Diabetes is a serious chronic condition that occurs when your body cannot produce any or enough insulin or cannot effectively use the insulin it produces, resulting in high blood glucose levels. The so-called type 1 diabetes is caused by a set of genetic, environmental and autoimmune factors affecting insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells.

Elevated blood glucose levels even below the diagnostic threshold of diabetes are associated with complications with the greatest impact on morbidity and mortality among people with diabetes. Systematic reviews involving 102 prospective studies in diabetic patients indicate that the relative risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is between 1.6 and 2.6, greater in younger people and slightly higher in women.

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