” later referred to as “insulin resistance syndrome,” first appeared in the literature in 1991.
It is a confluence of health disorders (high in fasting blood sugar, blood pressure, and triglycerides, waist-centered obesity, and good cholesterol). It increases the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) and diabetes. If your waistline (at umbilical or belly button level) is at least 94 cm (for males) or 80 cm (for females), you may have this condition. (Due to space limitation, for the detailed cut-off values, visit http://breakthroughstoday.blogspot.com/.)
The metabolic syndrome has lately become a major target for the prevention of atherosclerosis-related CVDs.
In a recent study, 14 Japanese scientists, headed by Sachiko Tamba, found a direct relationship between metabolic syndrome and uric acid level in urine.
The study was a joint project of the Osaka University (Suita), the Amagasaki City Office of the General Affairs Bureau, and Sumitomo Hospital (Osaka).
The team reported at the Internal Medicine (2008) that those with hyperuricemia (increased urine level of uric acid) 56.1 percent accumulates fat in their internal organs (especially heart, liver, and intestines).
“Of the subjects with hyperuricemia, 10.6 percent had the metabolic syndrome while 23.5 percent of subjects with the metabolic syndrome had hyperuricemia,” Tamba noted.
This means that people with the metabolic syndrome is more likely to have hyperuricemia than those with hyperuricemia to get the metabolic syndrome.
The great Winston Churchill said: “By swallowing evil words unsaid, no one has ever harmed his stomach.”
But that is definitely true for words but not for high-caloric foods joined in by a degree of insulin resistance.
