Insulin not only moves glucose into the cells, but it also escorts Vitamin C. Blood sugar hogs the seats on the bus in most diabetics, therefore reducing the amount of Vitamin C we can absorb. This is the premise of The GAA Theory: high glucose levels hinder vitamin C entry into cells.

Vitamin C is vitally important for many functions throughout the body - a big one being metabolism. Glucose and Vitamin C are similar in the way they enter the cells. Both molecules require help from insulin. The name for the process that brings glucose and Vitamin C through cell membranes is insulin-mediated uptake. The insulin-mediated uptake of glucose and vitamin C uses white blood cells. White blood cells have more insulin pumps and they may contain 20 times the amount of vitamin C as ordinary cells.

So does increasing your Vitamin C help boost your glycemic control? Diabetes Health cited a study that confirms daily doses of 2,000 mg of absorbic acid improved both fasting blood glucose and HbA1c readings in patients with type 2 diabetes. Next time you swing by the store - see if some Emergen-C can help you achieve better glycemic control. With 1,000 mg of Vitamin C per packet - their homepage says: Feel The Good. Little did they know how good it could be for Type 2 diabetics!

Creator of Diabetes Health Magazine, Scott King, has been a type 1 diabetic for over 34 years. Needless to say, he knows diabetes, and he is doing a remarkable job of introducing cutting-edge treatments for diabetics. In the first Diabetes Health TV broadcast, he shared interviews from the recent AADE Conference. A really exciting product he featured is called Neuragen - a topical treatment for diabetes neuropathy.

With diabetes neuropathy, people experience pain due to damage to the peripheral nerves. Neuropathic pain is often characterized by burning sensations or shooting pain, or may occur as numbness or chronic itching. Clinical trials have shown Neuragen to be effective in 70% of patients for the pain associated with diabetes. The ingredients are pretty kosher, too. Neuragen is made of a proprietary blend of essential oils from special species of geranium, lavender, bergamot, eucalyptus, and tea tree.

The Neuragen rep was blunt when he described the effective nature of this all natural product - using more does not make it any more effective! You have to admire his refreshing honesty. But like I said upfront - if Scott King is willing to spend the time getting the scoop on this product - it's probably worth your time using it. For more interviews, checkot the full coverage of the AADE Conference on Diabetes Health TV!

Diabetics who are familiar with the glycemic index have an easier time discerning how certain foods will affect their blood sugar. The principle of the glycemic index is based on a 1 to 100 scale, with pure glucose being 100. A food GI is measured by how much it will raise blood sugar in a 2 hour span.

The glycemic index (GI) underlying theme is a low-sugar, high-fiber, plant-based diet. Most GI lists categorize foods into three groups: Low (less than 55), Medium (55-69), and High (over 70) GI foods. Low GI foods will stimulate the least blood glucose and are presumably better to eat. Vegetables generally are low GI. Foods with lots of sugar have higher values. The GI theory is not cut and dry. Certain factors will skew results, for example: eating protein. Protein will slow the abortion of glucose into the blood. This rule also holds true for fat.

Curious how a low glycemic diet might work for you? Fifty50 wants to help you achieve optimal blood sugar control. They have created a step-by-step experiment that shows how a high glycemic meal will affect a blood sugar, in relation to a low glycemic meal. Check it out and see for yourself is this GI thing is worth mastering.

SugarStats makes it simple to virtually track, monitor and share key statistics to help manage your diabetes online. Here's your chance to get rid of the annoying paper trail and replace it with high tech efficiency. You would anticipate such a brilliant idea to cost boatloads. No sir -- this perk is free!

SugarStats gives you a simple and easy-to-use way to input and access your data anywhere with a web browser. Get rid of that pen and paper log -- it's all online! Track and manage meds, foods and activity. Drill down into specific timeframes to get a clear picture. Visualize your progress with easy to read graphs and trends. Share your statistics with your family, friends or doctor. This is such an awesome tool! Your desire to take control of your diabetes is so easy, thanks to Marston's brilliant interface. Sign up free or take a tour.

It seems every day I learn about an extraordinary diabetic doing something to improve the daily struggles of this unforgiving disease. Kudos Marsten! You're another shining player on Team Diabetes!

Around a year ago I posted the story of two elderly brothers, both of whom have had type 1 diabetes since childhood. It's amazing to read about these guys for two reasons: first, they've lived with diabetes for a reeeaally long time. Secondly, for most of that time, they did not have the medical knowledge or technology on which today's diabetics depend. (Okay, so when it comes to stuff like Avandia, you could argue that's a good thing!)

