“As many patterns as there are patients”: Dr. Elena Valassi on acromegaly myopathy and the hidden reach of cortisol

I first met Dr. Elena Valassi at the Spanish Endocrine Conference in Bilbao, Spain, years ago.  Ever since, she has been contributing articles, her considerable experience and knowledge to PWN. We were delighted to catch up with her at ENDO in Chicago. In this engaging discussion, we touch on why muscles stay weak in acromegaly even after the disease is under control, and why hypercortisolism keeps turning up in more people than anyone used to expect. Dr. Valassi’s earlier work on acromegaly and muscles got a lot of attention from PWN readers. Muscle impairment, or myopathy, is one of those aspects of acromegaly that’s easily overlooked but hard to ignore if you’re the one living with it. Read more here

We also talked about her ongoing work on Cushing’s and hypercortisolism, the newer data linking high cortisol to hypertension and type 2 diabetes, and her efforts to untangle the two-way relationship between cortisol and metabolic outcomes.

Endocrine disease is deeply individual.  “Every person, in her words, is a world of their own,” she said, and the ultimate goal of all this work is personalized treatment built around that reality.

It’s always a pleasure to catch up with Dr. Valassi, and always instructive. Her energy is contagious. We’ll be following her muscle and hypercortisolism work closely and bringing you the updates as they come.