Tracking the red alarms of metabolic syndrome

Childhood obesity has a strong association with Type 2 diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular disease in adulthood. In India, lower socio-economic group are undernourished whereas the higher and middle socio-economic group are over nourished and this triggered an urgent need for accurate data on nutritional status of children and adolescents and also need for spreading messages about the rising obesity epidemic among them. Parents and teachers have less knowledge about metabolic syndrome which leads to inadequate perception of this concept in Indian society. Abdominal obesity is due to excess abdominal adipose tissue, which can be measured easily as Waist Circumference (WC) and Waist Hip Ratio (WHR). Other factors influencing metabolic syndrome are increased Fasting Blood Triglycerides, Cholesterol Levels, Blood Pressure and Fasting glucose level. Abnormalities noted on three or more of these tests will indicate the presence of metabolic syndrome.