One of every three U.S. adults have a combination of risk factors that increase their risk for heart disease and diabetes

More than one-third of adults in the U.S. have a combination of health conditions that put them at higher risk of heart disease and diabetes, and this condition affects nearly half of adults aged 60 and older, according to a new study recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

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This combination of health conditions, when found in one person, is called metabolic syndrome. It includes abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, increased fasting glucose levels and abnormal cholesterol levels.

The study collected data gathered by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from adults 20 and older from 2003 to 2012. It found that about a third had a metabolic symdrome in 2011-12, and nearly half of those 60 and older did. Among those 20 to 39, the rate was 18 percent.

The study report says these were "concerning observations" because of the country's aging population. Hispanics, at 39 percent, were found to have the highest prevalence of metabolic syndrome among ethnic groups. Women had a higher prevalence than men in all age groups.

The American Heart Association says the best way to control the risk factors contributing to metabolic syndrome are to lose weight and increase physical activity. It also encourages patients to routinely monitor their weight, blood glucose, cholesterol and blood pressure and treat these risk factors according to established guidelines.

Researchers discover why common blood-pressure medicine doesn't work for some people: your kidneys don't want to lose salt

Each year, more than 120 million prescriptions are written around the world for thiazide drugs, which lower salt to treat high blood pressure. High blood pressure affects 28 percent of Kentucky adults, according to the state Department for Public Health. Thiazide drugs often save lives but are ineffective in some patients and only work for a time in others. A study by University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers has found a key reason for the failure.

Thiazides prevent salt from moving through the kidney, causing it to expel salt and water. However, the researchers found that the kidney seems to know "that it's losing too much salt and activates mechanisms to retain salt in other ways," said Paul Welling, a professor of physiology at the University of Maryland.

The researchers studied an animal model designed to prevent salt retention, which imitated the thiazides' effects. They discovered almost 400 genes that alter their activity to assist regulation of the kidney's salt control. Eventually, it might be possible to make drugs that affect the body's mechanisms that control how the body interacts with thiazides.

Welling and his colleagues also may have discovered a "biomarker" that could allow doctors to easily find out in which patients thiazides will not work. When the kidney is working against the thiazides, a certain molecule increases in the urine. "Now that we know more about these novel pathways and processes, we can begin to find new ways to help patients with high blood pressure," said Dean E. Albert Reece, vice president for medical affairs at the University of Maryland.

Study shows that removing a clot that causes a stroke leaves victims with higher functional independence

In Kentucky, strokes cause about 5 percent of deaths, and the state had the 11th highest stroke mortality rate in 2009, according to data from the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services. Fewer than 40 percent of severe stroke victims regain functional independence if they get only the standard drug intervention, but a study has found that also removing the clot both helps restore blood flow to the brain and can lead to more favorable long term outcomes.

"The outcomes are the difference between patients being able to care for themselves after stroke and being dependent," said Demetrius Lopes, surgical director of the comprehensive stroke center at Rush University Medical Center.

The traditional treatment for ischemic stroke—a stroke that involves clots in vessels bringing blood to the brain—is intravenous tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), a medication to dissolve the clot. However, doctors can also perform thrombectomy, a minimally invasive procedure to remove the clot that is allowed only in clinical trials.

In the study, patients with severe ischemic strokes were split into two groups. One group received only tPA, while the other group received tPA as well as thrombectomy. After 90 days, those who received both treatments had less disability and had a functional independence rate of 60 percent, compared to 35.5 percent of those who received only tPA. Also, patients who received thrombectomy had better blood flow rates in the brain.

"Ethically, we can't deny patients a treatment when we have such strong evidence it's better for them," Lopes said. Now thrombectomy is a standard treatment for severe strokes at Rush and some other locations. The study is published in the online edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Another study suggests that lack of walking and other physical activity damages blood vessels and causes many health issues

If you are looking for a reason to commit to daily exercise in 2015, here are two: The U.S. surgeon general says most of us only exercise about half the recommended amount to be healthy, and a new study shows that this lack of activity damages our blood vessels, which contributes to much of what ails us.

Research at the University of Missouri School of Medicine, published in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, found that going from high (10,000 steps a day) to low levels of daily physical activity (5,000 steps a day) for just five days decreases the function of the inner lining of the blood vessels in the legs, according to a news release from the university.

“The impairment we saw in just five days was quite striking,” Paul Fadel, associate professor of medical pharmacology and physiology at the university, said in the release. “It shows just how susceptible the vascular system is to physical inactivity.” Previous studies have found that a decrease in blood-vessel function is linked to early cardiovascular death and hypertension.

Kentucky is the ninth most inactive state, with almost one-third (30.2 percent) of Kentuckians reporting in a national survey that they did not engage in physical activity or exercise during the previous 30 days other than doing their regular jobs, according to the State of Obesity report.

A collective New Year's resolution by Kentuckians to increase their physical activity, if kept, would help improve almost every health issue that plagues our state: obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease. Kentucky ranks fifth in obesity, 17th in diabetes and fifth in hypertension, and is projected to have more than 1 million cases of heart disease by 2010, the report says.

“Inactivity is typically going to lead to people being overweight and obese,” Fadel said. “The next step after that is insulin resistance, which leads to Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.”

So, how much activity do we need to keep our blood vessels healthy? 10,000 steps every day, says the surgeon general. But the reality is that most of us only take 5,000 steps a day, which is considered a low activity level. The research for this study is based on 30 minutes of moderate activity a day.

“We need to teach and explain to people about the physiology of their bodies and the physiology of the disease process and help them understand that inactivity plays a foundational role in the disease process,” John Thyfault, associate professor of nutrition and exercise physiology at the university, said.

“Then we give them behavioral tools, like pedometers, to monitor and help them achieve higher physical activity so they start to see and feel health improvements. These studies are proof we need to get people to understand their activity every day plays a role in their health, and that their health is not simply a matter of body weight and how they look in the mirror.”