I've written a fair bit about acromegaly in the past - caused by a pituitary tumour secreting high levels of growth hormone, it can lead to gigantism if it occurs in childhood. But you may not have heard of pituitary dwarfism, which is effectively the opposite of acromegaly - although there's usually no tumour involved - in which the pituitary gland fails to secrete enough growth hormone. If a child with pituitary dwarfism is left untreated, this can lead to permanently stunted growth.
Recently the world's tallest man, Sultan Kosen, has been in the news; his growth, caused by a pituitary adenoma, has finally been brought under control after surgery and medical treatment. Even so, he stands over 8 feet tall. In contrast, Special Olympics athlete Mackenzie MacDonald who has also been in the news was successfully treated for her childhood pituitary dwarfism, attaining a height of 5'4".
Showing posts with label giant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label giant. Show all posts
Friday, 23 March 2012
Friday, 20 January 2012
More Famous People With Lumps In Their Head.
So it turns out that by far my most popular post on this blog so far is the one entitled "Russell Watson, It's Not All About You". I don't know whether my readers just happen to have enduring personal grievances with Russell Watson, or are simply opera purists who object to his pop-operatic croonings. Or maybe it's something else.
So, I'm faced with a choice. In my relentless pursuit of pageviews, should I begin writing reams of personal abuse about Mr Watson, or simply continue to shine a spotlight on the other pituitary ademoaners of the world?
I choose the latter option, and not just because of Britain's vast and unyielding libel laws.*
And so, I present:
Once again I must apologise for the preponderance of people with acromegaly on this list! Acromegaly is an extremely rare illness, caused by a tumor on the pituitary gland which produces excessive growth hormone. However, acromegaly's symptoms are so visually striking that, especially if the illness occurs in childhood - when it will lead to massive growth in height (gigantism), as well as the growth of soft tissue and bone which occur in adult acromegaly - its sufferers are very visible. So-called "giants" are in demand for certain roles in the film and television industry, as well as certain sports where their height gives them an advantage. Consequently, it's relatively easy to find famous acromegaly sufferers, while celebrities who suffer from other kinds of pituitary adenoma may keep their diagnosis private.
I certainly think that it would be helpful if there were celebrities who were known to have Cushing's, or prolactinoma; it helps sufferers to feel that they're not alone, and emphasizes the fact that, while a pituitary adenoma can be a significant bloody nuisance, it's not the end of the world - and that there are plenty of other people going through the same problems.
Obviously I think it would be awesome if a famous person was known to have a TSH-oma/thyrotropinoma. But if that doesn't happen, well I guess I'll just have to step up to the celebrity line!**
Anyway, back to the point. Presenting:
Carel Struycken
Carel Struycken is an actor and an acromegaly sufferer; he stands seven foot tall. Born in the Netherlands in 1948, he's now 63 years old. You might recognise him from playing Lurch in the Addams Family films (click here for a picture!); he's also appeared in Star Trek: the Next Generation, Men In Black, and even Sargeant Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band. According to my trusty Wikipedia, he's interested in photography and the development of virtual reality systems. A pretty cool guy by all standards!
Richard Kiel
Richard Kiel is another well-known actor who suffers from acromegaly; his most famous role was as Jaws in the James Bond films. He's now largely retired, although he voiced a character in the animated film Tangled which came out in 2010, and he's written two books; one a memoir entitled Making It Big In The Movies, the second a historical novel co-authored with Pamela Wallace, about the life of Cassius Marcellus Clay, a 19th-Century abolitionist.
Scott Hamilton
Scott Hamilton, the Olympic gold medallist figure skater, is a craniopharyngioma sufferer. I've not previously mentioned craniopharyngiomas, but like pituitary adenomas they're a rare kind of benign pituitary tumour. They cause similar symptoms to pituitary adenomas; they can interfere with hormone production, although they will cause hormone deficits rather than overproduction of pituitary hormones, and they cause headaches and vision loss. They're most common in children and middle-aged adults; Scott Hamilton was diagnosed with craniopharyngioma aged 51. A remarkable guy, Hamilton won four consecutive World Championships and created Stars On Ice.
UPDATE: For those of you who just can't get enough of hearing about famous people with pituitary tumours, I've also written a post about famous people with Cushing's Disease, a post about famous women with acromegaly, my original post about Russell Watson that sparked this whole thing off, and my first post about famous tumourheads!
__________________________________________________
*Russell Watson, I love you.
**Admittedly, I haven't quite worked out how I'll achieve fame. Through my own line of edible greetings cards? By streaking at the London Olympics? For my charitable work with walruses? Ideas on a postcard please.
So, I'm faced with a choice. In my relentless pursuit of pageviews, should I begin writing reams of personal abuse about Mr Watson, or simply continue to shine a spotlight on the other pituitary ademoaners of the world?
I choose the latter option, and not just because of Britain's vast and unyielding libel laws.*
And so, I present:
A Panoply of Pituitary Problems, or: More Famous People With Lumps In Their Head.
Once again I must apologise for the preponderance of people with acromegaly on this list! Acromegaly is an extremely rare illness, caused by a tumor on the pituitary gland which produces excessive growth hormone. However, acromegaly's symptoms are so visually striking that, especially if the illness occurs in childhood - when it will lead to massive growth in height (gigantism), as well as the growth of soft tissue and bone which occur in adult acromegaly - its sufferers are very visible. So-called "giants" are in demand for certain roles in the film and television industry, as well as certain sports where their height gives them an advantage. Consequently, it's relatively easy to find famous acromegaly sufferers, while celebrities who suffer from other kinds of pituitary adenoma may keep their diagnosis private.
