Current Nutritional and Nutraceutical Approches for the Treatment of Metabolic Syndrome - Essay Example

Various diets and nutraceutical supplements which inhibit or significantly arrest the various symptoms will be discussed in this thesis. Metabolic syndrome, clinically termed as “Syndrome X,” is in fact a constellation of symptoms leading to hypertension, obesity, and lipid abnormalities. The main factor underlying all these symptoms are traced to a resistance to insulin on the one hand and excessive release of insulin on the other. Syndrome X has a history which is of recent origin. The obesity dimension to the syndrome was added on subsequently in order to reveal the interconnectedness of the symptoms.

The main causative factors leading to Syndrome X relate to poor dietary habits and lifestyle related factors. These include diets with high fat content, abnormally rich consumption of refined sugar, sedentary lifestyles with low or no physical exercise and a genetic make up that makes an individual susceptible to Syndrome X. The incidence of Syndrome X in the Western world has assumed alarming proportions. For instance, in USA, data from the National Health Nutritional Survey for the years 1988 to 1994 reports that nearly 50 million Americans exhibited symptoms of Syndrome X (1).

In the year 2006 Syndrome X figures may be well past 75 million. Such a wide prevalence automatically qualifies this syndrome as a topic of research. The emphasis of the research is to develop several approaches towards treating Syndrome X. In fact Syndrome X has been defined with limited symptoms in its theoretical construct however its physical manifestations are far and wide. Though, invariably, it is associated as a major cause of cardiovascular disease, it is also acknowledged that the syndrome may be a big contributory factor and accessory in morbidity and mortality in other conditions like non-alcoholic fatty-liver, female reproductive disorders, polycystic ovary