Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), heart failure (HF), and diabetic kidney disease (DKD) are major pandemics of the twenty first century. T2DM affects more than 400 million persons worldwide. These three conditions often coexist, and each worsens the prognosis of the other two, setting up a series of vicious circles. (Fig. 1) For example, T2DM is a powerful risk factor for the development of HF(Fig. 1a);it is associated with a 2 to 4 times greater risk of the development of cardiovascular disease (CVD), which is responsible for about two-thirds of all deaths in patients with T2DM.