I certainly think that it would be helpful if there were celebrities who were known to have Cushing's, or prolactinoma; it helps sufferers to feel that they're not alone, and emphasizes the fact that, while a pituitary adenoma can be a significant bloody nuisance, it's not the end of the world - and that there are plenty of other people going through the same problems.
Obviously I think it would be awesome if a famous person was known to have a TSH-oma/thyrotropinoma. But if that doesn't happen, well I guess I'll just have to step up to the celebrity line!**
Anyway, back to the point. Presenting:
Carel Struycken
Carel Struycken is an actor and an acromegaly sufferer; he stands seven foot tall. Born in the Netherlands in 1948, he's now 63 years old. You might recognise him from playing Lurch in the Addams Family films (click here for a picture!); he's also appeared in Star Trek: the Next Generation, Men In Black, and even Sargeant Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band. According to my trusty Wikipedia, he's interested in photography and the development of virtual reality systems. A pretty cool guy by all standards!
Richard Kiel
Richard Kiel is another well-known actor who suffers from acromegaly; his most famous role was as Jaws in the James Bond films. He's now largely retired, although he voiced a character in the animated film Tangled which came out in 2010, and he's written two books; one a memoir entitled Making It Big In The Movies, the second a historical novel co-authored with Pamela Wallace, about the life of Cassius Marcellus Clay, a 19th-Century abolitionist.
Scott Hamilton
Scott Hamilton, the Olympic gold medallist figure skater, is a craniopharyngioma sufferer. I've not previously mentioned craniopharyngiomas, but like pituitary adenomas they're a rare kind of benign pituitary tumour. They cause similar symptoms to pituitary adenomas; they can interfere with hormone production, although they will cause hormone deficits rather than overproduction of pituitary hormones, and they cause headaches and vision loss. They're most common in children and middle-aged adults; Scott Hamilton was diagnosed with craniopharyngioma aged 51. A remarkable guy, Hamilton won four consecutive World Championships and created Stars On Ice.
 |
| Hamilton's last performance on Stars On Ice |
UPDATE: For those of you who just can't get enough of hearing about famous people with pituitary tumours, I've also written a post about famous people with Cushing's Disease, a post about famous women with acromegaly, my original post about Russell Watson that sparked this whole thing off, and my first post about famous tumourheads!
__________________________________________________
*Russell Watson, I love you.
**Admittedly, I haven't quite worked out how I'll achieve fame. Through my own line of edible greetings cards? By streaking at the London Olympics? For my charitable work with walruses? Ideas on a postcard please.
Monday, 2 January 2012
IMFW: Moral Dilemma
The first Interesting Medical Fact of the Week for 2012 - the first interesting fact for a whole new year - concerns something (or rather, someone) that I've written about before. Highly relevant to the pituitary adenoma theme of this blog, in fact.
In my last post, I mentioned Charles Byrne, the Irish Giant, as he was known in his lifetime, a man who suffered from acromegaly in the 1780s. He was briefly a popular attraction in London before succumbing to alcoholism and dying very young at the age of 22. Although he is probably the most well known, as his skeleton is part of the collection in the Hunterian Museum, there were several well-known Irish giants, all of whom likely suffered from acromegaly, who exhibited themself across Europe at the time.
Byrne's skeleton was preserved against his will; the story goes that he was so keen to avoid his body falling into the clutches of John Hunter, a noted surgeon of the time, that his will requested his friends bury his body at sea in a lead coffin. Hunter managed to get his hands on the body, however, allegedly through bribery.
It's curious how many websites I've found when googling the name "Charles Byrne" which not only fail to mention acromegaly, but fail to mention that Byrne had an illness at all - as though growing to 7'7" is a kind of character flaw which could happen to anybody. His skeleton is still on display to the public at the Hunterian Museum, and around a year ago there was some publicity around some genetic research that has been taking place, looking at a genetic cause for pituitary tumours which recur in families, which identified some modern-day acromegaly patients who may be related to Byrne.
More on that research another day.
Today, the news is that there have been calls for Charles Byrne's skeleton to be removed from display, and buried in accordance with his original wishes. It seems fairly unlikely that this will happen, he's a significant feature of the museum; but it's an interesting debate, and on the whole, I have to say that I would broadly be in favour of allowing him to be buried. It's interesting that the moral debate is still going on, more than two hundred years after his death.
In my last post, I mentioned Charles Byrne, the Irish Giant, as he was known in his lifetime, a man who suffered from acromegaly in the 1780s. He was briefly a popular attraction in London before succumbing to alcoholism and dying very young at the age of 22. Although he is probably the most well known, as his skeleton is part of the collection in the Hunterian Museum, there were several well-known Irish giants, all of whom likely suffered from acromegaly, who exhibited themself across Europe at the time.
Byrne's skeleton was preserved against his will; the story goes that he was so keen to avoid his body falling into the clutches of John Hunter, a noted surgeon of the time, that his will requested his friends bury his body at sea in a lead coffin. Hunter managed to get his hands on the body, however, allegedly through bribery.
It's curious how many websites I've found when googling the name "Charles Byrne" which not only fail to mention acromegaly, but fail to mention that Byrne had an illness at all - as though growing to 7'7" is a kind of character flaw which could happen to anybody. His skeleton is still on display to the public at the Hunterian Museum, and around a year ago there was some publicity around some genetic research that has been taking place, looking at a genetic cause for pituitary tumours which recur in families, which identified some modern-day acromegaly patients who may be related to Byrne.
More on that research another day.
Today, the news is that there have been calls for Charles Byrne's skeleton to be removed from display, and buried in accordance with his original wishes. It seems fairly unlikely that this will happen, he's a significant feature of the museum; but it's an interesting debate, and on the whole, I have to say that I would broadly be in favour of allowing him to be buried. It's interesting that the moral debate is still going on, more than two hundred years after his death.
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