medical college of georgia Children's Medical Center The MCG Children's Medical Center serves children, teens and infants throughout Georgia, South Carolina, the Southeast and beyond. The CMC embraces the concept of family-centered care, creating a healing environment that involves the family in the child's care, addresses the child's emotional needs and works to keep children healthy. Physicians and staff representing every pediatric specialty work together to provide the most caring, comprehensive pediatric treatment available for all patients and are dedicated to the future of pediatric medicine. The MCG Children's Medical Center like no other hospital in the world Augusta, Georgia (706) 721-1828 or 1-800-733-1828 http://cmc.mcg.edu At Glance Producing Medical College a Hippotherapy and help for hot flashes are among the items making news at the of Georgia Today is always 2 Medical College of Georgia. a labor of love, but this edition seemed to strike a Aging Gracefully particularly resonant chord with 4 The Medical College of Georgia Center for Senior Health helps its patients live the magazine's writers. We all felt life to the fullest. privileged to become acquainted the extraordinarily fascinating and Tackling a Time Bomb dedicated people featured inside. 9 Wlien a talented young athlete was diagnosed with a potentially deadly brain Consider, for instance, Zavyion abnormality, MCG stepped in to get him back in the game, healthier than ever. House, a young football player whose wisdom and maturity belie Dental Student/CEO his age. In this edition of MCG 13 If you think dental school is grueling, try squeezing non-profit company ownership Today, writer Toni Baker chroni- into the schedule. cles the surgery that likely saved Zavyion's life. "Zavyion obviously Soul-Searching loves football—he was holding 16 A high-powered Augusta lawyer has followed his heart by embarking on a nursing career. one when I met him—but he also is a very sweet young man whose AlumNews deep faith in God and powerful 18 News from MCG's fwe alumni associations. bond with his family are readily apparent," Toni says. "Meeting Plan Your Giving people such as Zavyion and 37 Charitable gift annuities. those who helped him brings home the importance of MCG's work and makes me very proud About the Cover William Bell (pictured with daughter Caroline his to work here." Jones) has maximized quality of life with the help of the MCG Center for Senior Health. Likewise, writer Deborah G. Steele was struck by the rich personality ofJoe Caldwell, a MCG President: Francis Tedesco, M.D. Editor: Christine Hurley Deriso lawyer-turned-nurse. "He's bril- J. Executive Editor: James B. Osborne, Ed.D. Art Director: Brent D. Burch liant and funny at the same time," Director of Marketing Photographer: Phil Jones she says. "His wife says he makes and Public Relations: Dale Crail her laugh at every little thing. He's © 1999, Medical College of Georgia. The Medical College of Georgia is the health sciences university of also very passionate and caring, the University System of Georgia. Focusing on health-care education, research and patient care, the and he's found what he's always Augusta-based institution consists of MCG Hospital, more than 80 support clinics, statewide outreach wanted to do." programs and the Schools of Allied Health Sciences, Dentistry, Graduate Studies, Medicine and Nursing. Medical College of Georgia Today is sponsored by grants from MCG Foundation, Inc. and the MCG It's a pleasure to introduce you School of Medicine Alumni Association. It is produced by the Divisions of Institutional Relations and to these and other remarkable Health Communication; Medical College of Georgia; Augusta, Georgia 30912. Advertising inquiries people in this edition of MCG should be directed to Augusta Magazine, (706) 722-5833, P. O. Box 1405, Augusta, Georgia 30903. Published quarterly, MCG Today is furnished to alumni and friends of without charge. The appear- Today. We hope you enjoy meet- MCG ance of advertisements in this publication does not constitute an endorsement by the Medical College of ing them as as did. much we Georgia of the products or services advertised. 1 A C E Horsing Around spirits. But there was more: his proudly cocked head, his straight shoulders, his easy grace. Nick has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, but on Six-year-old Nick Cannell faces daunting the days he participates in Claudia Morin's challenges every day of his life, but as he sat hippotherapy program—Blue Ribbon Riders in astride a gentle horse on a recent sunny Evans, Ga.