189: The Self-Empowered Woman: Elizabeth H. Blackburn & DNA

Dear Followers,

TELEMERES




Today I’d like to introduce you to a remarkable woman who made a major discovery that should be of interest to anyone who wants to look and/or feel as young as possible in spite of the passing years. Elizabeth H Blackburn, who won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2009 for her groundbreaking discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase, is considered America’s expert when it comes to the factors that connect emotional stress, health and DNA to aging.

Blackburn was born in Australia in 1948, to a family composed of doctors and scientists. Both of her parents were doctors, and her maternal grandfather and great-grandfather were geologists. Additionally, her father’s sister and her mother’s brother were also family physicians.

As a young child, Blackburn would pick up ants in her backyard and jellyfish on the beach, and was known for keeping tadpoles in glass jars. She was the second child of seven siblings and the family’s home was full of pets and animals, in her words, “all over the house and garden.” Perhaps because of her love of animals, from an early age she was fascinated by biology, and the biography of Marie Curie was her favorite childhood book. By the time she was a teenager, she had made up her mind to become a scientist (2: An Early Sense Of Direction).

Although it sounds like an idyllic Australian childhood, there were problems. Her father was rarely home, and Blackburn told her biographer that she longed for his attention. He drank too much, and when she was a teenager her parents separated (1: No Paternal Safety Net).

On her own with so many children, Blackburn’s mother suffered from depression, which sometimes required hospital stays. For this reason (as well as the fact that the young Blackburn didn’t want to be judged or pitied), she rarely invited friends to her home (5: Life Is Not A Popularity Contest).

Fortunately, she was able to attend Broadland House Girls Grammar School, where she received an excellent education. Her two regrets are that neither Greek nor Physics (which she learned at the local public high school in evening classes) was offered at her school. She was, however, able to study piano, which she loved enough to "wistfully hope" that she could become a musician (9: Music).

During her teenage years, schoolwork (instead of friendships) became her focus, and she excelled, particularly when few female students were focusing on science. She majored in biochemistry at the University of Melbourne, and moved to England to earn her PhD at Cambridge. During that time she became an expert in DNA sequencing (7: Magnificent Obsession).

As if moving to England were not enough of a radical change, in 1975 Blackburn moved to America where she became a post doctoral fellow at Yale, where her fiancee (John Sedat) would be teaching. They married in 1975, and moved to San Francisco where both Blackburn and her husband worked at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). Ultimately, in 1986, she moved again to become a professor--with her own laboratory--at the University of California, Berkeley (14: Selective Disassociation).

In 1989, three years after the birth of her son, Benjamin, she decided that  the drive from the family to Berkeley each day simply became too much.  So she--and her laboratory--relocated to UCSF.  Blackburn was president of the American Society for Cell Biology in 1998, and in late 2001 joined the President's Council on Bioethics.  She disagreed with some of the council's recommendations (11: Risk Addiction), and after two years the personnel office of the George W. Bush White House informed her that she would no longer be on the council.

In 2009, Dr. Blackburn, one of her researchers (Dr. Carol W. Grieder) and Harvard's Dr. Jack W. Szostak won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of the enzyme telomerase (8: Turning No Into Yes). Until then, only eight women had won Nobel Prizes in Medicine.

Dr. Blackburn has discovered that traumatic events early in life can affect both telomeres and health for decades afterwards.  She is currently researching the impact of meditation on telomeres.  Her hope is to offer testing to the public within the year because unusually short telomeres may indicate a health problem.  She feels that measuring telomeres could become part of a new direction in medicine--one that could "intercept" disease. 

Working in a primarily male-dominated field has brought a number of challenges to Dr. Blackburn's career. In fact, at one point she admitted that when younger "I would have been a little afraid to do things because my male colleagues wouldn't have taken me seriously as a molecular biologist."  Now, however, "Being senior enough in the field, having enough solidity, I don't feel afraid of being marginalized" (13: More Than Meets the Eye).

Looking forward to your comments...



188: The Self-Empowered Woman: Female Breadwinners

Dear Followers,

Recently, The New York Times ran an article that caught many social observers by surprise. According to the Pew Research Center, four out of every ten American households that include children under the age of 18 now have a mother who is either the sole or primary wage earner for her family. This statistic--the highest ever on record--has quadrupled since 1960.

Some analysts believe this is because it is now so common for single women to raise children on their own. Nearly two-thirds of the women who are chief breadwinners for their family are single parents. Other experts feel that the recession--during which men employed in construction and manufacturing, and were therefore more likely to lose their jobs--is to blame.

