Valentyna V. CHOPIAK, who lives and works in Lviv, has been appointed Chief Immunologist of Ukraine. She is a medical doctor and heads the Western Ukrainian Regional Clinical Immunology and Allergy Center (she is also my fellow countrywoman, as her mother lives in Lutsk). Since Chornobyl, immunity has been a high priority in Ukraine.
Chopiak is a recognized name in Volyn; many people remember your father.
V.Ch.: Yes, he was chief physician of an endocrinology clinic. I remember from childhood those neat cozy buildings that housed the clinic on the outskirts of Lutsk, the ponds where patients would fish, and the hothouses that produced good crops. That was one of the rehabilitation methods for endocrine patients. My father was a friend of Anatoly Dimarov, who worked for the newspaper Radianska Volyn and was just starting his literary career. Once, while he was working on a book and stuck on a delivery-room scene, he asked my father to arrange a visit, so he could get some first-hand experience. He was given a white gown and taken to the delivery room. I plan to publish Dad’s collection of verse with Anatoly Dimarov’s foreword.
Even now immunologists are as rare as hen’s teeth. What made you take up this little-known sphere of medicine?
V.Ch.: I completed grade school No.7 with honors in Lutsk, but failed the medical institute’s entrance exams. I tried again the next year and then entered medical school. I was awarded the Lenin stipend for being a straight-A student. At the institute I instantly became engrossed in research and would spend my holidays in labs and hospitals, accompanying professors on their rounds. I was fortunate to have wise teachers, including Academician Danylenko and Dr. Martynov, a noted therapist, who said that without knowledge of immunology one could do nothing with therapy. After graduation, there was talk of creating Ukraine’s first immunology course. I became convinced that it had a future, as it would give an impetus to transplantology and the treatment of many serious diseases. I was supposed to take a postgraduate course at the Institute of Endocrinology, but decided to take up immunology. I defended my Candidate of Sciences thesis three- and-a-half years later (I did most of my thesis work in Moscow), and got my medical degree when I was forty years old. I owe this not only to my husband’s understanding and support, but also primarily to my mother, who looked after the children.
How did you become Chief Immunologist of Ukraine, considering that you live in Lviv, not in Kyiv?
V.Ch: In all civilized countries experts are assigned posts that are linked to their personal achievements, not place of residence. In my case, the Western approach was applied; all medical trends may be concentrated not only in the capital city, but also in regions where different diagnostic methods are being developed. In fact, the Ukrainian immunology school is based in Lviv.
All that the average person knows about immunity is that it can be bad or good. So they take handfuls of vitamins, believing this will improve their immune system. It seems that physicians who diagnose “poor immunity” simply do not know what’s actually wrong with you.
V.Ch.: The thing is that immunity is a powerful integral system. Figuratively speaking, it keeps the organism’s scales tipped either way, toward good or poor health. It really plays a key role in this sense, meaning that it shouldn’t be underestimated. Immune cells are everywhere; they are the border troops defending the organism from pathogenic invaders. The immune system has seven, and even more, protection levels; the organism’s reserves are immense and it’s a clever system, so people shouldn’t rush to take pills. Actually, only about 20% of people have serious immune problems, and they should seek help from clinical immunologists; other physicians won’t be of much help. Such problems include autoimmune disorders, serious allergies, and immunoproliferative diseases. There are also the so-called transistor immunodeficiencies, on which healthy food, good rest, and pure water and air produce such a rehabilitative effect that no pills are necessary.
Is it true that the immune levels of Chornobyl children have turned out to be no lower than those seen in American children?
V.Ch.: Yes. After Choronobyl American scientists assessed the immune systems of Kyiv residents and children of Chornobyl rescue workers, and compared the indices to those registered in the US. Our children’s immune systems are no worse than their US counterparts’. For a long time American researchers couldn’t explain the phenomenon: after all, the Ukrainians had experienced such stresses, and they were living in contaminated areas, etc. Well, this example shows the organism’s compensatory capacity, meaning that it corrects immune defects — and the immune system is most sensitive to radiation. On the other hand, our vegetation contains a number of so-called radioprotectors — chemicals that remove radionuclides. It is no coincidence that the Japanese have been buying Ukrainian dog rose, guelder rose, and blackberries for a long time. Red and yellow berries tend to bind radionuclides, and the same is true of our good old beetroot, carrot, and fatback.
Also, our people appear to worry less about this problem; they have a humorous attitude to it. I have worked in different countries, because our center maintains contacts with Poland, Belgium, Germany, Canada, and the US. Our colleagues are surprised that we can work in such conditions without losing our optimism.
Is the Ukrainian nation genetically strong or weak?
V.Ch.: The Ukrainian gene pool is strong. The reason is not only our fertile land, but also our ethnically mixed population. In different historical periods Eastern and Western peoples conquered Ukraine, which resulted in a mature genetic selection, an issue that is presently of great interest to Western researchers. This gene pool has matured over hundreds of years, producing a fine hardy population. The West doesn’t have the kind of generation linkage that we do, and this is another health-building factor. I remember my grandmother always made us eat pumpkin seeds and pumpkin gruel. We didn’t like it, but years later I saw eight pumpkin oil-based preparations in Germany. I was shocked and remembered our granny. Pumpkin contains lots of zinc and pectins — substances that clean the organism and stimulate the immune system. When it was strawberry and whortleberry season, there was always a glass jar of them on the table. Now we see how eagerly Volyn berries are being exported. In Germany, whortleberry is used in the preparation of a number of medicines.
By the way, specialists in the West are fascinated by another Ukrainian phenomenon. What helps us survive in this stormy world is our love of songs. Western researchers have done studies of opera singers and people who have never sung, who are overwhelmed with work and daily chores. The singers proved to have considerably longer life spans. Interesting studies were carried out at an Austrian oncology clinic, where patients listened to music and were told to sing. Patients who did had considerably better immunity and lived an average of five years longer than patients who didn’t. We have something called the thymus gland behind the neck. It “teaches” the immune system to protect the organism, and it shrinks in size after we reach puberty, meaning that we have to protect children. As for singing, vocal modulations interact with the thymus and some researchers believe that they affect a certain substance — maybe our soul. We cross our hands on our chest at moments of pious inspiration.
Is it true that Ukrainian women are genetically hardier than men?
V.Ch.: Not only Ukrainian women. Nature has programmed and genetically asserted that men fought, while women raised children and took care of the household. They were responsible for the human race. Although men are physically stronger and have a better nervous system, women have a stronger immunity. Just think of the transformations that the female organism has to undergo to accommodate a baby, a transplant, an alien body, and then nurture it, and finally expel it! Imagine how much wiser, hardier, and refined women’s immune systems must be!
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Responding to the question, when should people seek the help of an immunologist, Prof. Chopiak said if you are ill six times a year, if your temperature is a constant 37°C, and there is prolonged swelling of the glands. Patients, even young people, often complain of constant fatigue. This is also reason enough to visit an immunologist. Some children are sick seven or eight times a year, and parents say it’s OK, they’ll get over it with age. If a child has serious allergies and antibiotics do not help, this is when an immunologist should also step in. There is also an interesting method for preventing illness that few people know about.
“When I was an intern at a clinic in Belgium, from the very first day I was surprised to see all the staffers kissing each other when they came to work, when they left for lunch, and when they left work to go home. At first I was confused and embarrassed, but then I was told that Japanese scientists had discovered that kisses serve to enhance immunity by stimulating the production of antibodies that protect against infections. So for the past five years we’ve been kissing like that at the center,” said Prof. Chopiak.
