SPOTLIGHT ON HEALTH |
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(NAPSI)-When it comes to their health, great athletes can often face great health challenges as well, whether in or out of the sports arena. The inspiring story of how three great Olympic athletes--Greg Louganis, Mark Spitz and Bruce Jenner--faced their conditions and now excel in life is told in two new TV programs commemorating the summer Olympics. The programs let patients tell their stories of how they have overcome disease with the help of family, friends, great health care professionals and innovative cures and treatments. Called “Sharing Miracles” (www.sharingmiracles.com), the programs are sponsored by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA). They will be broadcast on more than 120 stations nationwide, including new affiliates in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Boston and Baltimore. The stories these great Olympic athletes tell are particularly inspiring. Trained to physically excel from an early age, Olympic athletes are sometimes slow to recognize and deal with the effects of disease, but facing up to any and every challenge is something that helps make a champion. The great swimmer Mark Spitz says of his long battle against high cholesterol, “When I think back 20 years ago and had I not done something, I wonder if I’d be here today.” Adds Spitz on his decision to seek treatment, “Cardiac disease is not in my family; I could have been the very first and the first to be an example of what I should have done rather than what I did.” Greg Louganis, who thrilled audiences in several Olympics with near-perfect gold medal diving performances, lives with HIV/AIDS. Today he is active, fit and working every day to stay that way. But it hasn’t always been easy. Louganis tells Sharing Miracles that it took all his athletic discipline to “learn coping skills,” as well as how the right “therapy and medicines helped me get through some pretty difficult times.” “These amazing athletes are admired the world over,” says Billy Tauzin, PhRMA president and CEO, “but they deserve even greater admiration for the grace, forthrightness and determination they’ve shown in facing their conditions and seeking the right treatment.” For more information, visit www.SharingMiracles.com. For more information on how America’s pharmaceutical research companies are working for patients to find new cures and treatments, visit www.PhRMA.org. The story of how three great Olympic athletes faced their health concerns is told in two new TV programs commemorating the summer Olympics. |
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