Anyway, one of the brothers - Robert "Bob" Cleveland (87) - will be featured in a new book titled 50 Secrets of the Longest Living People with Diabetes by Sheri R. Colberg and Steven V. Edelman. The book is part of the Marlowe Diabetes Library series. It will be published in November and is available for pre-ordering on Amazon.

Linda von Wartburg, writing for Diabetes Health, has posted an excerpt about Cleveland taken from the book, for those who want an advance taste. According to that post, Bob Cleveland has lived with the disease for an amazing eighty-two years. This makes Cleveland second in line for the title of person in the US who's lived with diabetes the longest. He was five years old when diagnosed in 1925. Bob's brother, Gerald, has not had diabetes for quite so long, but he is the oldest living person with diabetes in the US. The brothers are pictured at right, with Bob on the left and Gerald on the right.

Reading Cleveland's account of his early years with diabetes, before insulin became available, is quite harrowing. He describes being on a "starvation diet," hospital stays, and memories of his mother desperately trying to pull him out of hypoglycemic episodes. Incredible reading.

Certain models of the Medtronic Paradigm insulin pump can be irrevocably damaged by exposure to MRI radiation. As a result - and based on information supplied voluntarily by Medtronic - the US Food and Drug Administration has declared a Class II recall for the affected pump models. MRIs (magnetic resonance imaging) can cause the pump to malfunction and deliver a dangerously high dosage of insulin to the user.

Bottom line is that there's nothing defective about these pumps in terms of normal usage. You need only be concerned if you own one of the affected models and if your pump was exposed to MRI magnetic waves. Medtronic says the pumps that are affected should sound an alarm to warn users, but it is feared that people might override such alarms and continue using the devices, unaware that permanent damage has been done.

Owners of the affected models should have received a letter in the mail from Medtronic explaining the recall. If you use a Medtronic pump and have had an MRI, swing over to the FDA's website. There you can read the feds' statement (complete with typo misspelling "paradigm"!) on the problem and confirm whether or not yours is one of the problem pumps. This article in Diabetes Health is also useful. Strangely, I found the Medtronic website devoid of helpful info on the subject, but eventually tracked down a pdf of the letter sent to customers on the company's Canadian website.

This headline on the website Diabetes Health got my attention: "The Federal Government Hugely Out-of-Pocket for Diabetes Care." Here are the key numbers: In 2005, the federal government spent almost eighty billion dollars on diabetes care, writes Linda von Wartburg, reporting on a study commissioned by drug giant Novo Nordisk as part of its "Changing Diabetes" campaign. In fact, one in every eight healthcare dollars - or twelve percent of the budget - was spent on diabetes. Need some more perspective? Well, according to the Novo study, this amounts to more than the entire budget of the Department of Education. Phew.

Yes, diabetes care is costing a lot of money. But the ballooning cost of diabetes treatment is only part of the problem. Of equal concern is the amount spent on care versus the amount allocated for prevention and education. Paltry, is the word you might use. Of the 79.7 billion spent, only 3.9 billion went to prevention or education. Considering Type 2 diabetes cases are ballooning in the US - some say it constitutes an epidemic - the feds might want to consider tweaking the budget a bit, don't you agree? That's what the study's authors are recommending. They say more money is desperately needed for prevention and public education. Click here to read more on Novo's Federal Spending Report.

Gastroparesis develops in about one in five people with type 1 diabetes, as well as many type 2s. Not usually life-threatening, it does have some nasty side effects, can compromise quality of life and hinders good blood sugar control.

"Stomach paralysis" is another name for gastroparesis, a form of diabetic neuropathy damaging the vagus nerve. This long nerve travels from brainstem to colon, and it has big responsibilities to control heart rate, sweating and gastrointestinal contractions, among others. The vagus nerve triggers wave-like contractions of the stomach, which break down your food into small particles and swish around enzymes and acids released from the stomach's inner lining. Every twenty seconds or so, stomach contractions steadily push the broken down food through the pyloric valve and into the small intestine for nutrient absorption. The entire process can take up to four hours.

Years of high blood sugars damage vagus nerve stimulation, preventing the stomach from contracting. Food literally hangs out in the stomach unpulverized, potentially fermenting in gridlock. This traffic jam can cause the food to harden into solid masses called bezoars (pronounced "bee's oars"), sort of like the cat hairballs my brothers and I dreaded cleaning up from the carpeting when we were kids. Bezoars can cause nausea, vomiting, and if they block the pyloric valve, a serious emergency.The condition wreaks circular havoc on blood sugar control as sporadic stomach emptying makes blood sugar predictions difficult, and poor control can worsen gastroparesis by slowing gastric emptying. Additionally, narcotic pain meds, tricyclic anti-depressants and calcium channel blockers, which slow stomach emptying, can actually cause the condition.