In 2007 (before the recession officially started), 20% of mothers told PEW that they would rather work full time than part time or not at all. But by the end of 2012 that had risen to 32%.

The median family income for single mothers (who are more likely to be younger, less educated, Hispanic or Black) is $23,000. But the median household income for married women who earn more than their husbands (who are more likely to be slightly older, college educated, and White) is $80,000. Of all married couples, 24% include a wife who earns more than her husband, while in 1960 that number was only 6%. Interestingly enough, economists discovered that wives with a better education and stronger earning potential than their husbands are less likely to work.

If the job market continues to evolve, marriage/income issues may change as well. Experts agree that college degrees are becoming more important to both finding and keeping a job. And, of late, more women than men are earning 4-year degrees. In 2011, 23% of married couples with children included a wife with more education than her husband; in 17% of those couples the men had higher educations. The remaining 60% included spouses with near-equal levels of education.

In 2007, 71% of Americans felt that the growing number of children born to unmarried mothers was "a big problem." But only two months ago that number was 64%. Republicans are more likely than either Independents or Democrats to be concerned about the increasing number of unmarried single mothers.

In 1960, the share of never-married single mothers was only 4%, but by 2011 it had risen to 44%. Never-married mothers tend to earn less money than their divorced or widowed peers and, according to PEW, are more likely to be a member of a racial or ethnic minority.

Looking forward to your comments...

187: The Self-Empowered Woman: Beyonce & Chime for Change

Dear Followers,

 

I hope that you will be able to tune in to" The  Women's Concert for Change: The Sound for Change Live from London" tomorrow night at 9 P.M. on NBC. And I REALLY hope that you'll let all your girlfriends  (and female relatives) know about this ground-breaking event for girls and women.

This important event is the centerpiece of CHIME FOR CHANGE, which is a new fundraising campaign founded by Gucci. The idea is to raise both awareness and money to highlight female empowerment around the globe. Funds will be distributed to over 50 non-profit organizations in 38 countries, and focused on the key areas of education, health care and justice.

Beyonce is the artistic director of the concert (as well as the co-founder of CHIME FOR CHANGE), and the program will begin with a 45-minute performance--other performers, like Jennifer Lopez, John Legend, Jay Z and Florence + The Machine will also perform. Presenters during the program include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Gloria Steinem, Halle Berry, Madonna, Zoe Saldana and other A-list celebrities.

The concert event will be broadcast to over 175 countries and will celebrate inspirational stories from around the world. One goal is to generate awareness about local and global issues that affect girls and women, and the other is to raise money to help non-profit organizations that are trying to create much-needed change.

CHIME FOR CHANGE is a foundation that was created by the creative director of Gucci, Frida Giannini, actress Salma Hayek-Pinault and Beyonce Knowles-Carter. The "advisory board" of advocates, issues experts and global leaders include former U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his wife, Sarah, Jada Pinkett Smith, Julia Roberts, Meryl Streep and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

Beyonce is the mother of one-year old daughter Blue Ivy, and obviously feels strongly about this movement. In her words, "I have always felt strongly about equal opportunity for women. Girls have to be taught from early on that they are strong and capable of being anything they want to be. It's up to us to change the statistics for women around the world. I'm honored to be in the company of women who live fearlessly and set an example for the next generation of young ladies. I am really happy that so many amazing artists and presenters have come together to support CHIME FOR CHANGE. Our goal is to have a great time together while we unite and strengthen the voices of girls and women around the world."

Ticket buyers for the live concert in London will each be able to choose which of the many projects CHIME FOR CHANGE supports, and this means that their ticket money will be directed to a specific non-profit organization.  Frida Giannini added, "We have reached a significant moment in the history of girls' and women's empowerment and now is the time for change. I think it is essential for girls and women to see and celebrate what is possible. I hope that through CHIME we can help the voices calling for change to become so loud that they cannot be ignored."

Looking forward to your comments...



186: The Self-Empowered Woman: Edna O'Brien

Dear Followers,

Often when I lecture about The Self-Empowered Woman, listeners are intrigued by Edna O'Brien's life story (Chapter 17). Her latest book, Country Girl (Little, Brown & Company, $27.99, 357 pp)  is her first memoir, and a riveting tale of the challenges she faced on her way to becoming a literary icon.

