Fig. 1

Study flow-chart. Notes: # Asthma or allergies (14), Atopic skin disease (2), Bipolar disorder or depression (3), Cholelithiasis (1), Chronic gastritis (1), Coeliac disease (1), Collitis (2), Crohn disease (1), Diabetes mellitus (1), Epilepsy (2), History of gastric ulcers (1), GERD (7), GOUT (2), Hashimoto disease and hypothyroidism (31), Hypercholesterolemia, treated with statins (1), Hyperprolactynemia (1), Hypertension (13), Idiopathic purpura (1), Irritable bowel syndrome (5), Lactation (1), Lactose intolerance (1), Marfan disease (1), Migrains (3), Nephrolithiasis, non-infectious hepatitis (1), Polycystic ovarian disease (9), Psoriasis (2), Steatosis hepatitis (1), Virial hepatitis (3). * There were 44 patients with missing data on BP, however only 11 of them had one metabolic abnormality, in which case elevated BP could change group classification (metabolically healthy vs. MS), therefore those 11 patients were excluded from analysis