Intro to Metabolic Syndrome 04:06

A Syndrome is a clustering of factors that occur together more often than by chance alone and for which the cause is often uncertain. Thus metabolic syndrome is a collection of interrelated cardiometabolic risk factors that are present in an individual more frequently than expected by chance combination.

The risk factors of the Metabolic Syndrome are of metabolic origin and consist of abdominal adipose tissue accumulation, atherogenic dyslipidemia, elevated plasma glucose, elevated blood pressure, and a prothrombotic and pro-inflammatory state. The major risk factors are obesity and insulin resistance (IR) accompanied by a 2 times increased risk for CVD and 5 times increased risk of T2D. 

Furthermore, aging, physical inactivity, and endocrine and genetic factors exacerbate Metabolic Syndrome. As the data on metabolic syndrome is difficult to collate (measures of all of the harmonized definition metrics), it’s difficult to make an accurate measure. However, the metabolic disease is 3 times more common than diabetes and thus a quarter of the world's population can be estimated to have metabolic syndrome!