Prognostic aspects of the metabolic syndrome

Is the "good life" syndrome taken seriously enough in medicine underwriting? We all know the insurance applicant with the typical signs of having lived the "good life" of Western industrialized countries: overweight with slightly elevated blood lipid levels, hypertension and, not uncommonly, slightly elevated liver functioning tests and hyperuricaemia. Though it bears witness to an overindulgent lifestyle, this constellation of findings is quite often accepted as normal. This article describes the "good life" syndrome as a clinical entity, discusses the significance of the syndrome for medical underwriting and identifies prognostic factors. It deals mainly with those stages of the condition in which neither diabetes mellitus nor coronary heart disease (CHD) has yet developed.