Urinary symptoms, metabolic syndrome link

WATERTOWN, Mass., June 23 (UPI) -- People with mild to severe urinary tract symptoms are more likely to suffer metabolic syndrome, U.S. and British researchers said.

The researchers at the New England Research Institutes in Watertown, Mass.; Northwestern University in Chicago; Cornell University, Weill Medical College in New York, Pfizer Inc., in New York; and Pfizer Ltd. in Sandwich, England; explored the association between urinary track symptoms and metabolic syndrome using data from the Boston Area Community Health Survey.

The study, published in the Journal of Urology, found the collection of cardiovacular risk factors thought to be linked by insulin resistance known as metabolic syndrome more likely in those who suffer lower urinary tract system complaints. Among the complaints researchers looked at were incomplete, weak, intermittent or strained voiding or difficulties with frequency, urgency or voiding at night.

"These findings have important diagnostic and management implications," the researchers said in a statement. "Patients who present with components of metabolic dysfunction should be routinely queried with respect to urological function, particularly voiding symptoms such as intermittency, incomplete emptying and nocturia -- waking night to urinate."

The researchers interviewed 2,301 men ages 30-79 and conducted analyses on 1,899 men who provided blood samples, body measurements, blood pressure readings and self-reported medical histories.