August 10, 2012

Mayo Clinic in the News is a weekly highlights summary of major media coverage. If you would like to be added to the weekly distribution list, send a note to Emily Blahnik with this subject line: SUBSCRIBE to Mayo Clinic in the News.

Thank you.

Karl Oestreich, manager enterprise media relations

Winnipeg Free Press
Smarter training, economic perks let Olympic athletes stay in the Games longer
by Helen Branswell

Some of the longevity is about luck, some of it is about smarts and some of it is about the will to compete. Dr. Michael Joyner, an exercise researcher at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn…"There's something different about them in the sense that they maintain their motivation," Joyner says. "And I think that the people who are able to do well as they get older are able to kind of either be lucky and not get injured or have training regimens specifically designed to avoid injury. So they kind of balance their hard days and easy days and accommodate for recovery."

Circulation: The Free Press has an average of 125,000 readers seven days a week, including over 162,000 on Saturday. This has meant redefining the role of the newspaper by creating new sections and overhauling existing ones to ensure the content is focussed on the interests of readers. It has also meant finding better ways to serve advertisers, mostly through the creation of specialty products and supplements tailored to meet the need of the customer.

Context: Dr. Michael Joyner is an anesthesiologist and the associate dean for research at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He is an expert in the field of human integrative physiology. The primary focus in his laboratory is studying how the peripheral circulation and autonomic reflexes operate as the human body adapts to physical stresses such as standing, exercise or body heating.

Public Affairs Contact: DuskaAnastasijevic

KARE 11
Women outnumber men in 2012 Olympics

For the first time in Olympic history, female athletes are outnumbering male athletes. Of the 530 members on the U.S. team, 269 are women. Dr. Michael Joyner from the Mayo Clinic joined us on the KARE Saturday show to offer gender perspective on Olympic athletes.

Reach: KARE has won the demographic of viewers 25 to 54 years-old in almost every Nielsen ratings sweeps period since the late 1980s, while placing second overall in households at 5, 6, and 10 p.m. since May 2006, trailing rival CBS affiliate WCCO.

Context: See Winnipeg Free Press item above.

Public Affairs Contacts: Rebecca Eisenman, Nick Hanson

MPR, The Daily Circuit
For-profit hospital chain HCA performed unneeded heart procedures

The New York Times published a report Monday that showed some HCA hospitals were performing unnecessary and sometimes dangerous heart procedures in an attempt to make money for the hospital chain. HCA is the largest for-profit hospital chain in the United States. We talk with Dr. Ray Gibbons, professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic and former president of the American Heart Association, about the report.

Reach: Minnesota Public Radio operates 43 stations and serves virtually all of Minnesota and parts of the surrounding states. MPR has more than 100,000 members and more than 900,000 listeners each week, which is the largest audience of any regional public radio network.

Context: Ray Gibbons, M.D., is a Mayo Clinic cardiologist who is often sought for out for his expert perspective.

Public Affairs Contacts: Brian Kilen, Traci Klein

Voice of America
Nature, Nurture Required for Elite Athletes

Swimmer Michael Phelps became the most decorated Olympian of all time during the London Olympics. Queen Elizabeth II's granddaughter, Zara Philllips, helped her equestrian team win a silver medal. The American women's gymnastics team won gold. All of them are very different athletes. All elite. Do they have a genetic edge over the rest of us? Carol Pearson consulted with doctors at the Mayo Clinic.

Reach: The Voice of America (VOA), a multimedia broadcaster funded by the U.S. Government, broadcasts comprehensive news and information to an international audience of more than 141 million people and broadcasts in 43 languages.  VOA started in 1942 as a radio news service for people living in closed and war-torn societies. It has grown into a multimedia broadcast service and now reaches people on mobile devices and Facebook, through Twitter feeds and call-in programs.

Context: Mayo Clinic researchers, J. Michael Bostwick, M.D. and Michael Joyner, M.D.,  penned a timely and thought-provoking editorial in the June issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings that explores genetic variation and how it plays out in professional athletic competition. In a news release issued June 4 by Mayo Clinic, the reseearchers argue that fairness in athletic competition is not defined in terms of everyone being equal. The reality, they say, is that athletes need a great deal of practice and exercise, but also certain athletic endowments that make it possible to achieve at a high level.

Public Affairs Contact: Nick Hanson

The Wall Street Journal
The Latest Mammogram Controversy: Density
by Melinda Beck

Nancy Cappello had annual mammograms for a decade and each time radiologists noted in their reports that she had dense breast tissue…When her doctor found a suspicious ridge during a manual exam eight years ago, she had a mammogram and an ultrasound on the same day. The mammogram again spotted nothing amiss, but an ultrasound found a tumor the size of a quarter. Her breast cancer had also spread to 13 lymph nodes. …Studies show that having dense breasts raises the risk of developing breast cancer fourfold to sixfold. "It's a greater risk factor than having a mother or sister with the disease," but few women know this, says Deborah J. Rhodes, a preventive medicine specialist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "Most of the physicians ordering these tests are also in the dark about this and the implications for women," she says.

Circulation: The Wall Street Journal, a US-based newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company, is tops in newspaper circulation in America with an average circulation of 2 million copies on weekdays.

