DIVABETIC Opens The Tunnel Of Love

Since we kicked off of our national tour of Novo Nordisk Presents Divabetic - Makeover Your Diabetes outreach events, geared towards women affected by, at risk of or living with diabetes and their guests, in February 2007, our staff has found that taking diabetes education out of the clinical setting often times means talking about more aspects of diabetes care than just women's A1C numbers. In the five various cities around the country where the program has already been presented women have expressed interest in learning ways to overcome other issues regarding their diabetes care such as burn-out, depression and often, a lack of desire.

“Women who come to our events want to talk about the things they don’t like to talk about with their doctors, like sex,” says Max Szadek. “I guess it’s because our team wears t-shirts instead of lab coats!”

In response to this interest from divas, DIVABETIC has added a new station to the event’s interactive diabetes education component, THE MAKEOVER MAZE, called the Tunnel of Love. At the Tunnel Of Love, local CDE’s and guest host, Mother Love, will discuss several topics including: the role of lovers, caregivers, and friends and how to effectively help, support, and encourage the people we love living with diabetes as well as how sexual desires and responses are affected by diabetes with participants. Plus, women will have the opportunity to discuss the best ways to manage their diabetes during pregnancy.

“It’s become clear to us that the popularity of our programming is a result of developing new, entertaining ways for people to learn about EVERY aspect of their diabetes and not just what’s tried and true,” said Max Szadek. “Since our education is so personalized (women and their guests interact with CDE’s on a one-to-one basis) we have the opportunity to change topics from city to city and alter our presentation to accomodate their needs."

The Tunnel of Love will make its debut at Novo Nordisk Presents Divabetic – Makeover Your Diabetes at the Paramount Theater at the Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, on Saturday, June 16th. This event also features personalized diabetes education on food, fitness, foot care, blood pressure as well as an assortment of free spa and salon services such as mini-massages, manicures, makeup applications and image consultations for guests. For more information or to register go to: divabetic.org or changingdiabetes-us.com