By Archelle Georgiou. 10th grade Social Studies class. My first term paper. Typed on a Remington Select with bottles of White Out and typewriter correction tape by my side. The topic: The Equal Rights Amendment (ERA).

In case you haven’t read it lately, the language in the ERA simply states:
Section 1: Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.
Section 2. The Congress shall have the power to enforce, by appropriate legislation, the provisions of this article.
Section 3. This amendment shall take effect two years after the date of ratification.

The Amendment was originally introduced in 1923. In 1972, it finally passed in both the House and Senate but sits dormant, and is not part of the US Constitution since it has only been ratified in 35 of the necessary 38 states.

As you might expect, I took the position 30+ years ago that the Amendment should be passed. And, I still do. Not because women still need equal due process rights; the 14th Amendment takes care of that. Not because women still need equal opportunity for employment and compensation; the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Pay Act (1963), theoretically at least, afford these protections.

The ERA needs to be passed so that women finally have an equal opportunity to achieve and maintain their health.

Two weeks ago, the Institute of Medicine published a report: Women’s Health Research: Progress, Pitfalls, and Promise. This report was commissioned by Health and Human Services to examine the status of women’s health research over the last 20 years and to determine how effectively findings have been put into practice. The report’s findings highlight that, indeed, there has been progress, particularly in the treatment of women with heart disease, breast and cervical cancer. There is a longer list of conditions for which progress has not been made.

Among the findings that I want to call attention to because, frankly, they are appalling, are those regarding the inclusion of women in clinical trials. Here is a brief synopsis…Comments in parentheses are my editorial comments. What are blogs for, anyway?
–Pre-1986: Women were not routinely included in clinical trials. There was an assumption that results of research on men could be extrapolated to women.
–1986: The NIH established a policy requiring the inclusion of women in clinical research.
–1990: A GAO audit identified that women were still not adequately represented in clinical trials. Why? The policy was vague, inconsistently applied and poorly communicated.
–1992: Another GAO audit found that while women were included in trials, they were underrepresented. (Oops..must have been another misinterpretation.)
–1993: The FDA issued new guidelines for requiring inclusion of women in clinical trials and required gender specific analysis of the data.
–2000: A GAO audit revealed that although women were included and adequately represented, studies were not adequately designed to permit analysis by sex.
–2001: A GAO audit of the FDA showed that 30% of studies failed to fulfill requirements for outcome data by sex. Clinical significance? Eight of 10 drugs withdrawn from the market caused more adverse effects in women.
–2001: The Institute of Medicine published Exploring the Biological Contribution to Human Health: Does Sex Matter?

Yes, Virginia…sex matters. But, it is 2010 and women are still under-represented and comprise only 39% of the participants in Phase 1 trials…the phase that assesses the safety, tolerability, and dosing of a drug.

Not outraged yet? What if you knew that:

During the height of the H1N1 vaccine shortage, researchers identified that women could be immunized with a lower dose of the vaccine and get adequate protection since we have a more pronounced immune response. Great news, right? Regulators were informed, but said they were too busy to consider this information in the vaccination guidelines
–Prominent researchers were recently discouraged from submitting any new grant proposals to the NIH for research on sex differences of mental health disorders. Does this make sense since science can’t yet explain why depression is twice as common in women, alcoholism is twice as common in men, eating disorders are three times more common is girls and autism is four times more common in boys? Nope. What are they thinking?
–Male mice, rats, and rodents are even preferentially used over females in basic clinical research!

What will it take to make women’s health a priority in clinical research? We have Federal laws, NIH policies, FDA guidelines, four separate Federal agencies with an “Office of Women’s Health,” and repeated GAO audits…but the status of women’s health research is abysmal for a nation that spends almost $3 trillion on health care. We’ve come a long way baby…but not far enough, and we may need a 28th amendment to the Constitution to finally have equal rights to a healthy life.

