In This Section:
Keeping watch on the health of female athletes - Jaci VanHeest, kinesiology
Prolific researcher with a passion for teaching - C. Michael White, pharmacy

Researcher investigates athlete triad syndrome

In a quest for better times in the swimming pool, many elite women swimmers, who already exercise a lot, restrict their calories, mistakenly thinking that a thinner body will help them swim faster.

This can lead to what is known as the female athlete triad: energy deficit, which leads to irregular menstrual cycles, followed by bone loss.

Jaci VanHeest is trying to find a remedy for the female athlete triad.

Jaci VanHeest, associate professor of kinesiology, working with overweight elementary school children.

Photo by Peter Morenus

“Young athletes generally don’t care about osteoporosis, but if I can tell them their performance will suffer because they are abusing their bodies, they’ll care about that,” says VanHeest, an associate professor of kinesiology in the Neag School of Education and a 2006 University Teaching Fellow, a designation that recognizes excellence in undergraduate and graduate teaching.

Coaches of female athletes face a two-headed dragon: win while also caring about the long-term health of the young women in their charge, VanHeest says.

Of course, many elite athletes are healthy and can expect to improve their athletic performance, yet those who face the female athlete triad may one day experience serious long-term health risks.

VanHeest recently completed a study of active women who became amenorrheic — missed menstrual periods — and were experiencing bone loss because they ate too little to refuel properly after their training.

Subjects in the study received birth control pills.

The estrogen improved their bone turnover in the first two weeks, but then the positive changes dissipated.

“We don’t know what the potential negative long-term affects could be on health in competitive athletes, osteoporosis perhaps. It’s tough to document,” VanHeest explains.

In an upcoming study, VanHeest will examine what to feed athletes to help restore menstruation and performance.

Swimmers primarily use glucose when they are competing, but both carbohydrates and fats when training.

If athletes are genetically predisposed to obesity, they often rapidly gain weight once they retire from competition.

She will investigate what the right diet combination should be for people with this particular phenotype.

A Michigan native, VanHeest earned her doctorate from Michigan State University.

She came to UConn in 1998 after serving as director of physiology for USA Swimming, where she helped Olympic athletes improve their performances.

She has studied UConn athletic teams over the past several years primarily to evaluate adaptation to training regimens.

In addition to teaching women in sport and anatomical kinesiology, VanHeest has also created Paws PALS, a five-days-a-week before-school exercise program for overweight elementary students.

In addition to seeing the children regulate their weight, teachers report that the pupils are more attentive in class and ready to learn.

The program received intense media coverage, including an article in Sports Illustrated, and VanHeest hopes to see the program replicated in other schools in Connecticut and throughout the United States.

— Alix Boyle

Michael White twice named UConn's Teacher of the Year

Michael White, associate professor of clinical pharmacy, has been recognized for his skill as a teacher and a researcher.

Photo by Peter Morenus

As a teenager, C. Michael White felt unsure of what career path to follow.

A chance meeting at his high school’s college fair, however, changed that.

“There was this guy from Albany College of Pharmacy,” says White.

“I went over just to take a pamphlet. I’d never thought about pharmacy as a career.”

As it turned out, pharmacy fit him like a glove.

He graduated with honors from the Albany College of Pharmacy. White then did his post-doctoral fellowship in cardiology at UConn’s School of Pharmacy/Hartford Hospital.

His UConn mentor, clinical pharmacy professor Moses Chow, inspired his interest in research.

The results have been far reaching.

Until recently, theories that cholesterol-lowering drugs known as statins had the power to prevent cancer had been debated for years.

By combining clinical trials representing tens of thousands of patients and applying statistical methods, White led UConn researchers who concluded that statins neither elevate nor eliminate the risk of cancer.

The Journal of the American Medical Association published the work earlier this year.

White’s interest in cardiology began as an undergraduate when his mother was hospitalized for an irregular heartbeat.

Thousands of Americans undergo such arrhythmias following open-heart surgery.

It can usually be corrected using various methods — although a significant number suffer stroke.

White and UConn researchers showed that a time-honored drug called amiodarone, administered as a preventive measure, reverses this trend.

“We’re trying to increase the understanding of drugs in different populations by determining which ones can be used for what and their limitations,” says White.

“Mike is probably one of the country’s most prolific people in the area of cardiac clinical pharmacy,” says Robert McCarthy, dean of UConn’s School of Pharmacy.

Currently, White is researching magnesium.

He believes it might decrease arrhythmias in patients with implanted defibrillators.

This could lead to fewer shocks and a major improvement in quality of life.

Since becoming UConn associate professor of clinical pharmacy practice in 1998, White has written 150 peer-reviewed articles and contributed nine chapters to various medical textbooks.

In addition, he mentors new faculty, precepts post-doctorate fellows and consults at Hartford Hospital’s cardiac intensive care unit.

His awards and citations run the gamut of Who’s Who in America to a Fellowship in the American College of Clinical Pharmacologists.

“He played a major role in my decision to enter academia,” says Craig Coleman ’99 (PHR), ’01 Pharm.D., UConn associate professor of clinical pharmacy, who studied under White and now collaborates on research.

“He’s as strong a teacher as he is a researcher.”

White has twice been named UConn Teacher of the Year and recently received one of the University’s highest teaching honor, the Teaching Fellow Designation. His old mentor is not surprised.

“Michael is an achiever,” says Moses Chow, who now heads the School of Pharmacy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

“He is definitely a bright rising star in the word of clinical pharmacy.”

— Ron Meshberg