THE METABOLIC SYNDROME

The metabolic syndrome - the clustering of abdominal obesity, dyslipidemia, hyperglycemia and hypertension - is a major public health challenge worldwide.1,2 the metabolic syndrome is not benign; it is associated with a substantially elevated risk of type 2 diabetes (5-fold) and of cardiovascular disease (cvd) (2-3-fold),1 and its increasing prevalence could possibly reverse the gains made through recent declining cvd mortality.