O'Brien was born in County Clare (in a town that had no library, three groceries and 27 pubs) in the West of Ireland in 1930. Her mother had been a maid, and her father was a farmer who not only drank, but gambled as well (1: No Paternal Safety Net). Her family (like most of the people in the area) were devout Catholics--in her words, she came from "a strict, religious family". During her "suffocating" childhood she was educated by the Sisters of Mercy in Galway (3: Belief in The Unbelievable).

After graduation, she moved to Dublin and worked in a drugstore while studying at night at the local pharmaceutical college. During this time she discovered Tolstoy, Thackeray and T. S. Elliot's book Introducing James Joyce, which changed her life. Even though she worked as a pharmaceutical apprentice for four years, she had already made up her mind that  reading and writing would define her life (7: Magnificent Obsession).

Her first open act of rebellion was when she ran off with a much-older  (married) writer named Ernest Gebler. They were pursued by her father, her brother, two policemen and a Cistercian Abbot, but eventually got married anyway. The marriage lasted ten years and gave her two sons, but when she completed her first novel (The Country Girls) in only three weeks, her husband was furious. He told her "You can write and I will never forgive you." Their divorce turned out to be an epic battle (15: Forget About Prince Charming). 

As her writing became more acclaimed, she was forced to fight for custody of her two sons because O'Brien's husband falsely accused her of "abandonment."  Both boys asked the court to allow them to live with their mother instead of with Gebler, and the judge agreed (16: Intensive Motherhood).

Seduced by the power of words, O'Brien worked in London as a reader for the publishing company Hutchinson. At that time she read James Joyce's A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, which helped her understand "where she might turn, should she want to write herself." Even though she was only "a reader," her reports were good enough to motivate the company to commission her--for 50 pounds--to write a novel (13: More Than Meets the Eye).

O'Brien made three major escapes in her life: From the restrictive rules of the Catholic Church, from small-town Ireland to London in the Swinging 60's, and from a tyrannical husband into a life of fame and flirtation (14: Selective Disassociation). 

A prolific writer, O'Brien has always had loyal fans, as well as harsh critics. Most of her writing, like her first novel (which was published in 1960), was considered too sexually graphic. It was burned in some places, banned from the pulpit and the postmistress of her hometown of County Clare felt that "the author of such filth should be kicked naked through the streets" (5: Life Is Not A Popularity Contest).

O'Brien received her first writing honor (The Kingsley Amis Award) in 1962, and her most recent was the Frank O'Connor International short story award in 2011. She has written successful novels, plays, poems and short stories, as well as her memoir. From the Irish PEN Award to the Writers' Guild Award and the European Prize for Literature, there is no doubt that the once-underestimated (and often disdained) daughter whose parents were "allergic to literature" has truly reached--at 82--the pinnacle of her profession.

Looking forward to your comments...

185: The Self-Empowered Woman: Race to Erase MS

  

Dear Followers,

 

Lisa Vanderpump

 

Nancy Davis



     

Teri Garr







A million apologies for neglecting this blog for over a month. Instead of excuses, I'll just give you an explanation--the entire month of May has been consumed with festivities. But now that Tony's birthday has come and gone--and our suitcases are finally unpacked--I can explain why I wasn't able to focus on the blog the way I'd like to.



In April, I wrote an article for The Palm Beach Post about Annette Funicello’s death from MS, and my own long-term wrestling match with this challenging disease. Then, only three weeks later (thanks to my generous friend Tom Safran) I was lucky enough to be invited to attend the Rolls Royce of fundraising events, the Race to Erase MS gala in Beverly Hills.



Naturally, I was thrilled to "go back home," and have the chance to reconnect with former work colleagues as well as friends from both high school and UCLA. There were happy reunions, fabulous meals and perfect weather (even the traffic seemed good), but the red-letter event was the glamorous MS fundraiser.



This year’s event, “Love to Erase MS,” honored Jack Osbourne—who was diagnosed last year—and his mother, Sharon. I was amazed when multi-platinum singer Taio Cruz gave the kind of performance that is usually reserved for packed stadiums rather than hotel ballrooms, and then Sir Elton John sang his classic hits for close to a full hour. He told the audience that he was at the benefit to support the cause, but also because “Sharon [Osbourne] has so much information on me that I simply couldn’t say no.” He also paid tribute to her strength as a mother with a child who has been given an unwelcome diagnosis by saying, “She’s a fighter, a survivor, a crusader and a great mom.”



