Sullivan's Sign Silenced

[ironjustice]

Dr. Jerome L. Sullivan III: Pathologist conceived of 'iron hypothesis'

May 6, 2013|By Jason Garcia, Orlando Sentinel
Dr. Jerome L. Sullivan III, the pathologist who first theorized of a
link between heart disease and iron levels in the blood, died Friday
of complications from diabetes. He was 68.

Sullivan, a physician, scientist and professor, was recognized around
the world as the father of the "iron hypothesis," which states that
people with elevated levels of iron in their blood face a greater risk
of heart attacks.

Sullivan, of Winter Park, had conceived of the theory as a junior
faculty member at the University of South Florida in Tampa. He was
puzzled, as he would later tell People magazine, by "why young women
don't have heart attacks." While the risk of heart disease began to
rise in men as early as their 30s, women did not show a similar
increase until much later — after they had reached menopause.

"He was thinking about it when I first met him in 1979," said Winter
Park pathologist Dr. Laura Geisel Sullivan, Jerome Sullivan's wife of
nearly 32 years. "One of the first questions he asked me was, 'Why are
young women protected against heart disease?'"

The most common guess at the time involved estrogen levels. But the
young doctor in Tampa theorized that the true culprit was iron.

Young men begin to accumulate higher amounts of stored iron in their
blood once they have stopped growing, usually around the age of 18.
But young women don't experience a similar rise, because they
regularly shed iron-rich red blood cells as part of their monthly
menstrual cycles.

Laura Sullivan was working as a pathology resident at a veterans'
hospital in Tampa when Jerome Sullivan called her from across town at
St. Joseph's Hospital.

"I think I've got it!" he said into the phone. "It's the iron
accumulation over time.'"

Sullivan published his seminal work, "Iron and the Sex Difference in
Heart Disease," in the June 13, 1981, issue of the medical journal The
Lancet. The work is still cited by other scientists to this day.

He would continue to research iron and heart disease for the rest of
his career, publishing more findings and frequently lecturing at
universities. He stopped practicing clinical medicine in 1997 to
devote himself full-time to research. Among his many other hypotheses:
Men and post-menopausal women could reduce their risk of heart attacks
by donating blood.

Sullivan was born in southern Alabama, a descendant of one of the
founding families of Dothan, a small city known for harvesting
peanuts. He earned his medical degree from the University of Florida
and his Ph.D. from Florida State University, and spent much of his
career in Charleston, S.C.

The family settled in Winter Park in 1997, as Sullivan scaled back his
work and Laura Sullivan, a senior pathologist with the Florida
Hospital system, ramped up hers. He later joined the faculty of the
University of Central Florida's new medical school, where he had
planned to lecture.

Sullivan enjoyed classical music and films and spent hours practicing
photography, his amateur passion. But he rarely put his research aside
for long.

"He was just thinking all the time. He would look like he was
daydreaming, but he was thinking," his wife said. "His major professor
at FSU told him to work on important things. And he took that to
heart."

In addition to his wife, Sullivan is survived by five children: Best
Kimbrell Sullivan of Orlando; Jerome Lee Sullivan IV of Tallahassee;
Kathryn Henley Sullivan of Winter Park; William Sheffield Sullivan of
Orlando; and Lisa Sullivan Ode of Cumming, Ga. He is also survived by
two grandchildren, a brother and a sister.

Byrd Funeral Home in Dothan handled arrangements.


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Tom


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