In a move that initially seems surprising, the American Diabetes
Association (ADA) and the European Association for the Study of
Diabetes (EASD) released a joint statement questioning the
utility of the term "metabolic syndrome," and discouraging
doctors from using it. Metabolic syndrome is a constellation of
metabolic disorders related to obesity and the resulting insulin
resistance, including the insulin resistance itself, high LDL
cholesterol, low HDL cholesterol, high triglycerides, and
hypertension. ( Read about metabolic syndrome here.) People with
metabolic syndrome can be considered to have a form of "pre-
diabetes," and whether or not they eventually develop diabetes
itself, the existence of the syndrome produces an extremely high
risk of cardiovascular disease. In the last 5 years, doctors -
especially family doctors, internists and cardiologists - have
begun to pay a lot of attention to the diagnosis and treatment
of metabolic syndrome. The two diabetes associations have now
objected to the use of t