Symptoms of gastroparesis include bloating, abdominal pain, nausea, weight loss, heartburn and feeling full even after a few bites. The good news is it can be diagnosed through a variety of methods. While not curable, recent progress in treatment strategies can provide relief. Low-fiber foods such as well-cooked fruits/veggies, fish, chicken, yogurt, refined grains or liquid foods are recommended as the stomach has a tough time breaking down fiber. Several drugs treat varying symptoms or stimulate stomach contractions. A stomach pacemaker is also a newer option. One experimental treatment involves botox injections into the pyloric muscle, relaxing this opening from the stomach to intestines to allow for greater release of food. Read more about this condition in Diabetes Health.

In a previous post, I explained Diabetes Health was seeking feedback on an insulin pump survey. The survey garnered 841 respondents, even more than a previous survey they offered on women and sex! The results are now available, and here is a recap of a few interesting points.

608 surveyed are insulin pumpers, while 233 use multiple daily injections. For pumpers, 51 percent use Novolog, 43 percent use Humalog, four percent Apidra and one percent Regular insulin. Bolus doses (when you eat) varied widely, but 44 percent bolus when eating, 13 percent bolus after eating, eleven percent bolus ten minutes after eating and one percent bolus 30 minutes before eating. Nearly one-third do utilize a bolus depending on a blood sugar reading.

To calculate insulin doses, 84 percent of pumpers estimate carbohydrates, twelve percent carefully weigh their food for exact calculations, and only five percent simply guess. It would be interesting to know the average A1Cs across the three preferences for insulin calculation.

The pump is a real boost for 86 percent -- they feel better emotionally since going on the pump. Only 13 percent use a continuous glucose monitor, and of the large majority who do not, 57 percent identify cost as a barrier; 13 percent do not want another attachment and five percent simply do not think it will help. The pump has caused some problems as 51 percent had a malfunction, 30 percent worry about a potential malfunction and a smaller 14 percent have had crimping of the infusion set.

Once again Diabetes Health gets to the bottom of a breaking point question: why does insulin cost more than ever?

When Fred Banting and Charles Best first discovered insulin in 1921, they sold the patent for a dollar ($1) so that insulin could quickly become available for life-saving use. Within 2 years, Eli Lilly had sold over 60 million units of its purified extract of pig and cow pancreas. Over the next 60 years, purification and duration improvements were applied to insulin. However, each new version of insulin came with a new patent and a higher price tag. By the 80s, yeasts were being used as tiny insulin-making factories. Once the gene for human insulin was inserted into one yeast DNA, the yeast multiplied ad infinitum, and each new yeast came with a little copy of human insulin. This breakthrough, naturally, carried with it a big, profit-making patent.

In 1996, the FDA approved the first insulin analog. Newer insulins are called analogs because they're similar to human insulin-- but not quite exactly. Before being put into the yeast, the human genetic material is slightly changed, to produce slower or quicker acting insulin, for instance. Each one of these improvements comes, of course, with a patent. And all these patented insulins cost - big time. For the entire story, comments from influential diabetes advocates and the evolution of insulin price gouging - see the full article at Diabetes Health!

A recent study compared the sperm of 27 men with type 1 diabetes to the sperm of 29 men of equal age without diabetes.

The researchers found that the sperm of the men with diabetes were healthy in many respects. The shape and abundance of the sperm from type 1 diabetic males were perfectly normal and apparently they were great swimmers. However, when the DNA was examined, there was more damage to the DNA of the diabetic men. Around 52% of the DNA in their sperm cells was fragmented, compared to only 32% in the men without diabetes. There was also a higher rate of deletions in the DNA inside their mitochondria, separate DNA found within each cell. The results of this study suggest type 1 diabetes may cause diabetic men to be less fertile.

However Diabetes Health recognizes that many type 1 dads have healthy children - so the study need not be a decision maker or breaker to pursue fatherhood. Thanks to Diabetes Health for reporting the ongoing pursuit of diabetes health.

Out of the nearly three million people in the United States with type 1 diabetes, less than 300,000 are utilizing an insulin pump. That's roughly 10%.

Diabetes Health wants to know why more type 1 diabetics are not on the insulin pump. They are currently collecting data via an on-line survey. Please give them your feedback. Diabetes Health promises a forthcoming article summarizing attitudes and general feedback garnered on the subject.

My older brother was one of those 300,000 insulin pumpers. But he has returned to needles. Watch for future post where he will explain how the pump gave him the best blood sugar control of his life, but a frightening side effect prompted him to set aside the pump forever.

If you've been around the diabetes online community you've certainly heard of Amy Tenderich. Her award-winning site is touted as one of the most influential diabetes sites out there. If you're looking for a gold mine of straight talk and encouragement -- Diabetes Mine is your destination. And now is your chance to speak to the celebrity herself! Amy will be chatting live on Tuesday, May 22, 9pm EST on Diabetes Talkfest.

