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!

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!

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.