Around a third of all Americans have an assortment of risk factors that taken together put them at risk of heart disease and stroke, a new study finds.
The grouping of risk factors including high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol levels, obesity and pre-diabetes is known medically as "metabolic syndrome," sometimes called Syndrome X.
The rate of metabolic syndrome goes up with age, experts say, and is present in almost half of people age 60 and above.
"That's concerning, because we know the population of the U.S. is aging," says senior author Dr. Robert Wong, an assistant clinical professor at University of California, San Francisco and a senior author of the study appearing in the Journal of the American Medical Association. "I think it will potentially place a huge burden on our health care system."
While the rate of the prevalence of the syndrome has leveled off compared to disturbing increases in earlier studies, it is still found in far too many Americans, experts say.
"This will become an even more pervasive epidemic unless lifestyle changes -- lower calorie, lower fat, more plant-based nutrition, and consistent moderate exercise -- are embraced by the American public starting preferably in the young," says American College of Cardiology President Dr. Kim Williams Sr.
An analysis of health data on Americans gathered by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention between 2003 and 2012 showed 35 percent of Americans had metabolic syndrome in 2011-2012, a 2 percent increase from the level in 2003-2004.
Most doctors consider obesity the leading factor in metabolic syndrome, and the CDC data shows increases in both match each other, with about a third of Americans being obese, Wong notes.
To be diagnosed with metabolic syndrome, a patient must display at least three of the five factors considered to represent cardiac risk: an overly large waistline, a high level of triglyceride fats in the blood, a low level of HDL "good" cholesterol, elevated blood pressure and a high level of blood sugar following fasting.
The study provided strong evidence of the need for people with metabolic syndrome or in danger of developing it to consider healthy lifestyle changes.
Exercise and weight-loss programs based on diet can go a long way in improving the individual factors that are part of metabolic syndrome.
"Just because you have metabolic syndrome does not mean that you can't reverse it," Wong says.