When I managed to speak with Jack’s mom (who is one of the stars on “The Talk”) she told me, “I honestly can’t find the words to express how overwhelmed I am by all the support we have received since learning of Jack’s diagnosis. One of the first people I called was Nancy because I knew she would lead us in the right direction—and she did. And when you look around at all the people who are supporting this cause, you just know that a cure is in sight.”

California philanthropist Nancy Mills was diagnosed with MS in 1993, and ever since then she has been working tirelessly to raise research money with the goal of curing, and ultimately eliminating, MS. About 90% of the money she raises from her star-studded events supports research conducted by America’s top MS doctors, and so far, she has raised over $23 million. Thanks to her efforts nine new drugs are now available for MS patients.



The Century Plaza ballroom was overflowing with so many household-name celebrities that I could hardly keep track of them. The red-carpet press corps unleashed a firestorm of flashbulbs at the famous attendees, who included (among others) Catherine Bell (the “Army Wives” star’s stepmother has MS), Daisy Fuentes, Camille Grammer (she told me that this was her 13th Race to Erase event), Anne Heche, Tommy Hilfiger, La Toya Jackson, Kellie Pickler, Lisa Rinna, Ray Romano, Cybill Shepard, Rod Stewart and Bruno Tonioli. Not to mention Kyle Richards and Lisa Vanderpump of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. There were hundreds of attendees at the star-studded event, but I only counted five other wheelchairs.

I was seated at the same table with Oscar-nominated “Tootsie” actress Teri Garr, who was diagnosed with MS 15 years after I was. Side by side in our wheelchairs, at a table with a huge centerpiece of orange roses, we discussed her book “Speedbumps: Flooring It Through Hollywood.” Well known for her lively sense of humor, she told me that she had wanted to title it “Does This Wheelchair Make Me Look Fat?” Her illness-phobic publisher, however, evidently nixed that idea.

Now that I’m back home, the glitz and glamour of a Hollywood MS gala already seems like a page ripped out of a fairytale. But I—like thousands of others—believe that MS will one day be eliminated. It’s the medical dream we just know in our hearts will one day soon come true. And the $1.8 million raised at the May 4th gala brings that dream just a little bit closer to reality.

Looking forward to your comments...

184: The Self Empowered Woman: Pat Summitt

Dear Followers,



Everyone knows that I love to spread the word about interesting women who have chosen to live high-achieving lives, and today's profile is of a truly remarkable Self-Empowered Woman. For 38 years, Pat Summitt was the woman's basketball coach for the University of Tennessee, and is considered by many to be the most successful coach in N.C.A.A. history. She has had 1,098 career victories and has won eight national championships. In addition to her basketball honors, she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom (the nation's highest civilian honor).

Now known as the head coach emeritus of the University of Tennessee Lady Volunteer basketball team, Summitt was born Patricia Sue Head in Clarksville, Tennessee on June 14th, 1952. Growing up, the only day her family didn't work was on Sunday because that's when they attended Mt. Carmel United Methodist Church. Her family (and her father's family) had been members for over 50 years; "We were taught that you didn't talk about faith; you showed it through kindness to neighbors, and humility, the recognition that none of us was more valuable than another" (3: Belief in the Unbelievable).


She grew up with four brothers and a younger sister, and her strong work ethic came from all the hard work they did on the farm growing up. They had cows that had to be milked seven days a week, at five am and again in the evening. They grew all their own vegetables in a huge garden, and as she put it, "There was never a day without some heavy lifting.  We got off the school bus and went right into the fields, or vegetable rows, or the barns. Some days I might plow... My father would tell us what our job was and then walk away to his own chores. He expected us to get it done without wasting time by standing over us. The was no balking, or dragging, and you knew better than to whine."

Summitt won a silver medal in the Montreal Olympic Games even though she was told that she'd never make the team because she was too out of shape and overweight. Just hearing the word "No" sent her into overdrive and she trained five or six hours each day, ran several miles each morning, played in pick up games with men, lost 27 pounds, and was in the best shape of her life when it was time to compete in the USA Trials (8: Turning No Into Yes).

Obviously, basketball--both as a player and as a coach--has played a major role in Summitt's life. In her words, "It was my life, my home, and my family, and the players were the second-deepest love of my life... Coaching isn't social work, but it's more than just a game--it's a heartfelt vocation, in which you are powerfully bonded to students who need you" (7: Magnificent Obsession).

