As a boy growing up in New Jersey, Jeffrey Hyams imagined a life patrolling center field for the New York Yankees. Lean and above 6 feet tall ”” and now with a 37-year-old son who is himself a physician ”” Hyams still maintains his Yankee Clipper physique. The problem that derailed his DiMaggio dreams was not uncommon. “Good glove, no bat,” he said.
Gastroenterology would be Hyams”™ eventual calling, following a 1971 undergraduate degree from Brandeis University, but only after a life-changing medical detour.
At the University of Pennsylvania Medical School, Hyams studied hematology with a focus on white blood cells. A boy with Crohn”™s disease ”” an inflammatory bowel disease ”” whom Hyams met during his residency at Boston Children”™s Hospital changed the arc of his life.
“I found his case very interesting,” Hyams said of the boy. “And I switched. It was a huge leap from hematology to gastroenterology.” He said the decision to pursue inflammatory bowel diseases, or IBDs, in children instead of blood disorders added two years to his medical studies. “I also like doing things with my hands,” he said. “There isn”™t much opportunity for that with hematology.”
Surgeries to treat IBDs were once common, as recently as 50 years ago, but not so today. “I do a lot of procedures,” Hyams said, citing endoscopic work as an example and distinguishing such work from more invasive surgeries. His other tools are medicines.
Hyams is a study in accomplishment, having published more than 250 peer-reviewed articles. He wrote the medical textbook “Pediatric Gastrointestinal and Liver Disease,” which is now in its fourth edition. He recently received a $10.4 million grant from the Bethesda, Md.-based National Institutes of Health to examine new cases of ulcerative colitis and how they react to current therapies.
At age 64, Hyams exercises daily, beginning with elliptical work at 5:30 a.m., followed by resistance training, stretching, shower, breakfast and work. His first wife died of multiple sclerosis; he remarried and has an 8-year-old son who very much inflects his professional duties, which include heading the gastroenterology division of Connecticut Children”™s Medical Center and teaching pediatrics at the University of Connecticut.
“With a child in his 30s, some concerns become distant memories,” he said. “With a young child, I have become grounded again. I am reminded of the fear that parents have when their child is sick. I think I”™ve become a better caretaker, provider, physician.”
Internationally, Hyams serves on the Rome Foundation, “which investigates the course and treatment of functional gastrointestinal disorders.” Curiously, he said, those who grow up in third-world conditions have a lower incidence of IBDs originally, but if they move to modern regions, their incidence of IBDs becomes greater than the general population.
He said a working theory is the “hygiene hypothesis,” in which exposure to dirt during childhood ”” as our ancestors saw ”” may induce digestive tolerance. In Connecticut, however, Hyams cited “the Purell society” in which only clean is considered good. “We have a high incidence of these disorders here,” he said. “We see different environments produce different results.”
In general, however, a “very low” percentage of the general population will fall under the care of Hyams or other doctors specializing in IBDs. “One in a couple of thousand,” he said. “Today”™s prognosis is quite good in response to medicines regarding Crohn”™s and ulcerative colitis.”
Of those with IBDs, 5 percent appear to be “biologically predisposed” to digestive-tract inflammation. “But the overwhelming number go on to lead essentially normal lives,” he said. “Fifty years ago you could have died from this. You could have faced hospitalization and surgery ”” that is not seen anymore.”
Hyams”™ practices at the Digestive Diseases, Hepatology & Nutrition Office in Fairfield of Hartford-based pediatric hospital the Connecticut Children”™s Medical Center. His fellow practitioners there are physicians Bella Zeisler and Donna Zeiter, and Kristin Philipp, an advanced practice registered nurse. They see 600 active patients, picking up as many as 80 patients per year in a catchment area that includes Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New York, New Jersey and all of Connecticut. “But if you count second opinions, which we do a lot of, we work all over the country and around the world,” he said.
The hospital runs multiple pediatric health centers in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Besides the Fairfield office at 95 Reef Road, it maintains offices in Stamford, Shelton and Danbury.
