Aging, metabolic syndrome and the heart.

Aging is accelerated when metabolic and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are present and the risk of these diseases increases with age. Many predisposing conditions which increase in prevalence during aging, such as obesity, insulin resistance, inflammation, changes in the activity of the hypothalamus-hypophysis suprarenal axis, stress and hypertension also contribute to increase prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MS) and CVD and will be discussed in this paper. Aging and MS are frequently accompanied by several pathological conditions and some associated phenomena such as increased lipoperoxidation, generation of free radicals, increased peroxidation of nitric oxide (NO) to its toxic species, and others, resulting from oxidative stress which significantly alter the incidence of CVD. The better knowledge of mechanisms linking MS to increased CVD prevalence has led to new predictive measures and to the study of different possible new therapeutic strategies in elderly patients and patients with MS. Preventing and treating MS and CVD would be useful in promoting normal aging.