Ugly Aging

Wellness and the buzz about General Metabolic Syndrome (GMS)
By Michael W. Loes, M.D.

We all want to live well and reasonably long – and without pain. We quest for great health, even optimal, enviable health, a term I like to call salubrity. Should our time come to die, most of us would prefer to die quickly, quietly, and comfortably.

Sounds nice, but in reality this is not what generally happens. We, as a society, are not aging gracefully. In fact, we are degenerating at a remarkably fast rate. The life expectancy tables look pretty stable but in reality ugly aging is out of control.

We go for a check-up and your doctor gives you the bad news. You – yes you - have one or more of the following:

* Diabetes – Type I or Type II
* Arthritis – Mostly Osteoarthritis, but Rheumatoid is on the rise
* Heart Disease & Stroke – Atherosclerosis
* Lung Disease – Bronchitis, Asthma, Emphysema
* Deep Venous Phlebitis – Blood Clots in your Legs
* Liver Disease – Cirrhosis and Fatty Liver
* Kidney Disease – Fibrosis and Chronic Renal Failure
* Cancer – Usually Lung, Colon, Breast, Uterus, Ovarian

All of these illnesses start with soft symptoms called “dys-ease.” You don’t feel great –but you are not sure why. The new buzz word for this is General Metabolic Syndrome (GMS). There is hardly a journal that crosses my desk that does not discuss this, mainly because this is the new concept that physicians are now examining, particularly as it relates to the avalanche of early diabetes that we now see. Doctors are able to identify GMS early if they are actively looking for it, and perhaps in doing so, warn you to wake up and change. What you need to understand is that if you have GMS, you are at risk for the whole gamut of degenerative diseases listed above.

There are various blood markers that are helpful in identifying GMS, such as homocysteine, glyco-hemoglobin (also known as HbA1C), ferritin, asymmetric-methyl-D-aspartate (AMDA), total and LDL cholesterol, sedimentation rates and C-reactive protein (CRP). The markers often show up early. You may be at the top of your life activity, experiencing only minor symptoms. You may be comfortably seated, like a child at the top of a slide, experiencing merriment. But, if you have GMS, the descent is likely into the chaos of chronic disease.

Does this scare you? It should. In 2004, more than 35% of Americans were more than 30 pounds overweight. The British come in second at 23%, followed by the Finnish at 19% and the Spaniards are 13%. While weight alone is not the main expressed risk factor for GMS, it factors into what is known as the body mass index (BMI), a combined measure of your weight, height and girth. When this merged number is high, the recipe for disaster is cooking. As this number goes up, you are losing the grip on your life.

In the United States, the incidence of GMC is now 24%.1 Can GMS be prevented? Of course it can, but it’s tough. We all know that losing weight is very hard, but it can be done. Surgical treatment of obesity can be effective when required. Structured supervised diet programs, some using medications for obesity, may be necessary when coupled with accountability measures.

Start doing what the “doctor within you” tells you that you must do to get back on track. Watch the food. Take your exercise program seriously. Consider taking some supplements that may be helpful such as anti-oxidants, herbal anti-inflammatories, and agents to reduce or stabilize blood sugar. Be sure and ask your doctor first.

And then you walk, and walk some more and do it again. I tell patients to exercise eight days a week and keep that pedometer on (a little device that counts steps). Try to get in 4000-5000 steps per day. Please understand that every one of the aging diseases can cause pain. Take this advice very seriously. Learn about healing and enhance your healing response by taking care of yourself.

1. Statistics from the Journal of the American Medical Association as reported in American Journal of Family Practice