The role of lifestyle in the metabolic syndrome

The metabolic syndrome, also known as dysmetabolic syndrome, Syndrome X, or insulin resistance syndrome, is an amalgam of obesity-related health risks that significantly increases the chance of developing diabetes, coronary artery disease, and stroke. Progress in understanding the metabolic syndrome has confirmed the importance of metabolic imbalances in the development of serious and chronic cardiovascular, neurologic, immunologic, renal, and endocrine diseases. Crucial to planning treatment is the understanding that the metabolic syndrome is largely a disorder caused by behavior, thus its most important therapeutic intervention entails lifestyle change: Significant behavioral change can dramatically modify and even reverse all factors of the metabolic syndrome and its consequences. We examine the pathophysiology of the metabolic syndrome and provide strategies to encourage weight loss and dietary modifications and to promote increased physical activity.