Studies show
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TLC essential for normal growth
By David Williamson
Scientists here have found additional
evidence that tender loving care is
essential for normal growth in
youngsters.
The researchers have determined in
animal studies that the touching
associated with mothering behavior has a
profound influence on the biochemistry
of growth.
Dr. Saul M. Schanberg, professor of
pharmacology. Dr. Cindy M. Kuhn,
assistant professor of pharmacology and
Dr. Stephen R. Butler, who completed his
M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at Duke this
year, conducted the research.
A report of their most recent findings
appeared in the Sept. 15 issue of Science
magazine.
Failure to thrive
In an interview, Schanberg said
psychosocial dwarfism is a condition that
prevents infants and young children who
have not had "tender loving care" from
growing normally. It occurs despite
adequate nutrition and the absence of
disease.
Until well into this century, he said.
Professional news
Dr. David C. Sabiston Jr., James B. Duke
Professor and chairman of the Department of
Surgery, received a Distinguished Alumnus
Award yesterday from the University of North
Carolina at Chapel Hill.
A 1943 graduate of UNC, Sabiston was one
of five alumni honored during University Day
ceremonies.
Dr. M. Bruce Shields, assistant professor of
ophthalmology, will deliver a paper and
present two courses on glaucoma at the
Annual American Academy of Ophthalmology
Meeting in Kansas City this month.
Dr. Charles E. Llewellyn Jr., associate
professor of psychiatry and head of the
Division of Community and Social Psychiatry,
will attend the Southern Psychiatric
Association meeting this month on Hilton
Head Island, S.C. Earlier this year, Llewellyn
was a workshop leader during the annual
spring meetings of the N.C. Group Behavior
Society.
'Collecting Medical Books'
G.S.T. Cavanagh, curator of the
Trent Collection, will speak this
afternoon at 4 p.m. on "Collecting
Medical Books."
The talk, sponsored by the Josiah C.
Trent Society for the History of
Medicine, will be given in the History
of Medicine Reading Room, Seeley G.
Mudd Building.
Ail interested persons are welcome
to attend.
VISITING SCIENTIST—Professor Denise Albe-Fessard, a neurophysiologist from Paris, and Dr.
Bruno J. Urban, professor' of anesthesiology, work together on an experiment in the
neurosurgery lab. The French scientist said that over the past few years, she has become
acquainted with Dr. Blaine Nashold, professor of neurosurgery, and as a result of their shared
interest in suppression of pain, their respective laboratories are working together on a common
project to seek to discover the "best way of suppressing pain messages." Albe-Fessard spent a
month at Duke recently, and Nashold has visited her lab at the University of Paris. Urban, director
of Duke's Pain Clinic, also participated in the experiments regularly during the Parisian's visit.
(Photo by Parker Herring)
Feeling part of Duke led to happy partnership
"I became imbued with everything that
was going on there. It's just a great
institution. What they did for me made
me feel I was a part of Duke."
Arthur Siegal of Marion, S.C., had this
to say recently as he recounted his
experiences as a patient at Duke.
Because he had come to feel a part of
Duke, he wanted to help provide for the
future of Duke, just as he had been able to
do for his family.
Three steps
He discussed his situation with Eleanor
Kinney, the medical center's estate
planning officer, and found how he could
best help Duke, while further providing
for his own future and that of his wife,
Shirley.
There are three steps to estate
planning, Kinney explained. First, the
potential donor's financial situation has
to be clearly understood (totally in
confidence, of course). Then this is
matched with the most appropriate
opportunity for giving.
"And the third step is to find out what
aspect of the medical center the person is
most interested in helping," Kinney said.
"Mr. Siegal wanted his gift to go to our
most critical area of need, which is
unrestricted endowment."
Plans for the future
Over a period of more than six months,
Siegal and his attorneys, Duke law
graduates Charles Speth and William
Buice, worked out with Kinney the details
for setting up a unitrust.
