Structural biophysical parameters for pre-disease metabolic dysfunction detection.

Background: Metabolic syndrome affects over 30% of adults but is typically diagnosed only after multiple clinical thresholds are crossed. We hypothesized that structural biophysical parameters—resilience (k), friction (μ), and decay rate (λ)—computed from standard clinical biomarkers could detect metabolic dysfunction in its pre-clinical phase, before conventional criteria are met. Methods: We analyzed 7,939 adults from NHANES 2017-2018 with complete metabolic panels. Three structural parameters were computed from biomarker patterns using a deterministic framework: resilience (k) from anabolic markers, friction (μ) from metabolic load indicators, and decay (λ) from age-adjusted degradation signals. We tested: (1) discrimination of metabolic syndrome cases vs. controls; (2) prediction of prediabetes without using glucose or HbA1c inputs; (3) risk stratification within conventionally "normal" subjects (BMI