The Metabolic Syndrome

For many years, doctors noticed that overweight or obese patients often had the following common diseases — high blood pressure or hypertension, increased blood sugar or diabetes, and high levels of blood fats, specifically triglycerides. In addition, these patients were at greater risk of developing insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes.

Because these different conditions are so common, their coexistence seemed to be a simple coincidence — after all, common diseases occur commonly. However, in the last two decades, the coexistence of these conditions, collectively known as metabolic syndrome, has been found to have a very specific underlying cause — increased abdominal fat and insulin resistance.

Metabolic syndrome affects up to 50% of Americans between the ages of 45 and 65. Since an estimated 65% of adults in the US are overweight or obese, it is not surprising that metabolic syndrome and the detrimental effects of its component chronic diseases is so common.