WHAT IS METABOLIC HEALTH?

The definition is tricky but it refers to issues with how your body uses and stores energy

- NINA AGRAWAL

Metabolic health is a wellness catchphrase that is hard to escape.

Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr has made it a pillar of his "Make America Health Again" agenda. Dr Casey Means, the nominee for surgeon general, wrote a bestseller explaining how to achieve it. Influencers claim it's the key to longevity.

But what does metabolic health ... really mean?

The term is difficult to define, in part because it typically refers to the absence of metabolic syndrome, a cluster of interrelated health problems that reflect issues with metabolism, or how your body uses and stores energy. Metabolic syndrome is defined as having at least three of the following: high waist circumference, high triglycerides, low levels of "good" cholesterol, high blood pressure and high blood sugar. These conditions increase the risk for heart disease, stroke and Type 2 diabetes.

Many people are not considered to be in good metabolic health: The American Heart Association has estimated that 90% of American adults have some degree of cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic syndrome, an umbrella term the organisation defined in 2023 as a health disorder caused by connections among obesity, diabetes, chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular disease.

Adiposity, the accumulation of excess body fat, particularly in the abdomen, is a component of metabolic dysfunction, said Dr Latha Palaniappan, the associate dean for research at Stanford Medicine. Three-quarters of American adults are overweight or obese.

Fat cells store energy in the form of triglycerides. When we consume more calories than we expend, and exceed what our fat cells can store, those triglycerides begin to go where they don’t belong, like the liver and muscles, said Dr Paul Cohen, an associate professor at Rockefeller University whose lab studies obesity and metabolic disease.