Metabolic syndrome treatment strategies.

The primary goal of managing patients with metabolic syndrome is to decrease their cardiovascular risk by individualizing treatment strategies according to the patient's specific risk factors. Treatment options for patients with metabolic syndrome include lifestyle modification and drug therapy. Lifestyle modification can be summarized as dietary changes, exercise, and smoking cessation. Drug therapy indicated for cardiometabolic risk reduction includes antihypertensives, insulin sensitizers, and cholesterol-lowering agents. In addition, two drugs-sibutramine and rimonabant-have been evaluated and produced promising outcomes in the overall management of high-risk patients with metabolic syndrome.