Editorial The Metabolic Syndrome and Aging

importance of the metabolic syndrome was popularized by Reaven (2). The metabolic syndrome consists of a deadly quintet of factors, namely diabetes, hypertension, hyperuri-cemia, lipid abnormalities, and alterations in thrombotic potential, that are associated with hyperinsulinemia and insulin resistance. The metabolic syndrome is directly related to increased atherogenesis and death from myocar-dial infarction. The metabolic syndrome is directly related to the accumulation of visceral adiposity in middle age associated with overeating and a decline in exercise. In addition, there appears to be a genetic predisposition to developing the metabolic syndrome. The metabolic syn-drome could be conceived as the ‘‘couch potato’ ’ syndrome (Figure 1)! It has been estimated that 15 % to 20 % of persons aged over 70 years have the metabolic syndrome