Quest
Volume 3, Number 4, Fall 1996

FEATURES

• You've Got to Be Kidding!
  Doctors and comedians have both discovered that humor is serious medicine for people with disabilities.
  
  
• Is Laughter the Best Medicine?
  Medical studies indicate that laughter boosts levels of endorphins, the body's natural painkillers, and suppresses levels of epinephrine, the stress hormone.
  
  
• A Call for Safety
  When emergencies strike, there's no substitute for being prepared. Fires, accidents, poisonings and other emergencies can occur anywhere, without consideration as to whether someone in the household is in a wheelchair or has some other mobility problem. See also Tips for Home Emergencies.
  
  
• Desperate Remedies
  Heart transplants for people with muscular dystrophy were unheard of just a few years ago, but today they're saving lives.
  
  
• Fight Against Contractures
  Physical medicine and physical therapy offer an array of techniques to delay and diminish muscle contractures.
  
  
• Do-It-Yourself Devices
  Necessity has given birth to many ingenious, low-cost, homemade devices for people with disabilities.
  
  
• Marvelous Mandy
  Meet MDA's 1997 National Youth Chairperson.
  
  
• Vitale Receives Achievement Award
  Anthony Vitale says he has met many wonderful people he wouldn't otherwise have known because of ALS. Without irony, he says he can well understand the famous words of another accomplished man who had ALS, Lou Gehrig: "I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth."
  
  
• Task for Teens
  Figure out how to pay for your college education. Put your research skills to work and create a financial aid package.
  
  
• Research Updates