What can you do? Whether you are male of female…Read the report. Educate yourself on sex-based differences. Advocate for yourself..men are from mars, women are from venus, and sex matters, damn it!

*”Sexx Matters” is the creative brainchild of the Society for Women’s Health Research...an organization that works tirelessly to promote and advocate for sex-based differences research.

Originially posted on Archelle on Health, Tuesday, October 5th.

By Archelle Georgiou. Mosque versus no mosque near Ground Zero. The Health Reform bill is good; it’s terrible. Jeff Skilling is a criminal; Skilling was a scapegoat. Marijuana should be legalized; it should remain illegal.

How often have you shifted your position on any of these issues? The likely answer: not often. We watch news programs that are generally aligned with our political orientation. We seek conversations with others who share our position on a controversial topic. We surround ourselves with a world that agrees with us. As a result, we rarely change, or even reconsider, our point of view.

Many of you have seen the famous Invisible Gorilla experiment. If you haven’t, take a look at it here. For those of you who have seen the original video, take a look at the follow up experiment.

This phenomenon is called “selective attentiveness” –our natural tendency to pay attention only to messages that reinforce our own attitudes, opinions and beliefs. And, not only does it make us narrow-minded, it can negatively impact health.

Speaking of health…

“I am having a senior moment.” I dread when I have to say this. It means that my mind has drawn a complete blank, and no matter how hard I try, I can’t remember your name, what city I travelled to earlier in the week, or the name of the restaurant I was just raving about. The self-deprecating chuckle that accompanies my “excuse” is merely a quick cover-up for my fear: Am I getting Alzheimer’s? Probably not. Too young, no family history, and my genetic tests show I don’t have an increased risk. I didn’t score high on the online Alzheimer’s tests (whew!). But, what’s wrong?

I developed a few theories:

•  I am stressed.
• I am not get high quality sleep. The early morning sunshine streaming into our bedroom could be disrupting my REM sleep and circadian rhythms.
• I am peri-menopausal. Maybe I need a little patch of testosterone. It reportedly improves memory, general well-being, and a few other things.

And, of course, the really irrational theory:

• We have a problem in our home. “David, do you think we have radon or carbon monoxide problems in our house?” (more…)

Disruptive Women Archelle Georgiou was interviewed for the blog below, originally posted on August 21st on Big Think.  In order to be a patient advocate you need to be well informed of the issues, this post reminds us of that:

You may want to think twice before your next visit to the doctor’s office. According to Dr. Barbara Starfield’s now-famous study, iatrogenic deaths (those resulting from treatment by physicians or surgeons) are the third leading cause of mortality in the United States, resulting in the loss of 225,000 lives per year. Of that total, nosocomial (hospital-acquired) infections kill 80,000, physician errors claim 27,000, and unnecessary surgery results in 12,000 deaths.  

But iatrogenic errors aren’t the only reason people should avoid hospitals, says physician and health care administrator Archelle Georgiou. She tells Big Think that relying on doctors may actually shorten your lifespan. Georgiou bases this idea on her studies of the earth’s so-called “blue zones,” isolated communities around the world whose inhabitants live longer and healthier lives than the greater populace.

In the Greek blue zone, the island of Ikaria, inhabitants are more than 4 times more likely to live to age 90 than Americans are—yet there is virtually no health care infrastructure. Georgiou tells us: “There are no hospitals or major surgery capabilities…. People needing emergency care are transported by helicopter to Samos (a neighboring island), and all elective surgery is done in Athens.”

A procedure like an arthroscopy or a hysterectomy that would take 3-5 days in the U.S. consumes 3-5 weeks for Ikarians, who must relocate to Athens for the procedure and convalescence. Therefore, “their threshold for elective surgery is significantly higher than ours,” Georgiou says. The result is that people depend on themselves rather than doctors for non-life threatening ailments. And, knowing that health care is so inconvenient, Ikarians take greater care not to get sick—they eat a healthy diet rich in vegetables and exercise daily.

