Provalis - A transformation to growth

Found this post on Reuters which may be of interest (or not).

AHA Warns of Many Cases of Pre-Diabetic Syndrome (31-12-2002)

NEW YORK - The newest annual year-end report from the American Heart Association cautions that almost one-quarter of adults have a condition that puts them at serious risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The AHA estimates that 24% of the US population has the condition, known as metabolic syndrome.
Along with having an increased risk of developing other conditions, people with metabolic syndrome are also more likely than others to die from cardiovascular disease and all other causes.

People are diagnosed with metabolic syndrome if they carry at least three risk factors for diabetes and heart disease, AHA president Dr. Robert O. Bonow told Reuters Health. These risk factors include a waist circumference that exceeds 40 inches (men) or 35 inches (women), a relatively high level of fat in the blood, low levels of the so-called "good" cholesterol, high blood pressure and high blood glucose.

Bonow cautioned that even people with a few of these characteristics at levels that "borderline" being a health risk can have metabolic syndrome, for it is the combination of many risks, even slight, that bring on the condition.
He noted that doctors should look for the signs of metabolic syndrome in their patients in order to find the condition and try to correct it before it leads to life-threatening problems. "We need to be looking for these things," Bonow said.

Catching metabolic syndrome early is especially important because patients can break out of it by simply removing some risk factors from their life, perhaps through exercise or a healthy diet, he added.

Criteria for metabolic syndrome include having a triglyceride level of at least 150 milligrams per deciliter of blood (mg/dL); a level of HDL, the "good" cholesterol, below 40 mg/dL in men and 50 mg/dL in women; blood pressure of 130/85 mm Hg or higher; or fasting glucose levels of at least 110mg/dL.