Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome and Cardiovascular Disease

There has been a dramatic increase in the incidence of diabetes worldwide, which has been exacerbated by the growing obesity problem across the globe. Once thought of as primarily a childhood disease--sometimes referred to as juvenile diabetes, now mostly Type 1 diabetes--the obesity crisis linked to the adoption of a high-fat, high-carbohydrate, high-calorie American diet has resulted in skyrocketing rates of diabetes among adults across the world. To compound the global diabetes epidemic, health professionals are witnessing an alarming increase in inflammatory diseases resulting from adult onset (i.e., Type 2) diabetes.

This phenomenon is referred to as "metabolic syndrome" where a confluence of inflammatory conditions occur along with the diabetes. As a result, growing evidence appears to show that metabolic syndrome makes the diabetic patient susceptible to degenerative health conditions such as cardiovascular disease, stroke and, now believed, Alzheimer's disease. As the diabetes epidemic escalates, a new sense of urgency has taken hold. Proactive strategies for prevention of the disease are being put in place by international health organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO), as well as by the health departments of industrialized and developing countries, and even at the local level where food ingredients regulations are being passed.

Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome and Cardiovascular Disease charts the changing landscape of the global diabetic population and explores the added health concerns resulting from the metabolic syndrome phenomenon and one of its major risk factors: cardiovascular disease (CVD). Furthermore, this study evaluates widely-accepted therapeutic approaches to diabetes that are currently in use, while providing an in-depth analysis of emerging technologies that will be used to treat diabetes and other inflammatory diseases in the future.