The diabetes mellitus epidemic is unfolding across the globe with the World
Health Organization (WHO) reporting a worldwide prevalence of 177 million
patients with diabetes. Type 2 diabetes accounts for approximately ninety
percent of all diabetes cases. Long-term complications of type 2 diabetes
include atherosclerosis, heart disease, stroke, end-stage renal disease,
retinopathy leading to blindness, nerve damage, sexual dysfunction, frequent
infections, and difficult-to-treat foot ulcers, sometimes resulting in lower
limb amputation. Diabetics are twice as likely to develop cardiovascular disease
or have a stroke, two to six times more likely to have transient ischemic
attacks, and fifteen to forty times more likely to require lower-limb amputation
compared with the