The features of the metabolic syndrome include type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, hypertension, and dyslipidaemia. It is associated with an increase in risk factors for cardiovascular disease. In the US third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) of 1988–94, 7% of overweight, and 29% of obese, adolescents had the metabolic syndrome. Since that survey the prevalence and degree of obesity have increased in the United States. Now researchers in New Haven and Cincinnati (Ram Weiss and colleagues.

) have underlined …