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American Morning

Jeff Julian, a Pro Golfer and a Profile in Courage

Aired April 17, 2002 - 09:20   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JACK CAFFERTY, CNN ANCHOR: In sports, there is plenty of talk about comebacks, athletes overcoming long odds against them to win. This morning we bring you the story of 40-year-old Jeff Julian. He's a pro golfer and he's a profile in courage as well. Last year he was diagnosed with ALS, which is commonly called Lou Gehrig's Disease. It's a nerve-destroying condition with no known cure. ALS has affected his speech but not his passion for the game of golf or for life.

He plans to continue on the PGA tour for as long as he's able. The life expectancy for ALS patients, on average, is between two and five years but Jeff Julian is not counting his days, rather he counts his blessings. Jeff and his wife Kim join us this morning from Hilton Head, South Carolina, where Jeff will tee it up in the WorldCom Classic this weekend. Also joining us from Denver, Colorado, Dr. Lucy Bruijns, who is with the ALS Association.

Jeff nice to have you with us. How is your golf game? I - this is a - this is tough enough game and I can say that from personal experience. I've struggled with it my whole life on the amateur level. How is your golf game in light of the sudden onset of this Lou Gehrig's situation?

JEFF JULIAN, ALS PATIENT: It's affected my speech and my neck area but I'm still able to play and play well. So I'm fortunate to be able to do that.

CAFFERTY: How did you first find out that you had this disease? Were there - what symptoms did you have? How was it diagnosed?

JULIAN: Well, Kim had noticed problems with my talking and choking on liquids last - about a year ago. And it took us a while to get in and see someone because were on the road at tournaments and finally in July we had initial diagnosis of bulbar, which is this region that is effected. Finally in October we - at the ALS diagnosis at Johns Hopkins.

CAFFERTY: John Hopkins University Medical Center.

Kimberly, you've done a lot of research into this disease. And one of the things that you asked was to have him tested for mercury. What was the reason for that? And what do you think you might have learned from those tests as it relates to his exposure to pesticides and his lifetime on the golf course? KIMBERLY JULIAN, ALS PATIENTS' WIFE: Well that's exactly why we had it tested. There were a couple of incidents at the same course he grew up on with brain tumors. So I asked Jeffrey, I said what could be the link here? What could be causing - you know what chemicals do they use and he mentioned mercury to prevent snow mold on greens up north. So I asked his neurologist to look into that. Well he did a blood test and it came back normal.

We then went further and had a hair analysis done and found that it was extremely high. Because the exposure, if it's - if it's been there for a long time, it will no longer be in your blood. It settles in your tissue, especially your brain tissue.

CAFFERTY: And the fact that it was present in the hair is an indication of long-term exposure. Is that the way the doctors read that? Let me bring Dr. Bruijns into this discussion and ask her what she thinks about this. There's no known cause for ALS. It seems to strike randomly. But what about this theory that there might be environmental reason behind Jeff's condition?

DR. LUCY BRUIJNS, ALS ASSOCIATION: Well this certainly is an interest and growing interest with many of the incidents that we are now hearing about, similar such as the Gulf War. There is - there are several studies and many have been done in the past to try and associate mercury and other heavy metals and try and link this to the disease. And it's still controversy. There is no clear evidence that this is, indeed, linked.

However, it is important as you indicated, there is currently no known cause for the disease and the ALS Association clearly recognizes the need to be open-minded about trying to research all these avenues. So I think it is important that we do look further into this study.

CAFFERTY: They did a rather comprehensive study of returning servicemen from the Persian Gulf War. And what they found was that of 700,000 personnel who were deployed to the Persian Gulf area between 1990 and 1991, 40 of them developed ALS, Lou Gehrig's Disease, which was twice the number of cases that developed in the 1.8 million veterans from the same period who were not deployed to the Persian Gulf. Those are big numbers. But is there a statistical significance in that information?

BRUIJNS: Well we are waiting; actually, the scientific publication and we are very anxious to see this. And I think it is important to realize that it is quite possible that there is this association but scientists now have the challenge to find out what exactly is the exposure that these veterans have been exposed to. So I think that there's going to be a need for ongoing study beyond this to understand how any of these environmental factors may be influencing the disease process. And I think it is important to add that it is quite possible the combination of the persons makeup, their genetics as well as the environment. Otherwise we may be expecting many higher numbers of ALS cases related to the environment.

CAFFERTY: OK. Dr. Bruijns thank you very much for joining us this morning. She is Science Director with ALS Association from Denver, Colorado. Jeff and Kimberly, likewise, thank you. Jeff and Kimberly Julian and I know they televise the WorldCom Classic, Jeff, and I played that golf course down there at Hilton Head. It's a pretty good test. I hope you make the cut because I'm going to look forward to seeing you on television Saturday and Sunday. You're a courage guy and thank you all for being with us on American Morning.

BRUIJNS: Thank you.

KIMBERLY JULIAN: Thank you.

JEFF JULIAN: Thank you.

CAFFERTY: You're welcome.

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