Diabetes is a major public health problem affecting millions of people
around the globe. In the United States alone, over 7.5 million have type 2 diabetes and
an alarming 78 million adults have prediabetes and remain largely undiagnosed. This
epidemic was ushered in by the ongoing epidemic of obesity and is caused in-part by
sedentary life style and aging population. In this chapter we discuss the diabetes
epidemic highlighting the major risk factor of diabetes, particularly type 2. We also
discuss the complications of diabetes including microvascular complications as well as
macrovascular disease including coronary heart disease and stroke, the major cause of
morbidity and mortality in the diabetic population. Finally, we present the major
therapeutic advances in diabetes including modern pharmacologic agents and their
potential effects on cardiovascular risk. We also outline the recent technological
advances in diabetes management including closed loop systems, artificial pancreas,
stem cell therapy among other ongoing research bound to prevent and/or alleviate the
effects of this ongoing epidemic.
Keywords: Complications, Diabetes, Glucose monitoring technology, Modern
therapy, Risk factors.
