Metabolic Syndrome: A Cluster of Troubles

If a person has diabetes, they are also more likely to have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and excess weight. Now we know why.

Gerald Reaven, MD, a hypertension researcher at Stanford University, suggested that type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke—the biggest killers in our society today—were actually one disease with various manifestations. He proposed that the real disorder is high blood insulin levels caused by cellular resistance to the action of insulin. He first called it syndrome X and later insulin resistance syndrome. Today we know it as metabolic syndrome.

At first, scientists argued about Reaven’s findings. But since more research has been conducted, metabolic syndrome is now an accepted reality in patient care and involves not only insulin but other hormones such as adiponectin, resistin, and leptin. Researchers have also found that insulin resistance affects not only muscle cells but fat cells, liver