[Metabolic syndrome and aging].

In recent years, the current "obesity epidemic" and its correlate, metabolic syndrome, have been related not only to cardiovascular disease but also to the presence of multiple chronic diseases and even to the development of disability. Therefore, it has been hypothesized that this situation of risk and that of frailty, which has aroused such interest in geriatrics, could share common physiopathologic mechanisms. These mechanisms are reviewed in the present article.