ABSTRACT
There is a worldwide increase in the prevalence of obesity (1,2), which contributes to the increasing incidence of type 2 diabetes. This phenomenon represents a challenge to control cardiovascular disease (CVD), as more than 75% of patients with type 2 diabetes will die from cardiovascular complications (Fig. 1) (3,4). Type 2 diabetes has therefore reached epidemic proportions (5,6), and the International Diabetes Federation estimates that almost 333 millions of individuals will be affected by type 2 diabetes by 2025 (7). As the parallel rapid growth of overweight/obesity and of type 2 diabetes is striking (2), some investigators have coined the term “diabesity” (6,8) to stress the link between these two conditions; excess body weight (fat) being the major cause of type 2 diabetes.
