Diabetes is considered a chronic health condition that affects how our bodies turn food into energy and results in too much sugar in the bloodstream. A person with diabetes lacks the insulin production they need to absorb the sugar.
The cells that make insulin are our beta cells, which unfortunately do not reproduce easily. Beta cells actually get exhausted over time, die out and lose their function. This can cause serious health problems and damage vital organs. Most people with diabetes have a shorter life expectancy than people without the disease.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates about 2 in 5 of the adult population in the US are now expected to develop diabetes during their lifetime1. More than 37 million people of all ages (around 11% of the US population) have diabetes today2. In addition, 96 million adults (more than 1 in 3) have pre-diabetes2, with blood sugars that are higher than normal but not high enough to be classified as diabetes. Diabetes is also one of the largest economic burdens on the US health care system with $1 out of every $4 in US health care costs being spent on caring for people with diabetes3. Despite the availability of current standard-of-care medications, diabetes remains a largely uncontrolled disease3.