Our greater access to health care (discounting, of course, the millions of uninsured Americans) might make us more likely to live unhealthfully. “U.S. culture is steeped with a ‘find it and fix it’ mentality,” Georgiou tells us. Rather than try to prevent illnesses, we rely on our doctor’s ability to fix what ails us. And the result is that “we spend significantly more on health care than any other nation but without the benefit of improved outcomes or longevity.” In the U.S., our life expectancy is only 78, yet we spend 2.5 times more money per capita than Japan, the country with the highest life expectancy (82.6 years). One-half to one-third of the $2.2 trillion per year America spends on health care is simply unnecessary, says former AMA chairman Raymond Scalettar. (more…)

By Archelle Georgiou. Celebrity chef, Andrew Zimmern, said it well in a recent article, “Headlines be damned. Greece is still open for business.”

Well, sort of. . .

My family and I recently returned from a month long trip to Greece. Indeed, it was glorious, and it would be fun to write about the exquisite meals, the inspiring history, and the experience of “moving in” to Lahania, the small village (population: 50) where my father was born. But, that’s not what I’m writing about because, frankly,  I expected that we would have a wonderful vacation. What I wasn’t expecting is that I would get an insider’s view of the Greek economic crisis.

It started the moment we arrived. The plan for our first full day in Athens was to visit the New Acropolis Museum that opened to rave reviews in  2009. It cost $200 million and sits near the base of the Acropolis with a direct view of the Parthenon. BUT….we were promptly informed that the museum was closed. In fact, all of the historical sites were closed due to a 1-day national strike. Two and half million public and private sector workers in Greece were on strike in Athens and other major cities protesting the European Union-International Monetary Fund austerity measures.  This particular strike was scheduled on the same day that the Parliament was voting on a bill to increase the retirement age to 65 and decrease early pensions for workers. FYI…the Greek government has policies that promise early retirement (age 50 for women and 55 for men) to 700,000 people. Warning: Don’t get in between a Greek and their “syntaxi”—their retirement check.

No problem…we decided to spend the day in Varkiza, one of the lovely beaches just outside of the city.
Interestingly, despite the palpable anger and frustration (with their own government, not the EU or IMF), we didn’t see any picket lines or strikers. The beach, however, was packed with locals who were thrilled to have a day off. Little did we know that this was the 5th national strike since February with the sixth strike scheduled for July 25.

Over the course of the next four weeks, we had many conversations about the financial crisis, and there were two consistent themes regarding the root cause: overspending and fraud.

Overspending

There are many reports that suggest that the 2004 Olympic Games put the country into a downward spiral, and this issue came up frequently in our discussions. Costing $11 billion dollars, in addition to infrastructure costs, this was 50% over budget and clearly more than the country could afford.  In our conversations, however, the prevailing perspective was that it was the government’s fault.

Maybe so, but there is a long history of overspending, in the form of entitlements, that the country cannot afford to continue but, yet, the people don’t want to give up.   Did you know:

• As a way to stimulate population growth, women who have three or more more children are given a lifetime stipend. One family that we were with has four sons. All are adults, and the mother continues to receives 200 euros per month…forever.
• As a way to stimulate tourism, the government established incentives for entrepreneurs to build hotels and open restaurants. And, what a deal! The government gifted–yes, paid for…60% of the development costs for new projects. This helps explains why the islands are lined with large, luxurious hotels with a 57% average hotel occupancy rate.  
• All employees receive two  bonuses a year: a Christmas bonus equal to  one month of salary and an Easter bonus equal to two weeks of salary. So, employers are obligated to pay 13.5 months of wages for 12 months of work. Can anyone say pay for performance? Management discretion? Nah..

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By Archelle Georgiou. “Dr G. Any ideas on the best way to lose weight?” “What do you think about (name the supplement) for losing weight?”

