Metabolic Syndrome

More than 30 years ago, when Dr. David Heber was an intern, he asked the senior doctors the same questions over and over: "How come all my patients have high blood pressure, high cholesterol and diabetes? Are these things linked?" He said his mentors at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston would shrug and say, "Dave, common things occur commonly. Go back to work." Today, doctors know Heber's intuition was right. Type 2 diabetes and heart disease are physiologically linked.

At least 4% of American youths age 12 to 19 -- and 30% of those who are overweight -- meet the criteria for metabolic syndrome, a condition that puts them at increased risk for diabetes and heart disease as adults.