With heart disease and its precursor metabolic syndrome taking malignant proportions among Indians, strategies to deal with it must be urgent and aggressive to say the least. South Asians including Indians have a tendency for metabolic obesity, characterized by preferential deposition of fat around the abdomen – also called “abdominal or central obesity.” It results from hyperinsulinemia. “Hyperinsulinemia” and associated insulin resistance lead to high blood triglyceride levels, low HDL-C, high uric acid, fatty liver, inflammation and increased clotting tendency of blood, abdominal obesity and increased risk of hypertension, diabetes mellitus (DM) and cardiovascular disease (CVD). The constellation of these biochemical or metabolic abnormalities is referred to as the “metabolic syndrome.” The risk for metabolic syndrome and CVD can be reduced by more than 95% by controlling the key modifiable factors – diet and exercise.


Volume 1, Number 4, Pages: 167-73
 

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