Diet and nutrition questions are some of the most common that I get on Fox. My response always begins with the calorie speech—”In order to lose weight, calories consumed must be less than calories expended.” I consistently take a hard stance on the physics of weight loss which makes some people bristle, especially those who believe that their weight issues are hormonal, genetic, or “their metabolism.” I emphasized this very black and white perspective in my February blog, Weight Loss 101: Count Your Calories, where I explained, mathematically, how my own 2-1/2 pound weight loss was fully explained by the energy expenditure of some increased physical activity.

After 7 months, I’ve lost a total of 7 pounds and the thermogenic reality is a 24,500 calorie deficit. The bigger achievement, however, is the insight into my personal relationship with food.

Hunger does not necessarily mean that my body needs to eat. Emotional-eating has been a way of life for me. I just accepted this behavior as one of my (many) flaws until I learned about the physiologic effects of two hormones that have a powerful influence on the urge to eat—or not. Ghrelin is produced mainly by the stomach and pancreas. Levels are normally high before meals and make us feel hungry. Leptin, its counterpart, is produced by fat cells and causes feelings of satiety and reduces sugar cravings. When leptin levels increase after meals, the brain signals us to stop eating. Here’s the problem: These appetite-controlling hormones are not simply regulated by the body’s nutritional status. Ghrelin (or should I say, gremlin!) levels increase with sleep deprivation. (Maybe this is why I was at my heaviest during my residency?) And, leptin levels, or the body’s sensitivity to it, may diminish in the presence of emotional stress. Just educating myself was enough to give me the willpower to—PAUSE–before reaching for an extra helping or sneaking a second dessert. If I can objectively convince myself that I am calorie-deficient…fine. Open mouth, insert food. However, if I am tired, frustrated, angry or brewing with Greek emotional drama, then instead of using food as a Band-Aid, I try to address the root cause by sleeping, meditating, taking a walk, ….whatever it takes. (more…)

By Archelle Georgiou. Every week, after the Fox segment, viewers can “click on the yellow chat bar” and ask me questions online. They can ask any health related question they want, even if its unrelated to the topic I covered on the air.

So, what do people ask a TV doctor? Since my blogs topics have been a little heavy lately…I thought I’d lighten it up a little by sharing the ten funniest or most interesting questions I’ve received over the last two years.

A preamble….

• I am not disclosing confidential patient information. These conversations occur in an online, open chat room.

• The viewers’ chats are verbatim….including the spelling.

• I try to respond to every single question online with evidence-based information. But, in the spirit of brevity, I didn’t include many of my responses in this blog. Too long and too clinical. Instead, I included my “editorial comments” to offer some perspective and food for thought.

OK…here are Dr. G’s Top 10

1) Michelle: “this is rather emabarrassing but lately everytime I have a bowel movement I get super nauseous and end up throwing up. Its absolutely miserable. Please help!”

Editorial Comment: Viewers ask me questions that they are too embarrassed to ask their doctor. One of the saddest interactions was with a woman who was pulling her hair out, due to trichotillomania, and had become reclusive at home.

2) Charles: “I have a problem…That I need help wit. I weigh about ummm around 215 and I was wondering what is the best kind of workouts or diest to help me lose weight….”

Dr. Georgiou: “How tall are you?”

Charles: “Um around 5″8′”

Dr. Georgiou: “Charles, based on your height, your BMI is 32.7. This puts you in the obese category. So, the approach to weight loss that has the most credibility and success is Weight Watchers which combines diet, exercise, accountability, and social support.

Charles: “So what your saying is im fat….”

Editorial Comment: Yup! I am amazed at how often people convince themselves that the BMI definitions of overweight and obesity don’t apply to them.

3) Nicole1855: “is it bad when someone sits on you and it is hard to breath because i am only 10 years old and my mom sits on me but lightly”

Dr. Georgiou: “Nicole, why does your mom sit on you?”

Nicole1855: “cuz my mom wants to sit where i am sitting doc. She wants to use the light”

Editorial Comment: Chatters must be at least 16 years old to participate. While I should have stopped chatting with her when I found out she was ten, I asked her a few more questions to determine whether this was a case of child abuse.

