| | | Botanical |  Irvingia Gabonensis (African Mango)
  | Irvingia gabonensis extract administered 150 mg twice daily before meals to overweight and/or obese human volunteers favorably impacts body weight and a variety of parameters characteristic of the metabolic syndrome. [
Lipids in Health and Disease 2009, 8:7doi:10.1186/1476-511X-8-] |
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Diet |
Sugars Avoidance / Reduction
| | Fructose consumption clearly causes insulin resistance, while glucose alone does not. Insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome can eventually lead to full blown diabetes.
The presence of glucose accelerates fructose absorption. So when you mix glucose and fructose together, you absorb more fructose than if you consumed fructose alone. Sucrose, or table sugar, is a 50/50 blend of fructose and glucose. |
Fructose Avoidance/reduction
| | Metabolic syndrome, characterized by truncal obesity, hypertriglyceridemia, elevated BP, and insulin resistance, is recognized increasingly as a major risk factor for kidney disease and also is a common feature of patients who are on dialysis. One feature that is common to patients with metabolic syndrome is an elevated uric acid.
Although often considered to be secondary to hyperinsulinemia, recent evidence supports a primary role for uric acid in mediating this syndrome. Specifically, fructose, which rapidly can cause metabolic syndrome in rats, also raises uric acid, and lowering uric acid in fructose-fed rats prevents features of the metabolic syndrome. Uric acid also can accelerate renal disease in experimental animals and epidemiologically is associated with progressive renal disease in humans. It is proposed that fructose- and purine-rich foods that have in common the raising of uric acid may have a role in the epidemic of metabolic syndrome and renal disease that is occurring throughout the world. [J Am Soc Nephrol 17: 165-168, 2006] |
Hydrogenated Fats / Trans Fatty Acids Avoidance
| | The major findings of this study, conducted in monkeys, showed that, in the absence of caloric excess, Trans-fatty acid (TFA) induces greater weight gain over time, with enhanced intra-abdominal deposition of fat between the two groups as measured at study termination.
There was evidence of impaired insulin sensitivity in the TFA group associated with abdominal obesity and reductions in insulin signal transduction efficiency at the post-receptor binding level compared with monkeys fed the unmodified fat diet at study end. The TFA diet models the trends seen in fats available in grocery stores, which have become more oleate rich and less TFA rich as canola oil has been increasingly substituted for partially hydrogenated soybean oil. Therefore, a comparison of cis- and trans-monounsaturates better represents the shift in the food fat composition that is already occurring in the U.S.
The trans fat used in this study was partially hydrogenated soybean oil, which constitutes the major source (80% to 90% ) of TFAs in the American diet [Obesity (2007) 15, pp. 1675–1684] |
High/Increased Protein Diet
| | Researchers compared the effect of whey versus lean ham and lactose on 14 diabetics after they ate high-glycemic-index breakfasts (white bread) and lunches (mashed potatoes and meatballs) on separate days.The goal was to evaluate whether supplementation of meals with a high glycemic index with whey protein increased insulin secretion and improved postprandial blood glucose in type 2 diabetic patients.
Results showed:
- Insulin responses were higher after eating breakfast (31 percent) and lunch (57 percent) supplemented with whey than when whey was not included.
- No significant differences in blood glucose were found after eating breakfast; however, after lunch the blood glucose response of patients who ate whey dropped by more than 20%.
Based on these findings, it can be concluded that adding whey to meals with rapidly digested and absorbed carbohydrates spurs insulin release and reduces blood glucose digression in type 2 diabetics. Such results may turn whey into the 21st century's protein of choice. [American Journal of Clinical Nutrition July 2005;82(1):69-75] |
 Increased Fruit/Vegetable Consumption
| | Researchers at Scripps Clinic of San Diego divided a group of 100 obese subjects into three equal groups: one group ate
half a grapefruit before each meal, one group drank a glass of grapefruit juice before each meal, and one group was
instructed not to eat any grapefruit or drink any grapefruit juice. Subjects followed their regimens for three months,
while continuing to eat as they normally would.
The results were striking. Those in the group that ate grapefruit with each meal lost an average of 3.6 pounds. Subjects in the grapefruit juice group lost an average of 3.3 pounds. A few of the subjects in both of these groups lost nearly 10 pounds. Meanwhile, the average weight loss in the group that consumed no grapefruit was less than one pound.
