McKHANN, Guy M. 1932-

PERSONAL: Born March 20, 1932, in Boston, MA; married Katherine E. Henderson, November 30, 1957 (divorced, 1983); married Marilyn S. Albert (a professor and gerontologist), September 27, 1997; children: (first marriage) Ian, James, Emily, Guy, Charles; (second marriage) Joshua, Katie. Education: Harvard University, graduated 1951; Yale University, M.D., 1955.

ADDRESSES: Office—Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins Hospital, 338 Krieger Hall, 3400 North Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21218-2685. E-mail—guy.mckhann@jhu.edu.

CAREER: Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, resident, 1960–63; Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 1963–69, began as an associate professor, became assistant professor of pediatrics and neurology; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, professor of neurology, 1969–, founding chair of neurology department, 1969–88, founding director of Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute, 1988–2000; National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, associate director for clinical research and acting clinical director, 2000–01. Member, Institute of Medicine. Scientific advisor to Charles A. Dana Foundation; chairman of scientific advisory group for United Cerebral Palsy; board member of Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation and National Academies Committee on the Biological and Biomedical Application of Stem Cells; advisor to Vatican on end-of-life issues. Military service: U.S. Public Health Commissioned Corps, 1957–60.

MEMBER: American Neurological Association (former president), American Neurochemical Society, Society of Neuroscience, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Alpha Omega Alpha.

AWARDS, HONORS: Hebei University, honorary degree.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with others) Diseases of the Nervous System: Clinical Neurobiology, Ardmore Medical Books (Philadelphia, PA), 1986, revised edition, W.B. Saunders (Philadelphia, PA), 1992.

(Editor, with others) Evolution and Neurology of Language: A Report of the 1993 FESN Study Group on Evolution and Neurology of Language, Elsevier Science (Amsterdam, Netherlands), 1994.

(With wife, Marilyn Albert) Keep Your Brain Young: The Complete Guide to Physical and Emotional Health and Longevity, John Wiley & Sons (New York, NY), 2002.

Also author of more than one hundred scientific papers and forty book chapters.

SIDELIGHTS: Guy M. McKhann founded the Department of Neurology at Johns Hopkins University in 1969, as well as the university's Zanvyl Kreiger Mind/Brain Institute. McKhann began his career in pediatrics but later expanded his work to include all ages. His most recent research includes investigation of Guillain-Barre's syndrome and the neurological and cognitive outcomes after coronary artery bypass surgery. He and his colleagues also studied the mental decline that often occurs after such procedures.

McKhann and his wife, Marilyn Albert, a professor of psychiatry and neurology at Harvard Medical School and director of the gerontology research unit at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard-Mahoney Neuroscience Institute, are the authors of Keep Your Brain Young: The Complete Guide to Physical and Emotional Health and Longevity. The authors drew on their experience with aging patients in writing what Albert R. Hunt described in the Wall Street Journal as a book "for seniors-in-waiting, as well as the geriatric set, what Drs. Spock and Brazelton were to our early parenting years."

The guide addresses such fears as the onset of Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, and stroke, which are all brain-related ailments, as are some less-serious inconveniences such as memory lapse. The authors offer some suggestions for sharpening the brain's functions, as well as noting how sleep patterns change as we age. They also discuss drugs that increase sexual function in men, as well as ways to relieve the myriad aches and pains of aging. Furthermore, they suggest that surgery should be a last resort and do not advise the use of alternative therapies, with the exception of acupuncture.

Stress and depression are studied, too, with McKhann and Albert writing that social support systems and relaxation techniques can help. They note the positive influences on good mental and physical health, which include proper diet and lifestyle choices. People who experience quick recoveries from illness and who have fewer bouts of illness are likely to be those who stay mentally and physically active and who exercise control over their lives. The authors speculate that one of the reasons women live longer than men is because they are more active. For those who do take prescription medications, they comment on the risks of drug interaction and advocate for the coverage and management of drug therapy by Medicare. Hunt noted that McKhann and Albert "abound with enthusiasm. Over the next quarter century, they expect research will develop advances in brain injuries comparable to what's occurred in cancer over the past twenty-five years. For those of us who hope to be around to benefit, there is now an extraordinarily useful guide-book to serve us in the interim."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Journal of Psychiatry, November, 1993, Peter P. Roy-Byrne, review of Diseases of the Nervous System: Clinical Neurobiology, p. 1740.

Journal of the American Medical Association, October 16, 1987, Sidney Schulman, review of Diseases of the Nervous System, pp. 2135-2136.

Library Journal, April 1, 2002, Karen McNally Bensing, review of Keep Your Brain Young: The Complete Guide to Physical and Emotional Health and Longevity, p. 131.

Publishers Weekly, April 15, 2002, review of Keep Your Brain Young, p. 58.

Wall Street Journal, July 9, 2002, Albert R. Hunt, review of Keep Your Brain Young, p. D1.

Washington Informer, February 21, 2001, Patricia Youson, "Bypass Surgery Linked to Mental Decline," p. 8.

Work & Family Life, October, 2002, review of Keep Your Brain Young, p. 8.

ONLINE

Johns Hopkins University Department of Neurology Web site, http://www.neuro.jhmi.edu/ (December 20, 2005), Guy McKhann, "The History of the Department of Neurology at Johns Hopkins."