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Zoe, our first grader, had a homework assignment this week for her class unit on families. Each child was asked to bring in pictures showing the holidays they celebrate at home. Independent as usual, Zoe ruffled through a series of albums and selected four photos that she wanted to take to school. “These are pictures from our holidays,” she announced. “Here’s us lighting the menorah for Hanukkah; this was Rosh Hashanah dinner; here’s a picture of me with the Passover Seder plate; and here we are on our cruise!”

“Zoe, WHAT are you talking about?” I asked. “Cruises aren’t a holiday.”
“Yes they are mom. We do it every year. It’s a tradition!”

The reflex was to correct her. But, I realized that I was the one who had literally and figuratively missed the boat. I was boxed in to the traditional definition of “holiday” as a religious, cultural or national event. However, Zoe, with her seven years of wisdom, freely interpreted “holidays” as those times when we predictably spend dedicated time together as a family. To her, it is about the experience…not the calendar. Needless to say, she turned in her homework assignment with the pictures she originally selected.

The interaction was an important reminder: words take on the meaning we assign to them.

So, I started thinking about other words that are chock full of boundaries like…”family.”

What is family? The Latin term “familia” means household. The first entry in Webster’s Dictionary says family is “a group of individuals living under one roof and usually under one head.”  The Census Bureau defines family as “two or more persons, including the householder, who are related by birth, marriage, or adoption, and who live together as one household.”

Until we leave home in early adulthood, our family–particularly parents and siblings–is our most important and reliable source of guidance, love, and protection.  Ideally, our birth family continues to be a source of strength and support for us even as we marry, have our own children, and live under a different roof with our new family.  Unfortunately, all too often, the dynamics with our parents are stressful and sibling rivalry re-surfaces. Nevertheless, we generally make great efforts and sacrifices to maintain a connection with the family we grew up with.  We forgive, we tolerate, we turn the other cheek, and we try hard to make it work. It’s important.

But why? Why is it important to maintain relationships with parents and siblings? I have asked this question of others and myself over the last year. I couldn’t arrive at a logical answer on my own and kept getting answers from others that seemed superficial:
“Because they are family!” Circular logic. Doesn’t fly.
“Because blood is thicker than water.” Sorry. Last I checked, parents and siblings don’t share a common vascular system.
“Because you can’t divorce your family.” A bit irrelevant. You can’t get divorced if you never married them.

It was Laura Engler’s response that finally made sense to me:
“Archelle, staying connected to family is important because you have shared history. They are the only people who don’t need an explanation for a quirk, a family ritual, or an inside joke. They just know.”

I got it. Family = those individuals with whom we grow, develop memories, and have trust.  If we give ourselves the freedom to transcend the boundaries of the etymologic or legal definitions of “family,” then we realize that our dearest friends…are truly family. What a gift! At the same time, blood relatives with whom we no longer have memories, trust, or love…are not. While this perspective may be hard to swallow, accepting and understanding it offers peace and consolation when lifelong bonds are permanently fractured.

This of course leads to more questions: What are the definitions of friend, trust, and love. What about hope, peace, and life? Their meaning is important and very personal to you. Don’t  passively rely on traditional norms or Webster’s Dictionary. Take the time to remember your experiences around these words. Then, give yourself permission to think and act like a 7 year old who is old enough to be observant and thoughtful while young enough to see the world through a fresh new lens.

Create Health,
Archelle

This blog entry was originally posted in Archelle On Health on May 21, 2010.

By Archelle Georgiou. On Wednesday, the FDA suddenly decided to impose their regulatory authority on personalized genetic test kits after Walgreens and Pathway Genomics announced they’d be selling them in local pharmacies. But, what triggered this response from the FDA?

Are they new? No. These kits have been available to consumers via the Web for 3 years.

