According to the American Diabetes Association, over 23 million people in the United States have diabetes and 1.6 million new cases are diagnosed amongst people over the age of 20 each year. It’s safe to say that in the United States there is a diabetes epidemic developing. Although juvenile diabetes is on the rise and it has been getting a lot of attention, 23% of Americans over the age of 60 have diabetes as well. Diabetes is the number seven leading killer in the United States and it was the cause of over 233,000 deaths in 20005 alone.