Her charm comes through, loud and clear, in her cynically optimistic view of the trials of living with diabetes. Her journalistic flair derives from the heart and covers topics like breaking news and inside looks at diabetes research, as well as daily life with diabetes and uncovering the diabetics' deepest hopes and fears. Her all inclusive panache, along with her comedic nuances, make every moment of reading worth it.

Diabetes Mine has been featured in the Wall St. Journal, the UK Guardian, TechCrunch, NPR's Future Tense, and a number of other publications. The most recent feather in Amy's cap was added when she collaborated with Dr. Richard Jackson, a leading physician from Joslin Diabetes Center, to co-author the book Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes. True to form, the book is hailed as the first-ever straightforward guidebook providing a clear strategy for living well with diabetes and avoiding the long-term health damage it can cause. I look forward to the opportunity of chatting with Amy. Hope you all can join us!

Diabetes Health surveyed women about the effects of diabetes on your sex life and how you overcome the hurdles. Be forewarned, some parts are R-rated, but that's what you came for, right?

Half of the people surveyed say they have difficulty relaxing during sex. Only 19% say that plain awkwardness due to diabetes is more distracting than any physical changes. Dr.Grace Beltran (Amazing Grace) describes the Anatomy of a Female Orgasm quite clearly. She says: sensorial impulses shoot up your spinal cord to special parts of your brain called the sensory cortex and the limbic system (the emotional brain), which is when you experience the euphoria of reaching Mt. Orgasmus. Many diabetes drugs can cause B vitamin insufficiencies and malabsorption (look for "malaise" on the side effects).

56% take no special steps before sex due to diabetes, although 57% of you feel that sex is harder because of diabetes, and 24% of you say that sex is just too difficult because of diabetes. (See Amazing Grace's roadmap to the Anatomy of a Female Orgasm, above).

Durable goods: About 20% of you who wear a pump say it's interfered with sex and gotten tangled up during sex (true), but 27% of you detach your pump before sex. I can see how an insulin pump might get a little cumbersome when gravity and inertia come into play - but that's when your partner really shines.

The Eros-CDT is an appliance for increasing blood flow to the clitoris. 33% of ladies surveyed would ask their doctor about it, but 27% would not use it no matter what. 27% use a vibrator during sex with your partner. Wouldn't an Eros-CDT and a vibrator be one in the same? Let Nationwide Insurance pickup the tab for your Jack Rabbit. A friend told me they are happy to pay for any claim as long as you can prove you own it with the Owners Manual.

About 20% of you have tried Viagra, and it's helped about half of the women who have tried it. 27% of you have noticed numbness in the clitoral area that you attribute to neuropathy. Forget the pills, ladies. Get on the horn with your insurance company and demand the right to clitoral stimulation!!

Finally, it's apparently worse to be old than to be diabetic: 39% of you have found menopause to be a bigger issue than diabetes when it comes to sex. And 80% of you want more articles about how to deal with diabetes-caused sexual problems.

So now we know. Diabetes Health will be running more articles about sex and diabetes, so keep your curiosity piqued and your eyes open - this is the first survey result but it will certainly NOT be the last.

Realizing how influential carbohydrates can be on blood sugars, I swore myself to celibacy from baked goods long ago. However, my closed-door policy underwent peace talks after I had the pleasure of speaking with Ramsey Makar, founder of Miracle Muffins. Miracle Muffins are diabetic friendly premium muffin mixes with a plethora of wholesome goodness. Fresh baked, every time -- all you have to do is add water!

Miracle is a strong word. However, when you see the impact these muffins have on blood sugar -- you'll agree it's miraculous. Ramsey wanted to create a muffin that his diabetic mother could enjoy without the rise in her sugar. He concocted a recipe that contains generous amounts of fiber, healthy soy protein, low-glycemic sweeteners, and is very low in fat. Another fact for good measure -- the muffins fit comfortably into the diet programs of Weight Watchers, Atkins, South Beach, LA Weight Loss, Nutra System and Zone.

I saved the best part for last -- the flavors! Each muffin is fresh-baked so you spare nothing on taste. The flavors available are: banana, blueberry, black cherry, chai spiced black tea, cinnamon green tea, chocolate black cherry and gingerbread. The muffin mixes have two versions based on the sweeteners used -- Spnenda or Xylitol. It says something profound about a product that actually helped an Olympic athlete lose weight! When you visit the Miracle Muffin site, take a peek at the You Tube video, read the mesmerizing nutrition details, and indulge yourself in the Miracle Muffin experience. You'll be a believer, too!