Have they been off the regulatory radar screen? No. As far back as 2008, the rapid emergence of genetic testing fueled the passage of GINA, a federal law prohibiting health insurers and employers from discriminating on the basis of genetic information.

Have these companies been quietly launching their strategy and staying invisible? No. They have made major investments in marketing with an abundant amount of media coverage in women’s magazines and news shows.

So, why did the FDA choose to take a stand now?

Maybe the Agency was dealing with higher priority issues. The FDA is busy and constantly putting out other fires, resources are limited, and the number of people buying these kits off the Web has been relatively small. But, with the announcement that kits would available in 6000 local pharmacies, they may have been concerned about a surge in use and the need to fulfill their responsibility to protect the public. A “noble” act, I am sure.

But, were there other underlying forces? Who was nudging the FDA? And, why?

The American Medical Association recommends that “genetic testing only be made available under the supervision of a qualified health care professional.”

Hmmm… the most powerful lobbying organization within the traditional medical establishment believes that only clinicians should be the keeper of the keys to our personal DNA information. By the way, does “qualified” include mean nurses, pharmacists, and licensed genetic counselors…or is it really just a code word for “doctors?”

Is the AMA advocating for better health and the rights of consumers, OR…

….Are they trying to maintain a paternalistic status quo?
….Do they feel that doctors are relatively uninformed about the science behind genetic testing and trying to protect them from feeling unqualified to respond to questions when their patients come in with a 77 page report?
….Do they simply want to protect doctors’ revenue stream?

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Yin versus Yang. East versus West. Technology versus theology. Two Fox topics I covered within a single week were at seemingly opposite ends of the healthcare spectrum. Both were moving. Both made a meaningful difference in peoples lives. Which was better? I was confused…until I started writing the last paragraph of this blog.

Bill Carlson is a 60 year old man that I met online about a year ago during the weekly Fox chat with viewers. “Shellback,” his screen name, signed in every few weeks with progress updates on his recovery from a heart transplant…and then always commented on the wonderful care he received at the University of Minnesota. Since April is National Donate Life Month, I invited him to be a guest on Tuesday, April 20. His story was a medical miracle.

Bill’s congestive heart failure symptoms were easily managed on medication for the first several years that he was diagnosed. Then, in early 2008, his cardiac function quickly deteriorated and by September 2008, he was dying. His ejection fraction was 10%. He had multi-organ failure, gastrointestinal bleeding and was comatose. His family had decided to withdraw life support, but just in time, Bill stabilized and the University surgeons decided to insert an LVAD– an implanted mechanical pump that helps the ventricle pump blood throughout the body. If it worked, there was a chance he’d survive the wait for a donor heart.

Bill had a cardiac arrest during the LVAD placement. Unable to regain a heart rhythm, the surgeon found the family in the waiting room and told them the bad news: “I am so sorry. We lost Bill on the table.” He sat with the Bill’s wife and daughters for a bit then went back into the operating room to finish up. But, he came back twenty minutes later and said, “Don’t go too far. He’s alive again.” For the next nine months, Bill changed his LVAD batteries every four hours, and on June 7, 2009, his cell phone rang. A young man in Pittsburgh had just died. Then next day, Shellback got a new heart.

If Bill had end stage heart failure just five years earlier, he’d wouldn’t be alive. Technology had defied death. This was the yin. Health….from the outside in.
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I’ve been called many names…and, most of the time, I ignore it and let it roll off my back. But last week, I got the ultimate compliment. I was ordained as one of the “Disruptive Women in Healthcare,” a blog site that invites anyone, particularly women, to speak up and challenge the health care status quo. Since I got formal permission to be disruptive (as if I really needed to have someone tell me it’s okay), I am going to allow myself to be a bit irreverent in this blog entry. I apologize in advance.

The focus of this week’s blog is on the health benefits of personal genetic testing–an emerging area of medicine that intrigues many people when they read about it, but scares them too much to get tested themselves. Yes, the blog last week had a similar theme but was centered on the insight you can gain on your ancestral history. In full disclosure, that blog was just a set up; I used a heart-warming, personal story as a first step to getting your buy-in.

