About one in five American adults suffers from metabolic syndrome*, a preventable and reversible disorder that puts you at significant risk for heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and other medical problems. Sometimes referred to as insulin resistance syndrome and syndrome X, this condition can damage your body for years without giving you a clue that you have a problem.

Capable of affecting anyone at any age, metabolic syndrome is a group of cardiovascular risk factors that are linked to your body's metabolism (the name given to all the chemical processes that take place in your body). Usually linked to obesity, physical inactivity, and genetic factors, metabolic syndrome is characterized by a clustering of risk factors for heart disease that include:

• Central obesity (excessive fat tissue in and around the abdomen)
• Dyslipidemia (blood fat disorders – mainly high triglycerides and low HDL "good" cholesterol – that promote plaque buildups in artery walls)
• Insulin resistance or glucose intolerance (problems with how your body uses insulin, resulting in too much glucose (sugar) in your blood
• High blood pressure

If you have one component of metabolic syndrome, you are at increased risk for having one or more of the others.  And the more components you have, the greater your risk of developing major medical problems. Studies have shown that people who have metabolic syndrome are twice as likely to develop cardiovascular problems and four times as likely to develop type 2 diabetes as people who don't have metabolic syndrome.