Lacking insulin, sugars build up in the blood rather than entering cells to fuel them. The result is that the body's cells literally can starve to death, causing the complications. At the same time, the unprocessed sugar damages the weakened cell walls. Some 798,000 new cases of diabetes are diagnosed annually in the United States. It is a chronic disease that has no cure and is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
Diabetes has two major subsets.
In Type 1 diabetes, most often occurring in children and young adults, the body does not produce insulin and patients must take daily insulin injections to live. Type 1 accounts for about 10 percent of all diabetes cases. In Type 2 diabetes, the body either doesn't make enough insulin or doesn't properly use it to convert foods. This is the most common form of the disease, comprising about 90 percent of all cases. Weight loss and exercise can control many of these cases.