OCR Text |
Show Page Thursday, August 28, 2003 University Journal 8 SEA KHIGE4T Hormone stimulates growth the smaller CEDAK 1H people FDA approves new drug to help u By MELISSA HEALY LOS ANGELES TIMES Patricia Costas friends told her Nicole was a perfect little girl. Sure, she was tiny for a but she was adorable and perfectly proportioned. She had a charming feistiness a determination that about her seemed to grow as Nicole confronted the childhood taunts of bigger peers and the indignities of being the smallest kid in school. Like many other children who rank at the bottom of growth charts, Nicole had no identifiable disorder depressing her growth. So what if shes tiny, Patricias friends insisted. The tests say shes healthy. Why worry? But Patricia saw a tiny girl on track to become a tiny woman 4 feet, 8 inches, by her doctors and that prospect estimates galvanized her to consider a course of costly and intrusive -v V reL'3"" r $ ii- $ 1 V. 7 : p v$ V' ? human KATIE ANDERSON A Marine CH-46- UNIVERSITY JOURNAL E Cedar hospital donates money y K'v n.Vv" SlfysifWhi ifij Valley View Medical Center has announced it will be giving two d scholarships to qualified students. According to a flyer provided by Jack Jenks, executive director of development at SUU, these d scholarships are open to all students. Each student who wins the award will receive $1,200. SUU already has the money and its ready to be handed out, according to the flyer. Interested students are to e resume with prepare a three references, an unoffical e copy of transcripts and a essay explaining why they think they deserve the reward. According to the flyer, a pievious announcement said this scholarship was only open to science majors. That announcement has been recalled. The last day for interested students to speak with Helen Chuang, is today. pre-me- human j i I' Ask me about health insurance the State Farm way. V J one-pag- Suzette Cardon, Agent one-pag- Cardon Insurance Agency Inc 415 N Wain Suite 201 Cedar City, UT Like a good neighbor , State Farm is there. statefarm.com Home Office Bloomington, State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company Call for details on coverage, costs, restrictions and renewability 1200 Illinois hormone growth injections, Nicole, now 5 feet, 2 inches, recently marched into a meeting room filled with federal and physicians regulators, medical ethicists and appealed to the and Food Drug Administration to sanction the use of human growth hormone by all the children who now walk in the shoes I outgrew. In late July, the FDA did just that, expanding its approval of the synthetic human growth hormone Eh Lilly and Co.s Humatrope to include children with kids idiopathic short stature, such as Nicole, whose shortness does not appear to be the result of underlying disease. The decision could mean that as many as 400,000 U.S. children could get medication for a problem that lies in the pre-me- Mv t ? ambiguous territory between social obstacle, personal and prejudice yet-to-- discovered medical disorder. Like the FDAs deliberations on drugs that treat complaints from shyness to depressed libido to acne, its latest decision takes the agency into some ethically tricky territory: Where do consumers often SUU YOGA CLASSES FALL 2003 and demands poignant companies pharmaceutical desire to expand their markets fit into the process, next to safety and efficacy? And whose responsibility is it doctors, patients, insurance companies or the governments to weigh whether a course of medical treatment, especially one that can bring only modest results, is worth the expense, the health risks and the attention of the medical community? The FDAs deliberations on Humatrope went beyond the traditional confines of technical reports about a drugs safety and effectiveness. The FDA also reviewed various research that showed how short people are more likely to be bullied and teased in school, to consider themselves lonely, to have reduced marriage rates and to be perceived as having lower classes are in room PEB 303 (Sorenson Gym, third floor). Come to class or Enroll now for credit or register C classes. it non-cred- All at www.suu.eduscpsconfer online n 0 n n R. r' 4 n 5 - J "I M 1 ' ?9- competence YOGA 1.0 CREDIT PE 2920 Sec 36 Tuesdays 1:00 - 2:15 p.m. ASHTANGA-POWE- R than people of ordinary height. Benefits This vigorous aerobic class will build strength, endurance and stamina while improving flexibility, focus, balance and breath. Continued from Front Page said he had a knee operation and the therapist to whom he was sent wasnt an of mathematics, YOGA -- ALL LEVELS 1.0 CREDIT approved provider. I had to pay part of it myself, he added. Page said health care reductions are a nationwide issue and not something exclusive to SUU or Utah. McGuire said the skyrocketing benefit costs are unavoidable because doctors have higher 2920 Sec 33 Tuesdays 3:00 - 4:15 p.m. PE 2920 Sec 34 Thursdays 3:00 - 4:15 p.m. PE Increase flexibility, strength, balance and alignment, while relaxing and releasing stress! I I For more information contact Annie Linn, Instructor at visit www.suu.eduscps SUU SOUTHERN UTAH UNIVERSITY 867-542- 0 or school of Southern Utah University PROFESSIONAL Conference Services CONTINUING & STUDIES j and premiums malpractice to are exposed being patients and better technology prescription drugs. SUU said also Page administrators have consistently tried to preserve the benefit plan throughout the years, making SUUs plan one of the better ones available statewide. But it is eroding pretty quickly, he added. Preservation t Ja hormone growth injections for her then daughter. Im thinking about when shes 25 and walking into a courtroom with an attache case, or into a hospital with a stethoscope, Patricia Costa said. Being that just didnt cut it. Today, Nicole is 18, and her first bid for power and influence has ended with success. course