Metabolic Syndrome Predicts Heart Risk: Study
(HealthDay News, 1/23/07)

Dr. Apoor S. Gami of the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, and colleagues, reviewed data from 37 studies that included more than 170,000 subjects in an attempt to quantify the degree to which the presence of metabolic syndrome—which encompasses such symptoms as excessive girth, hypertension, high cholesterol, elevated blood sugar and insulin resistance—increases the risk of heart disease. The investigators determined that the risk of heart attack or death was 78 % greater for subjects who had metabolic syndrome than for those who did not. These findings suggest that practitioners should take proactive measures to protect against cardiac events in patients with the syndrome.

(American College of Cardiology, January 2007).