ERIC TODD, M.D.

Urological Surgeons

Kirit Vora, M.D. Jayant Bhat, M.D.

In the Troy Beaumont Professional Building
44199 Dequindre • Suite 202 • Troy

Practicing all aspects of general urology with
special emphasis in the following areas:

• Urologic Oncology • Stone Disease

• Voiding Dysfunction • Sexual Dysfunction

Dr. Todd is affiliated with William
Beaumont Hospitals and
participates in most insurance plans.

Eric Todd, M.D., graduated from the
University of Michigan Medical
School and completed his training in
urology at the Medical College of
Wisconsin.

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Health

Sometimes Disease And Defects
Sow The Seeds Of Greatness

CHERYL CLARK
Special to The Jewish News

ir

incent van Gogh's "Starry
Night" - painted in 1889,
the year before his death -
may not have been just the
result of artistic genius.
The green and yellow swirls in the
sky probably stemmed from a long-
term overdose of digitalis, prescribed
for what was then believed to be
epilepsy. The drug was extracted from
the purple foxglove flower, seen in the
Dutch painter's portrait of his physi-
cian.
Italian composer Niccolo Paganini's
nimble fingers and joints enabled him
to stretch his reach across three
octaves on the violin. In fact, the
musician owed his flexibility to
Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a
congenital defect manifested
by loose connective tissue in
his fingers and wrists.
Emperor Napoleon planned
for months to take over
Europe at the battle at
Waterloo, but an agonizing
bout with hemorrhoids on the
morning of the attack kept
Napoleon off his horse and
delayed battle, giving the
enemy time to fortify.
Theories related to those
and other famous people are
part of the field of "pathogra-
phy," the study and specula-
tion of how disease, disfigure-
ment or congenital defect
influence accomplishment and
set the stage for greatness.
Or, in some cases, disaster.
"It's a bit of detective work
at great distance, especially
when you put a couple of cen-
turies in between," said Dr. Glenn
Geelhoed, professor of surgery at
George Washington University
Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
"It's just physicians' grown-up
play," a hobby or chatty topic for the
dinner party, said Dr. William Frosch,
professor of psychiatry at Cornell
University Medical College in Ithaca,
N.Y.
Pathography buffs ponder such
unanswerable questions as whether
the United States would have been
formed if King George III had not
suffered from the disease porphyria.
Or more recently, whether former
Zaire President Mobutu Sese Seko
would have lost power to rebels if he
Cheryl Clark writes for Copley News
Service

hadn't been weakened by prostate
cancer.
"People who stand out as being Ti \ /
larger than life have distinguished
themselves because of their personali-
ty or traits that set them apart, and
many times these are due to medical
or genetic attributes," said Dr. Robert,-/
Marion, director of the Center for
Congenital Disorders at Montefiore
Medical Center in New York City,
and author of a book on the subject.
From history books and medical
accounts, researchers glean the tiniest
details of defects and deformities.
"We ask how did they cope; how did
they adapt to the deck they were
given?" said Geelhoed. For example, -\
'whether (physicist Stephen Hawking,
confined to a wheelchair with Lou
Gehrig's disease) could have written 'A
Brief History of Time' if he
had been able to play soccer?"
Other examples include:
• The Italian sculptor Cellini,
who, after mercury cured his
syphilis, created a sculpture in -c -/
tribute to the Roman god
Mercury.
• The composer Chopin,
whose last works, including a
funeral sonata, may have been
influenced by recurrent respi-
ratory infections and a chronic
cough. At the time, Chopin
was thought to have tubercu-
losis; today, pathography
experts speculate he had cystic
fibrosis.
• California Gov. Pete Wilson,
whose throat surgeries kept
him quiet during key months :f\
when his 1996 presidential
campaign needed a forceful
start.
"We're all shaped by a combi-
nation of genetics and environment,"
said Dr. Antonino Catanzaro, tuber-
culosis expert at the University of
California at San Diego School of
Medicine. "We tend to think of dis-
ease as a bad thing, but it isn't always.
Some good things can come out of
our responses to disease," he said.
Catanzaro noted that early symp-
toms of Alzheimer's disease may have
actually helped the political career of
former President Ronald Reagan,
whose diagnosis was made public in
1994, five years after his presidency
ended.
"There's no question in my mind
that it helped him be president,"
Catanzaro said. "His approach to pol-
itics and the presidency was fascinat-
DISEASE AND DEFECT on page 202