The Human Genome Project was completed in 2003, and since then, companies have been springing up that offer personal genetic testing to consumers. The space is dominated by 3 companies: Pathway Genomics, Navigenics, and 23andMe. For anywhere between $350 and $999, testing kits can be purchased without a doctor’s order. Unfortunately, even as the price has come down, very few people choose to get their genetic testing done.

Why?

“I don’t want find out something I don’t want to know.” “What if I find out I am higher risk for Lou Gherigs disease?” My personal concern was learning that I might be at higher risk for developing Alzheimers. I was so scared that I stared at the test kit for 3 weeks before I spit into the vial and sent it in. I told my family that the results would come back in 4-6 weeks and the information “had the potential to change our life forever.” The drama (which I am pretty good at) was almost worthy of a gold statuette.

But, after going through the entire process, I realize that the worry, the procrastination, and the hand-wringing were wasted energy. The report results were relevant, practical and actionable–TODAY. And, the benefits of knowing my genetic makeup far outweigh the false sense of security that we allow ourselves to experience when we are simply blind to the facts.

The majority of my fears were probably fueled by the unknown: manufacturers’ descriptions of report results are vague; I had never met or spoken to someone who had the testing done. So, the goal in sharing my test results with readers in this blog is to dispel some of the mysteriousness of genetic testing and to demonstrate that this important new technology is an easy, cost-effective way to improve health. And, in my opinion, it is the only tool/technology I have seen that might be able to successfully influence behavior.

So, I have one important key message I hope to get across: Knowledge is Power.

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The following is a guest post by Archelle Georgiou, MD. Archelle is a 40-something year old doctor and the health expert on Fox9 News in the Twin Cities. She has spent 25 years in health care… in private practice, in corporate America, and now has her own consulting practice, Georgiou Consulting, so that she can pursue health care projects, initiatives, and causes she believes are most meaningful to making a difference for people. Archelle blogs at Archelle on Health.

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We all enjoy the heart-warming stories of siblings who are separated at birth and miraculously re-connected with each other as adults. We empathize with the need for adopted individuals to search for their biological parents. Why? Because we have an innate need to know who we are, where we came from, and who we are connected to. For the majority of us, our identity is not a gnawing issue. We are surrounded by our parents, siblings and extended families. We are comfortable, sometimes too comfortable, with the personal, cultural and religious labels that our parents bestow on us, and we live our lives believing that we know who we are.

But do we?

As the daughter of Greek immigrants, I always considered myself a thoroughbred. I never questioned my own cultural background, but as far back as I can remember, I was curious about Jews and Judaism. The reality was that I knew nothing about the culture or the religion except that Pikesville, the Jewish neighborhood in Baltimore, was the only area that had a bagel store. I was 24 the first time I entered a synagogue. I felt at home, but it wasn’t about the religious aspects of the service–it was all in Hebrew and I didn’t understand a word. I simply felt a connection to the environment. In 1988, I converted. While the timing centered around our wedding, the decision to take this step seemed completely natural.

It wasn’t until I had personal genetic testing that the pieces of the puzzle fell into place. Mitochondrial DNA from my cheek swab and a saliva sample (I had 2 confirmatory tests because I am compulsive) showed I am in Haplogroup K – a group once found at high frequency in the Basques of northern Spain between 4,000 and 5,000 years ago. My specific haplogroup subtype is K1a5: Seventy percent of the people with my mitochondrial DNA are Ashkenazic Jews. Relatives who have done some additional genealogy research discovered that my maternal grandmother’s family, named “Leventis,” were previously named “Levin.” Six hundred years ago, the family was most likely from Spain but migrated to Greece during after the Inquisition in 1492. They assimilated….became Hellenicized…and the rest is accurately captured in “My Big Fat Greek Wedding.”

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