Now that the US market is suspiciously saturated with human insulin - and many of us diagnosed within the last 10 years did not have a shot at trying porcine insulin - I'd like to set the record straight. When the pharmaceutical companies cherry pick the studies they wish to use for their gain, and not so much for your enhanced quality of life - they must've lost this study.

Please read the entire study (if you have access to it in a local library) but what grabbed my undivided attention was the sentence that says: it was observed that the action of porcine insulin was associated with... a striking increase of prolactinaemia, in relation to semisynthetic human insulin.

Okay -- so as I look deeper into the function of prolactin -- aside from some definite dopamine enhancing activities (if you know what I mean) :::wink wink::: -- it is responsible for the formation of myelin coatings on axons in the central nervous system. This is a certifiable problem that results in diabetic neuropathy and the related side effects (numbness, nerve dysfunction, i.e, ED).

Ex-queeze me? Does this say that human synthetic insulin may be a cock blocking drug?

Sorry for the blunt delivery -- but this is the truth. Why doesn't human synthetic insulin have this listed as a side effect? My guess is: if you had a choice of human synthetic insulin versus highly purified porcine insulin -- and you knew the side effects of human synthetic might take a toll on the health of your sex life -- you might be praying to the porcine gods.

Shame on the companies who knew about this study and kept it undercover so you couldn't...

There's a report in The New York Times today about the growing market for diabetes drugs--and how that market grows as the so-called diabetes epidemic escalates. The article also touches on the positive spin-off in terms of money-making possibilities for the drug companies and their investors. (The market for diabetes drugs is now worth an estimated $15 billion, and that is expected to grow to at least $25 billion worldwide by 2001!)

The article is worth a look because it profiles the four diabetes-fighting drugs that are generating the most excitement these days. They are: 1. Byetta, 2. Exubera, 3. Galvus, and 4. Januvia. Byetta (pictured) is already available and comes in the form of an injection. Exubera is an inhalable insulin delivery device that will be released for sale in the US in July. Galvus and Januvia come in the form of pills and are expected to arrive on the market next year.

The reason there is so much excitement surrounding these drugs is that they are relatively hassle- and pain-free to use and, best of all, they help treat the underlying causes of diabetes. Anyway, this article gives a handy overview of what all the fuss is about - check it out!