Simply stated, Siegal made a
substantial gift to Duke and established a
trust arrangement whereby Duke invests
the assets and will pay Siegal and his wife
an income for life. There are significant
tax advantages involved in this type of
trust gift.
"Gifts such as these are doubly pleasing
in that they provide for the future of the
medical center while benefiting the
donors during their lifetimes," John S.
Thomas, director of medical center
development, said.
"We are deeply indebted to Shirley and
Arthur Siegal for their generous
endowment gift. It's really a happy
partnership for the future."
Kinney's role in such financial planning
is provided as a free service to prospective
donors by the medical center. And this
service significantly expedites the
planning.
"Setting up a trust can be a complicated
process, but we tried to make it easier for
the Siegals and their attorneys," Kinney
said.
She also emphasized that all unitrusts
are different, and that there are many
resources for the kind of gift the Siegals
gave to the medical center.
"The gift is tailored to the particular
situation of the donor," Kinney
explained.
From lights to 'everything'
A member of the Davison Club since
1977, Siegal formerly owned a firm which
manufactures fluorescent lights.
He sold the company. Marvel Lamp
Co., in 1974, and now is doing "a little of
everything," he says. He is a major
franchiser of Peddler Steak Houses as
chairman of the board of Steaks
Sophisticated, Inc., director of the
Colonial State Bank of Marion and a
member of the Civitan Club there.
before physicians and other health
professionals realized the importance of
"mothering," the illness claimed the lives
of up to 90 percent of the infants in some
orphanages and foundling homes in the
United States and abroad.
Schanberg said he and his colleagues
were originally studying how drugs and
alcohol fed to pregnant rats affect the
metabolism of certain chemical
substances in newborn rat pups. These
substances, called polyamines, appear to
be important regulators of cellular
growth and differentiation.
Results varied
During the experiments, however,
which involved analyzing brain tissue
from the baby rats and took several hours
to complete, the scientists found that
they were getting varied results.
"At the beginning, we thought we were
failing to control the environment of the
pups properly in regard to temperature,
humidity, nutrition or some other
factor," Schanberg said.
"We later discovered that the activity of
an enzyme known as ornithine
decarboxylase (ODC), which is a sensitive
index of organ growth and development,
vvas decreasing significantly in the brains
and hearts of rat pups less than an hour
after the pups were removed from their
mothers."
Further experiments linked the decline
of ODC in the tissues to a similar decline
in growth hormone. This hormone,
secreted ' by the pituitary glar.J and
carried by the blood stream, triggers
some of the complex biochemical
reactions that result in cellular growth
throughout the body.
(Continued on page 4)
Take the stairs,
speaker says
By William Erwin
Climbing five or more flights of stairs a
day might reduce your chances of having
a heart attack, according to a Stanford
University professor of epidemiology
who will speak on heart attack risk factors
here this afternoon.
The professor. Dr. Ralph S.
Paffenbarger, will speak in Room 3031
(Barrus Surgical Conference Room,
purple zone, third floor) at 4 p.m. His talk
is "Physical Activity and Risk of First
Heart Attack."
In a study of Harvard male alumni
published last month, Paffenbarger
found that men who climb five or more
flights of stairs a day, walk five or more
blocks a day or engage in strenuous
sports, such as running or tennis, are
much less likely to have heart attacks
than men who do not get as much
exercise.
"Light sports" such as bowling or golf
do not seem to provide the same
protection against heart attacks, the
professor found. The study was
published in the American Journal of
Epidemiology (Vol 108: 3, 161-175).
Paffenbarger spoke yesterday on
breast cancer risk factors before and after
menopause. His visit here is sponsored by
the Division of Cardiology and the
Comprehensive Cancer Center's
Epidemiology and Biostatistics Program.
On tour today
A second group of students from
Northwood High School in Pittsboro are
touring the medical center today. The
twenty students, juniors and seniors, are
accompanied by their teacher, Gail
McLauchlin, RN. Another group from
the school was on tour last Friday.