The Metabolic Syndrome
Item
Title
The Metabolic Syndrome
Description
Over the past few years there has been an exponential increase in interest and
publications concerning what is now called the Metabolic Syndrome — best
described perhaps as a clustering of closely related cardiovascular disease (CVD)
risk factors. The concept is not new. The first publication, which related diabetes,
hypertension and gout, came in the 1920s, followed by the ground-breaking studies
of Vague in the 1940s drawing attention to the relation of central body fat distribution
to several of the CVD risk factors. The modern era began with the Banting Lecture
to the American Diabetes Association by Reaven in 1988, in which he showed
strong associations between insulin resistance, hypertension, glucose intolerance,
low HDL-cholesterol and raised VLDL-triglycerides. He named this cluster
Syndrome X. Interestingly, he did not include obesity, either total or central, in the
original description.
publications concerning what is now called the Metabolic Syndrome — best
described perhaps as a clustering of closely related cardiovascular disease (CVD)
risk factors. The concept is not new. The first publication, which related diabetes,
hypertension and gout, came in the 1920s, followed by the ground-breaking studies
of Vague in the 1940s drawing attention to the relation of central body fat distribution
to several of the CVD risk factors. The modern era began with the Banting Lecture
to the American Diabetes Association by Reaven in 1988, in which he showed
strong associations between insulin resistance, hypertension, glucose intolerance,
low HDL-cholesterol and raised VLDL-triglycerides. He named this cluster
Syndrome X. Interestingly, he did not include obesity, either total or central, in the
original description.