The Master Cleanser Detox raises my curiosity to insatiable levels. Many stars have sworn by it - from Beyonce Knowles to Robin Quivers. The misconception behind the safety of this practice for weight loss is reviewed by a registered dietician on The Diet Channel. The Master Cleanser is by no stretch of the imagination a healthy way to lose weight. In fact, the Master Cleanser, otherwise known as the Lemonade Diet, is a complete body detoxifying cleanse that has been around for over 60 years.

The Master Cleanser is a combination of simple ingredients in different combinations throughout the day: organic sea salt, water, lemons, syrup, cayenne pepper and a laxative tea. The day begins with a quart of salt water, followed by interval consumption of several cups of homemade lemonade throughout the day. The lemonade contains fresh squeezed lemons and water, cayenne pepper, and maple syrup. The lemon juice is said to dissolve built-up waste in the colon (the master cleansing agent); the cayenne pepper is for ridding the body of mucus; and the maple syrup is for energy. The end of the day includes a detoxifier herbal tea laxative. The herbal laxative is to aid the elimination process and the salt water acts as a colonic flush. The author of the original plan recommends following the diet for a minimum of 10 days, but also says that the diet can be followed for up to 20 days.

On Friday I went to Borders to get my hands on a copy of the Mater Cleanser. Big mistake after I realized it was the debut of the latest Harry Potter book. I should've called! In any event - I forfeited fighting Gryffindors and Hogwarts to find the book. I returned home to scour the internet for personal reviews of the Master Cleanser. The most important thing I discovered was that people who use the Master Cleanser to lose weight are misinformed. The Master Cleanser is intended for ultimate toxin elimination - not weight elimination. For entertaining enlightenment - I strongly suggest reading the Amazon.com customer reviews!!

Congressional investigators have been looking into very serious claims that Avandia's maker silenced medical professionals who attempted to speak out about the potential for cardiovascular problems by using the drug.

Dr. Buse, who is about to become the president of the American Diabetes Association, was an early and frequent critic of Avandia after it reached the market in 1999. In a March 2000 letter to the F.D.A., he said Avandia might raise patients' risk of heart attacks, and he criticized the company's marketing, saying it employed "blatant selective manipulation of data" to overstate the drug's benefits and understate its risks.

More recent questions about Avandia's potential risks, as outlined in a New England Journal of Medicine article last week, have prompted the Congressional hearing. The author of that article, Dr. Steven E. Nissen, a heart specialist at the Cleveland Clinic, has also been called to testify. See the full story on the upcoming congressional hearing.

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!

Mad Money is a stock show on CNBC hosted by Jim Cramer - a well-known iron fist on Wall Street. He has a following of stock enthusiasts who regard his recommendations (buy or sell) as gospel. Why is he so good at what he does? He just wants to help you make money.

And to this end -- the reason I bring Cramer's passionate drive to The Diabetes Blog is simple: last week he called Novo Nordisk as a SELL. Cramer said he's beginning to worry about a backlash on drug stocks. He advised that viewers should not be greedy and should take gains in Novo Nordisk (NVO).

Perhaps the NY Times article raised some eyebrows at Big Pharma. It appears doctors are receiving handsome gifts and stipends for handing out samples of drugs that were not all that safe for most patients. The payments give physicians an incentive to prescribe the medicines at levels that might increase patients' risks of heart attacks or strokes. In light of this blood curdling synopsis Novo got a dishonorable mention. Novo Nordisk professes to operate their company in two parts: biopharmaceuticals and Diabetes Care. The Diabetes Care segment provides insulin analogues, human insulin and insulin-related products, and oral antidiabetic drugs.

The cross examination of the C-peptide disappearing act and mysterious insulin auto-antibodies appearing where they shouldn't is just getting started. Thanks for making them sweat, Cramer!

Fair and balanced, just like Fox News -- I want to let everyone know that the "Matt P" I spoke to, at the ADA responded to my blog about the aforementioned conversation. His response is #17 and it is sincere and genuine -- certifiable in my book. Again, let me reiterate that the nature of my call to the ADA was to ask for their assistance in getting a big pharmaceutical company to sponsor C-peptide FDA trials here in the US. Thanks again to Matt. He really is doing all he can, but there seems to be a suspicious roadblock holding up the research here in the US. Any guesses? Without further adieu, here's Matt:

I hope people will take time to read my reply to yesterday's post about ADA and c-peptide. I work for ADA, and I was the "Matt P" who talked to Allie a week or two ago.

I certainly wouldn't\'t discourage you from calling our 800-DIABETES number, but I think you should consider why we have an 800 number and what the staff of our Call Center are trained to do. Their primary goal is to help people with basic questions about taking care of diabetes. They have very little information about what research is going on in diabetes, because that information does not yet have any relevance for the vast majority of people who need the help of our Call Center. Callers are primarily concerned about nutrition, help with paying for medications, and information about complications. The staff does try to take care of callers who want to give guidance to ADA on things like research and legislative priorities, but their primary focus is on providing immediate, direct advice about diabetes management to people who can't get it any other way.

Again, please read my other reply. Guys, diabetes is awful, everyone who works at ADA thinks so and of course so do all of you. We would all sincerely like to see effective treatments come into our hands immediately, but I'm afraid that there is almost nothing ADA can do to change the basic nature of the research process or the drug approval process. Despite recent promising research results regarding c-peptide, there's no way the FDA would approve it as a therapy for diabetes complications until more research is done to precisely define what it does and how well and how safely it does it.

Could industry do more? Probably, although we don't know exactly what they\'re doing now---please see my other post. We live in free society where people and companies don't always have to tell you what they're doing. If you want my pledge to talk to people at Lilly and Novo about the potential promise of c-peptide, you have it.

By all means, call them yourself. I'm afraid our Call Center staff, who do an incredible job with handling a huge number of calls from a lot of desperate people, aren't going to be able to do much to address an issue that is still at the research stage.

Sincerely,

Matt