On the Metabolic Syndrome

The World Health Organization criteria (1999) require presence of diabetes mellitus, impaired glucose tolerance, impaired fasting glucose or insulin resistance, AND two of the following:

• Blood pressure: ≥ 140/90 mmHg

• Dyslipidemia: triglycerides (TG): ≥ 1.695 mmol/L and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) ≤ 0.9 mmol/L (male), ≤ 1.0 mmol/L (female)

• Central obesity: waist:hip ratio > 0.90 (male); > 0.85 (female), or body mass index > 30 kg/m2

• Microalbuminuria: urinary albumin excretion ratio ≥ 20 µg/min or albumin:creatinine ratio ≥ 30 mg/g

... Of none I have. Really! My tummy might be huge, but I'm not THAT huge. And my blood pressure's normal and my glucose's fine too.

But ever since the news that I've got hard exudates in my eye spread out, close friends and colleagues alike made comments about my 'new' appearance after the 4 weeks postings in the district.

"Medie! You look... BIG."

"Medie! What happened to your face?"

"Medie! From far can see your face already!"

"Medie! Wei, good ah, you gone back to how you were 2 years ago!"

"Medie! In Banting eat good food ah?"

"Medie! You really gained weight!"

*Sobs* Fine! I admit! I've gained weight. *Sneezes* I've gained a lot of weight. *Sobs* And my pants are tight. And my shirts area also tight. I do, I do realized my face suddenly become bigger. I also noticed my spare tire become more obvious. *Sobs* Have you any idea how hard I worked for the past 2 years to shed off those excess fats? And now I was back to where I was.

Now if you could please, remind me every day that I'm fat. So that I'll be reminded I need to be bulemic.

LOL