Researchers believe that grapefruit contains chemical properties that assist in the management of insulin levels - a potential boon to dieters and diabetics alike. At the beginning and the completion of the Scripps study, researchers measured the insulin and glucose levels of all subjects. When the test was over, those in the two grapefruit groups had lower levels of insulin and glucose than they did at the beginning, while levels in the non-grapefruit group were unchanged. |
Grain-free / Low Starch Diet
 High/Increased Fiber Diet
| | Any fiber choice is useful for Syndrome X sufferers, but psyllium, pectin or guar gum would offer the additional benefit of lowering cholesterol. The amount of pectin in approximately two servings of pectin rich fruit such as pears, apples, grapefruit, and oranges is 15 grams. Psyllium or guar gum are obtained by supplement. The RDA of total fiber is 20-30 grams. |
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Drug |
Conventional Drugs / Information
| | ACTOS is a once-a-day prescription medication for type 2 diabetes that, along with healthy eating and physical activity, helps your body control blood sugar (glucose) levels. ACTOS makes the cells in your body more sensitive to insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas that allows the cells in your body to use blood sugar for energy.
ACTOS can be used by itself or in combination with certain other diabetes medications (sulfonylureas, metformin, or insulin) when your necessary efforts at healthy eating and physical activity do not control your blood sugar levels.
ACTOS is a member of the type of oral diabetes medications called thiazolidinediones. |
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Habits |
Aerobic Exercise
| | Researchers at Yale University School of Medicine have determined, via new imaging technologies, that insulin resistance in skeletal muscle leads to changes in energy storage, leading to metabolic syndrome.
Insulin resistance, which occurs when the body becomes resistant to the hormone insulin, occurs in skeletal muscle when the muscles are no longer able to make glycogen, a form of stored carbohydrate, from food energy. In turn, insulin resistance in skeletal muscle promotes an increase in fats in the bloodstream, which leads to metabolic syndrome.
Using magnetic resonance imaging techniques, the researchers were able to determine that insulin-sensitive individuals in their study converted carbohydrate energy (from eating a high-carb meal) into glycogen that was stored in the liver and muscle.
Among insulin-resistant individuals, however, the carbohydrate energy was rerouted to liver fat production. The process elevated the participants’ triglycerides in the blood by as much as 60 percent while lowering HDL (good) cholesterol by 20 percent. This occurred even though the participants were young and lean, with no excess of abdominal fat.
More than 50 million Americans suffer from metabolic syndrome, and half of the population is predisposed to it.
The researchers pointed out that there is good news to their findings: insulin resistance in skeletal muscle can be treated with a simple method, exercise. [Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences July 18, 2007] |
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Mineral |
Magnesium
| | A diet rich in magnesium may help reduce the incidence of metabolic syndrome, the cluster of conditions that can lead to diabetes and coronary heart disease, new research finds.
The study of more than 4,600 Americans, begun in 1985, found the risk of developing metabolic syndrome over the next 15 years was 31 percent lower for those with the highest intake of magnesium, according to a report in the March 28 issue of Circulation.
The components of metabolic syndrome include high blood pressure, high blood sugar levels, elevated blood fats and low levels of HDL cholesterol: the "good" kind that helps keep arteries clear. Having at least three of these factors increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.
This is not the first study to link magnesium and metabolic syndrome. An analysis of data on 11,686 participants in the Women's Health Study, published last year by Dr. Paul M. Ridker and others at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, yielded similar results, with a 27 percent lower incidence of the symdrome for women with the highest magnesium intake compared to those with the lowest.
This study does add something new, says study author Dr. Ka He, an assistant professor of medicine at Northwestern University. It showed that "a higher magnesium intake was associated with a reduced risk of each individual component of the metabolic syndrome," he says. [Circulation March 28 2006] |
Chromium
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Nutrient |
Alpha Lipoic Acid
| | Numerous additional studies have indicated that alpha lipoic acid (ALA) is useful for the treatment of diabetes mellitus which follows syndrome X. ALA stimulates increased glucose utilization in muscle cells and significantly reduces human insulin resistance. This process may occur via an insulin signaling pathway. |
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Vitamins |
Vitamin K1/K2
| | In a published study of 38,094 Dutch men and women ages 20 – 70 it was found that vitamin K2 intake had a statistically significant inverse relationship to the risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Vitamin K1 intake also trended in the preventive direction, though the benefit was not enough to be statistically significant. This finding corresponds to the science showing that vitamin K2 is a more potent activator of osteocalcin than vitamin K1 (although both help). |
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