A small sample of our SZÍVSN coordinator Szilvia Gáspár's extremely informative and successful online presentation on the effects of metabolic syndrome on the cardiovascular system. What is metabolic syndrome? Metabolic syndrome is when there are several parallel disorders of the metabolism. These can basically be divided into four parts: one is a disorder of fat metabolism, the second is a disorder of carbohydrate metabolism, the third is obesity, and the fourth is high blood pressure.

The co-existence of these conditions significantly increases the chance of developing coronary artery disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases.

Symptoms of metabolic syndrome

In the case of metabolic syndrome, the symptoms develop depending on the existing deviations (high blood pressure, obesity, high cholesterol, high blood sugar). These are the following:

Obesity (obesity): body fat is typically deposited around the waist ("apple" type obesity). Abdominal circumference greater than 102 cm for men and 88 cm for women is considered abnormal.

High blood pressure: more than 130/85 mmHg.

High blood sugar level (hyperglycemia): fasting value exceeding 5.6 mmol/l. High cholesterol level: the blood triglyceride level shows a value above 1.7 mmol/l, the so-called HDL-cholesterol (useful cholesterol) below 1.04 mmol/l for men and below 1.3 mmol/l for women