from JAMA
You may have heard of metabolic syndrome. It is a combination of health conditions, such as obesity, high blood pressure and diabetes that contribute to risk of cardiovascular disease. It is the combined effect of these conditions that elevates the risk. New statistics from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey shows nearly thirty-five percent of all adults in this country have metabolic syndrome—and nearly fifty percent of those over the age of sixty likely have it. Understanding the updated figures may be especially important in dealing with health complications on an aging population. But not all of the information is bad. The recent figures published in JAMA suggest greater awareness of metabolic syndrome may have helped improve statistics among women and the overall prevalence of obesity appears to have stabilized.