Context: Deborah Rhodes, M.D. is a preventive medicine specialist at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. Her research focus is the evaluation and management of women at increased risk for breast cancer.

The Wall Street Journal
Fresh Target in Hunt for a Migraine Cure
by Shirley Wang

The hunt is intensifying for new treatments for migraines, the common and debilitating headaches that have confounded scientists for decades. Of greatest focus for researchers is a brain chemical known as CGRP, which appears to play a role in the transmission of pain, but not in other brain functions, such as cognition or mood…There isn't such a thing as a "regular" headache, but rather more than 300 types, says David Dodick, a professor of neurology at the Mayo Clinic's branch in Phoenix and chairman of the American Migraine Foundation. People having migraines usually experience intense pain, sensitivity to light, dizziness and sometimes nausea and visual and sensory symptoms called auras.

Circulation: The Wall Street Journal, a US-based newspaper published by Dow Jones & Company, is tops in newspaper circulation in America with an average circulation of 2 million copies on weekdays.

Context: David Dodick, M.D., is a neurologist at Mayo Clinic in Arizona who is frequently sought out for his expertise related to testing of novel compounds for the acute and preventive treatment of migraine and cluster headaches.

Public Affairs Contact: Jim McVeigh

Iowa Public Radio
Unraveling the mystery of SCAD
by Pat Blank

A northeast Iowa woman is part of a study that’s helping unravel a rare heart condition that strikes young, otherwise healthy people. 42- year- old Tracy Hjelle (YELL-ee)  is the picture of health, she’s athletic and is in great shape, that’s because she’s the pitching coach for the Luther College softball team, but her world turned upside down on a Sunday morning in April as she and the team were preparing to leave Decorah for a game in Wisconsin…Hjelle was stabilized and flown to the Mayo Clinic where she was diagnosed with what cardiologist Dr. Sharonne Hayes calls SCAD. She says “well SCAD is an acronym for spontaneous coronary dissection and it is an uncommon and probably under diagnosed cause of heart attack and death. And it’s when instead of plaque building up in the artery, the layers of the artery actually split and either a clot or a flap of the artery is split away and blocks the artery causing a heart attack.”

Reach: Iowa Public Radio manages station operations for WOI AM and FM, licensed to Iowa State University, WSUI-AM and KSUI-FM, licensed to The University of Iowa, and KUNI-FM and KHKE-FM, licensed to University of Northern Iowa.

Context: Sharonne Hayes, M.D. is a Mayo Clinic cardiologist and founder of Mayo’s Women’s Heart Clinic. Spontaneous Coronary Artery Dissection, or SCAD, is a rare, life-threatening heart condition. Mayo Clinic used social media to reach out to survivors of SCAD, a poorly understood heart condition that affects just a few thousand Americans every year.

Public Affairs Contact: Traci Klein

KAAL
Alzheimer's Disease Becoming Issue of Concern
by Gordon Severson

Alzheimer's disease is a growing problem, some even calling it an epidemic. Costing our state hundreds of millions of dollars every year. Wednesday at Mayo Clinic, politicians and health experts gathered to talk about this concerning issue.  Over 100,000 Minnesota residents are estimated to be living with Alzheimer's. "With 10,000 baby boomers reaching age 65 on a daily basis, this is going to be an epidemic in the country sooner rather than later," Dr. Ron Peterson explains. Additional coverage: KTTC, KARE 11, KSTP, FOX 47

Reach: KAAL is owned by Hubbard Broadcasting Inc., which owns all ABC Affiliates in Minnesota including KSTP in Minneapolis-St. Paul and WDIO in Duluth. KAAL, which operates from Austin, also has ABC satellite stations in Alexandria and Redwood Falls. KAAL serves Southeast Minnesota and Northeast Iowa.

Context:  Ron Petersen, M.D., Ph.D., is the Cora Kanow Professor of Alzheimer’s Disease Research at Mayo Clinic. Dr. Petersen is regularly sought out by reporters as a leading expert in his medical field. Dr. Petersen chairs the Advisory Council on Alzheimer’s Research, Care and Services.

Public Affairs Contact: Brian Kilen

To subscribe: Mayo Clinic in the News is a weekly highlights summary of major media coverage. If you would like to be added to the weekly distribution list, send a note to Emily Blahnik with this subject line: SUBSCRIBE to Mayo Clinic in the News.

To unsubscribe: To remove your name from the global distribution list, send an email to Emily Blahnik with the subject: UNSUBSCRIBE from Mayo Clinic in the News.

Tags: alzheimer's disease, Anesthesiology, Breast Cancer, Cardiology, Dr. David Dodick, Dr. Deborah Rhodes, Dr. J. Michael Bostwick, Dr. Michael Joyner, Dr. Ray Gibbons, Dr. Ron Petersen, Dr. Sharonne Hayes, Genomics, HCA hospitals, Iowa Public Radio, KAAL, KARE 11, Mayo Clinic Arizona, Mayo Clinic in the News, Mayo Clinic Proceedings, Mayo Clinic Rochester, Mayo's Women's Heart Clinic, migraines, MPR, Neurology, Olympics, Preventive Medicine, SCAD, The Free Press, The Wall Street Journal, Voice of America