EDITORIAL June 01, 2016 June 01, 2016

The quest for a metabolic theory of everything

DOI: 10.1590/2359-3997000000172

Since the many groundbreaking discoveries of Physics scattered all throughout the twentieth century (and laureate with too many Nobel prizes to enumerate here), Physicists have been painstakingly searching for a theory of everything which could hypothetically unite Quantum Physics and Relativity, in order to explain most phenomena from the minute weird world of particles all the way through the colossal domain of cosmic bodies (). Physicians are no strangers to this kind of pursuit ().

In this edition of the Archives of Endocrinology and Metabolism, three articles approach different aspects of the Metabolic Syndrome (-). The metabolic syndrome (and from now on I deliberately drop the capitals) has probably been one of the most popular philosophical constructs in the history of medicine. It was created by Prof. Gerald Reaven in 1988, in an attempt to unify the pathophysiological role of insulin resistance (IR) in hyperglycemia and cardiovascular risk (). It has been seen for long as some sort of Holy Grail of metabolic disease, despite intense efforts from its creator to prevent the juggernaut from being unleashed (-). A quick PubMed search of the term “metabolic syndrome” yields 39854 entries (), most of them apparently using the term in its current meaning.

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