WASHINGTON, (UPI) -- The wide adoption of Westernized food and lifestyles may be supersizing cardiovascular disease risk factors in China's older population, a new study shows.

Researchers in the United States and China, who examined 2,334 people 60 and over in metropolitan Beijing, found between a third and a half of the participants had metabolic syndrome, a group of risk factors that include abdominal obesity and elevated blood pressure.

The percentage depends on the metric used: For instance, according to the criteria set forth by the International Diabetes Federation, 46 percent of participants had the condition.

Metabolic syndrome can lead to diabetes and cardiovascular disease, as well as increased mortality.

"If this problem is not addressed, it's going to be a huge problem for the healthcare system and the quality of life among the people," study author Frank Hu of the Harvard School of Public Health told United Press International.

The study, the first to look at elderly Chinese and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome, will be published April 18 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

The Chinese are approaching a state of over-nutrition -- particularly the consumption of animal fats and refined carbohydrates -- as their economy develops, according to Hu.

However, he said the link between Westernized lifestyles and the rate of metabolic syndrome is, at this point, only a reasonable assumption.

The impending epidemic of cardiovascular disease should be addressed at a population level through diet and lifestyle changes, Hu added, although he acknowledged these changes would not be easy to make.

But for those who skip the fast food and still become obese, there may be a genetic reason: Science reports this week that scientists have found the first genetic mutation that may cause obesity.

Alan Herbert of Boston University Medical School led a team of researchers who discovered people with two copies of the common mutation are 22 percent more likely to be obese. The researchers used a genome scan of DNA samples to isolate the genetic variant, and they have replicated the findings in people of Western European ancestry, African Americans and children.

In other news:

-- Fetuses might not feel pain, according to a British psychologist at the University of Birmingham in England. Stuart Derbyshire asserts in this week's British Medical Journal that a fetus' neural circuitry needed to process pain is not yet developed at 26 weeks of gestation. Likewise, fetuses lack the subjectivity to register pain, and the environment of the womb does not encourage stimulation of the brain. However, previous research has suggested fetuses can react to stimuli, such as music, at 20 weeks of age.

-- Asthma sufferers may breathe a little easier with news that antibiotics can help their condition. A study published April 13 in the New England Journal of Medicine tested the effectiveness of the antibiotic Telithromycin, which proved to be effective in improving lung function and easing symptoms. The cause of asthma is not completely understood, although viruses could play a part.

-- Seventeen more cases of the mumps have surfaced in Illinois today, bringing the total to 63 confirmed or likely cases of the infection in the state. The cases are part of a wider outbreak in the Midwest; Iowa has reported more than 500 cases, the largest number in more than two decades. Health officials suspect two airline passengers may have spread the Iowa strain to six other Midwestern states, the Associated Press reported.

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