EACH ADDITIONAL COMPONENT of metabolic syndrome—high triglycerides, low HDL, central obesity, high blood glucose, and high blood pressure—significantly increases the risk of all the modern metabolic diseases, such as heart attacks, strokes, peripheral vascular disease, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, and cancer. These symptoms cluster together, but not every disease manifests in every person: one person may have low triglycerides, another person will have high blood sugars from insulin resistance, and yet another will have high blood pressure. But having one of these factors