—his disabilities seem to melt away. spring day he looked for all the world like Ms. Morin, a hippotherapy clinical specialist and a master of his universe. manager of occupational therapy at the Medical The grin was a sure giveaway of his soaring College of Georgia Hospital and Clinics, began the 2 MEDICAL COLLEGE OF GEORGIA TODAY a program in 1981. Specially trained physical, occupa- by boosting serotonin levels, which tend to drop tional and speech therapists use horses to help patients upon menopause, interfering with the brain's ability with movement dysfunction improve balance, posture, to regulate body temperature. Evista, or raloxifene, self-esteem, strength, flexibility and range of motion. will be added to combat osteoporosis, a potentially After just a few sessions of the program, partici- debilitating loss of bone mass that commonly pants begin to sit upright on horses, rather than accompanies menopause. Unlike estrogen, Evista's slumped over. Their movement control also molecular structure won't interact with estrogen improves. And their self-confidence soars. receptors in the breast or uterus and won't cause "It develops a lot of self-esteem," said Pam side effects such as menstrual bleeding and breast Weinberger, whose son Saul, 6, participates in the tenderness. Likewise, it doesn't increase a woman's program. "It helps with their balance. We've been risk of breast or endometrial cancer. Evista may also going through occupational therapy for a year and help protect the heart by raising the level of pro- this is our third session [with Blue Ribbon Riders] tective cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein. and he continues to improve." Beverly Cannell of Evans enrolled her sons, in the program. Both have Tony, 10, and Nick, Serotonin/Personality Link Duchenne muscular dystrophy — a form of the dis- ease which is most common in childhood and is characterized by the wasting away of muscles. About 30 percent of the population may "This is something they can do," she said. "For have a reduced capacity for transporting children like them, there are a lot of things they serotonin, a neurotransmitter key to cell can't do, like play soccer and run, but they can do communication and a factor in some forms this. This is something special for them." of depression, according to a researcher at the "Hippotherapy plays an important role in the Medical College of Georgia. lives of children with special needs," said Ms. Morin. Serotonin transporters and the gene responsible "We find that they don't require as much assistance, for their production were analyzed in the blood initiate activities and are more willing to do move- samples of 67 adults—more than half of whom ments that demand them to maintain balance." were clinically depressed—and 15 people were "Claudia actually does Saul's occupational ther- missing a piece of the regulatory region of the apy and probably knows better than anyone else gene, said Dr. Jeffrey Rausch, psychiatrist and vice what he needs to work on," said Mrs. Weinberger. chairman of the MCG Department of Psychiatry "I'd recommend it to anybody." and Health Behavior. The incidence of depression was no higher in those missing the gene piece than in the control Halting Hot Flashes group. But personality tests revealed the missing piece correlated with traits such as harm avoidance and anxiousness. "These dimensions of personality Medical College of Georgia is studying were significantly ditTerent in people who have this Thethe combination of the anti-depressant piece of gene missing," Dr. Rausch said. "Further- Prozac with estrogen-like Evista to treat hot more, we found past history of alcohol dependence flashes, a common side effect of menopause. four to five times higher in this group." "We want to know if this combination of drugs The gene is the site of action for popular anti- provides an effective, non-estrogen therapy for depressants such as Prozac, and Dr. Rausch thinks women," said Dr. Scott Slayden, reproductive endo- the defect may help explain why about 25 percent crinologist at MCG.The therapy is being evaluated of people respond slowly or not at all to depression m 100 women at 10 U.S. sites, including MCG. treatment. The human gene was first cloned by a Women who can't or won't take estrogen— team of MCG researchers led by Dr.Vadivel common and generally effective treatment for Ganapathy, biochemist and Regents professor, and menopause-related symptoms including hot flashes an Emory University research team. —need an alternative treatment for hot flashes, Dr. The researchers hope such findings will help Slayden said. These women include those who explain the genetic vulnerability for psychiatric have had breast cancer, those whose hot flashes disorders. "If you know what the vulnerability fac- aren't alleviated by estrogen and those who fear tors are, you can develop methods to identity what estrogen will increase their risk of breast or interventions may help the vulnerability and, ulti- endometrial cancer. mately, it can lead to improved treatment," Dr. Dr. Slayden hopes Prozac can combat hot flashes Rausch said. VOLUME 27, NUMBER 4 / SUMMER 1999 nne more pronounced, Jarrett Mrs.