of After a seven-yea- r lands at Cedar City Regional Airport for training on Wednesday. A of university KEN HIVELY LOS ANGELES TIMES Pinchas Cohen, of University of California at Los Angeles' Mattel Children's Hospital, measures the growth of a young patient. Among these supportive studies clinical were comparisons showing increased self-estee- m and decreased behavior problems among those whose height was enhanced with Humatropes use. But Humatrope use had downsides as well. For some kids in the target group (children 7 to 15 years old), Humatrope does not work, and for many, even years of treatment will draw them just inside the range of normal height. A few children developed or symptoms curvature of the spine because of rapid growth. And researchers diabetes-lik- e found 27 cases in which children taking Humatrope developed increased intracranial pressure that mimicked the symptoms of a an apparent side brain tumor effect that was reversible, but which required a painful and lengthy exam to rule out cancer. The science of promoting growth has flourished since the late 1950s, when doctors first began administering a natural form of growth hormone, 'derived from human cadavers, to patients with growth deficits. In 1985, Lilly and several other drug firms began producing a synthetic form of human growth hormone, considered safer and easier to manufacture. Although thousands appear to have undertaken such treatment effects safely, its long-term remain uncertain, since many who took it as children are still in their 20s and 30s. But other testimony considered by the FDA struck a decidedly more personal chord: There were painful accounts of playground taunting, of always being chosen last for a team, of being stuffed into lockers and garbage cans and dressed up like a baby. Nicole Costas recalled how lonely she felt waiting on the bench at an amusement park while friends went on rides she was too small for. How embarrassed she was when a kindergarten chair was brought in for her in second grade, because the teacher required all feet on the floor when children were at their desks. How thirsty she was because she couldnt reach the water Patricia Costa, now fountain. the executive director of the Human Growth Foundation, an advocacy group, sees the FDAs decision on July 25 as evidence of a system that works to allow health care benefits is necessary because good benefits are used as a recruitment tool, McGuire said. One way a university attracts potential employees is by offering as many benefits for the smallest expenses as possible, he said. Though benefits are eroding, McGuire said the new plan is one of the best BlueCross BlueShield offers. Since its an plan, her mother imagined, Nicole Costa was just glad that she didnt need to stand on a box to reach the FDAs microphone. For Lilly, the FDA decision is expected in the next five years to bring an additional 40,000 children and their families to the drug counter for treatment that costs $10,000 to $30,000 a year. decision will The FDAs increase the pressure on health insurers, which have been reluctant to reimburse families for these treatments. Such treatments could reach $18 billion annually, according to While Lilly one 1998 estimate. is a clear winner in the FDA decision, patients and doctors are likely to benefit as well, said Dr. Pmchas Cohen, a pediatric endocrinologist at the University of California, Los Angeles. This is gomg to make it easier for (pediatric endocrinologists) to practice the kind of medicine they think they should, Cohen said. People complain the insurance companies dictate how we can practice medicine: This decision will make it possible for us to do the right thing by our patients. But others view Humatropes approval as another disturbing move toward using medicine to treat societal ills that could be dealt with differently. Steve and Lisa MacChesneys daughter, Brittany, appears on course to fit the height profile for the FDAs new decision. At school, Brittanys frame has drawn taunts and bullying. But MacChesney, who owns several martial arts schools in the Orlando, Fla., area, and Lisa, a middle-schoteacher, marched to Brittanys school instead of a doctors office to solve the ot ol problem. Steve MacChesney said he had and used the same social skills he fosters in his schools to boost his daughters self-estee- m rather than focusing on her height. And he and his wife started a Web site dedicated to stamping I never thought out bullying. about human growth hormone for her, he said. I always look at more natural responses before I go to the medicine side. ... Im a big proponent of self-estee- m building. covered $85,300 and tax funds covered the remaining $205,200, as implemented by the Board of Regents. In its annual Operating Budget Guidelines Implementation report, distributed to universities to establish how tax funds and first-tituition increases must be used, the Board of er wrote Regents that appropriations Regence plans children to grow, literally, to their full potential. On the brink of the womanhood provided state tax funds to cover 70 approximately percent of an 8.05 percent increase for were anticipating that it will cost less for them to administer, so were hoping to save money there, he said. health . . . (and) first-ti- er tuition revenues were identified to fund the 30 remaining McGuire percent. said the compensation, which Page includes both salary and benefits, decreased health benefits issue is is funded through a combination being examined by both the Board of state tax funds and tuition, said of Regents and the Utah State SUU Brian Foisy, budget Legislature. director. The new plan was implemented The 8.05 percent increase was July 1. the 0 The exact breakdown of benefit between split costs and are listed at legislature and the first-tie- r Employee 70-3- co-pa- tuition increase tuition www.suu.eduadlubenefits.html. |