Metabolic Syndrome: An Important Health Issue in Iran

Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a majormetabolic disorder worldwide which ischaracterized by having three or more of the fivemetabolic abnormalities. These metabolicabnormalities include abdominal obesity (waistcircumference ≥ 90 cm for men and ≥ 80 cm forwomen), high triglyceride levels (TG) (≤ 150mg/dL), decreased high density lipoproteincholesterol (HDL-c) (< 40 mg/dL in men and < 50mg/dL in women), increased blood pressure (BP))systolic ≥ 130 mmHg and/or diastolic ≤ 85mmHg(, and elevated fasting blood glucose (FBG)(≥ 100 mg/dL) (Mohammadi et al., 2016). Theseconditions induce insulin resistance, inflammation,and chronic stress resulting in excessive flux offatty acids which can lead to increased risk for type2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases (Brunner etal., 2002, Eckel et al., 2005, Yaffe et al., 2004).Approximately 20% of the patients with MetS whodo not have diabetes remain at high risk of incidentcardiovascular events (Wong et al., 2003a, Wonget al., 2003b). The population-attributable fractionfor all-cause mortality from the MetS was 6–7%(Ford, 2005).