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Metabolic Syndrome: Connecting and Reconciling Cardiovascular and Diabetes Worlds

Center for Human Nutrition and Departments of Clinical Nutrition and Internal Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, Dallas, Texas

View larger version (22K): [in a new window]   Figure 1 Progression and outcomes of the metabolic syndrome. The metabolic syndrome arises largely out of abdominal obesity. With aging and increasing obesity, metabolic risk factors worsen. Many persons with the metabolic syndrome eventually develop type 2 diabetes. As the syndrome advances, risk for cardiovascular disease and its complications increase. Once diabetes develops, diabetic complications other than cardiovascular disease often develop. The metabolic syndrome encompasses each stage in the development of risk factors and type 2 diabetes.

View larger version (26K): [in a new window]   Figure 2 Interrelations and overlap of metabolic syndrome with insulin resistance, prediabetes, and type 2 diabetes. According to the insulin resistance hypothesis, the metabolic syndrome is caused predominantly by insulin resistance. The latter also contributes to prediabetes and, ultimately, to type 2 diabetes. About 75% of people with prediabetes and 86% of people with type 2 diabetes have the metabolic syndrome. Both metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes are known to predict cardiovascular disease.