While Summitt varied her "look" from the sidelines over the years (everything from Laura Ashley puffy-sleeved dresses to pants suits with neckties), her appearance had been "unusual" since childhood. By the fifth grade she was 5' 9", by the age of 15 she was 5' 11", and she was so skinny that her nickname was "bone" (6: Life is Not a Beauty Pageant).

Hard as it is to believe, when Summitt began coaching, girls' basketball in Tennessee's middle and high schools consisted of half-court games (Oklahoma, Texas, New York, and Iowa were the only other states that felt full-court games would be to strenuous). Because she worked hard to overturn the rule, she was deeply unpopular with people who felt there was no need to adhere to the "weak and awkward girls" rationale. Throughout her career--both with her players and other coaches--Summitt never worried about what other people thought about her (5: Life Is Not a Popularity Contest).

In 1980, she married R.V. Summitt, but the two divorced in 2007 (15: Forget About Prince Charming). Their child, however--Ross Tyler Summitt who was born in 1990--truly became the love of her life. She had suffered four previous miscarriages, and he became not only the focus of her life, but a popular fixture at all of her games and practices. (16: Intensive Motherhood).

In August 2011, Pat Summitt announced that three months earlier she had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's Disease. As a result, she was forced to turn over coaching duties and reluctantly accept retirement. In her words "The only way to deal with trouble of this magnitude was to face it--and admit to the fact that I would need a lot of help. It wasn't easy to reverse roles, to admit that I was struggling and need care. Surrender didn't come naturally to me, and neither did vulnerability" (12: Hard Times)

Pat Summitt was named number eleven on "Sporting News" 50 Greatest Coaches of All Time, and was the only woman on the list. In her 38 year career, she never had a losing season. And she is the only coach to have won a silver medal as an Olympic team member, and a gold medal as a team coach.  And as if that weren't enough, her third book "Sum It Up" is the number one non-fiction book on the New York Times best seller list!

Looking forward to your comments...

183: The Self-Empowered Woman: Mousketeer

Dear Followers,

An article I wrote in connection with Annette Funicello's death appeared in yesterday's Palm Beach Post newspaper. Since most of you know about my decades-long wrestling match with MS, I thought I'd share this with you:

The Mousketeer with MS

When I heard that 70 year old Annette Funicello had died on Monday, I was—like millions of her fans—saddened. But because I suffer from the same disease (Chronic Progressive Multiple Sclerosis), I was also scared by the news of her passing.

Like her, I lived in L.A. when (three years before she was diagnosed) I received the frightening news that I had MS, and needed to get my “affairs in order and plan for the future.” But (perhaps because I ignored the advice of neurologists and refused all medication?) I have managed to coexist with this disease without losing either the ability to communicate or to enjoy life.  Click this link to watch a brief Canadian video about the former Mouseketeer http://www.ctvnews.ca/w5/annette-funicello-her-life-with-multiple-sclerosis-1.984202

As you watch the completely paralyzed woman who was the Miley and the Britney of the Baby Boomer generation (she recorded 19 albums and made 19 movies), it’s impossible to believe that she was once celebrated all across America for her energetic beauty.

Over 400,000 Americans have MS (Multiple Sclerosis is named after the “many scars” or lesions that affect brain tissue and/or the spinal column). And because those lesions can show up in a wide variety of places, each case of the disease tends to be unique unto itself.

Some people retain motor skills and the use of their arms and legs, but lose their vision and/or the ability to speak. My diagnosis came in 1984, I’ve been wheelchair dependent since 1990, and although my voice and vision are strong, the only parts of my body I can move at will are my left arm and hand.

Like Funicello, I also have a loving (extremely patient) husband who doesn’t mind the expense and inconvenience of having a dependent and disabled spouse. Not all MS patients are so lucky…

Although I never interviewed Annette Funicello, my earlier (i.e., healthy days when I could walk and type) career allowed me to meet scores of entertainment celebrities. Without exception, Hollywood insiders have said for years that she was as beautiful on the inside as on the outside. And an inspiring example of her kind nature was that—in the midst of her decline and discomfort—she established the Annette Funicello Research Fund for Neurological Diseases to help finance research into the cause, treatment and cure of MS and similar diseases.

Now that she is gone, I refuse to remember her as the unrecognizable disease-ravaged woman who was dependent upon round-the-clock care. To me, it is unspeakably sad that only after receiving CCSVI vascular angioplasty could she even manage to blink her eyes in order to communicate on command.

As a fellow unwilling MS warrior, I choose to remember her smile, her sweetness, and her insistence that “My life has always been filled with happiness.”

Looking forward to your comments...