Metabolic syndrome raises risk of heart failure:
"The findings of a new study suggest that the metabolic syndrome is a risk factor for heart failure, and this relationship is seen with or without the presence of other known heart failure risk factors, such as previous heart attack.Individuals with the metabolic syndrome have a cluster of heart disease and diabetes risk factors, such as excess body weight, high blood pressure, high blood sugar and high cholesterol levels.The results imply that the 'metabolic syndrome provides important risk information beyond that of established risk factors for heart failure,' lead author Dr. Erik Ingelsson, from Uppsala University in Sweden, and colleagues note. They suggest that insulin resistance and higher than normal levels of insulin in the blood may underlie this increased heart failure risk in these patients......"