Christine Pae KING 5

The "Mentally Strong" initiative helps young athletes develop critical coping strategies through sports. SEATTLE — As students head back to school and the fall sports season begins, there's growing recognition that athletic programs can do more than just build physical fitness. A local initiative is using sports to teach young people crucial mental health and coping skills. Preparing for life's inevitable challenges starts at a young age. In a fast-paced world often propelled by social media, taking care of mental health is as important as ever. "Really thinking about, how do you manage stress, how do you get through a stressful moment, how do you deal with big, emotional challenges?" said Dr. Sara Chrisman, a pediatrician and professor of adolescent medicine at the University of Washington School of Medicine. Dr. Chrisman is part of an innovative program based at the UW's Sports Institute that helps young students navigate stress—not only through physical fitness, but through mental stamina. "It's a perfect place to kind of practice some of these skills that help you for life," Chrisman said. Program origins The idea came to her a few years ago while watching teenage Olympic ice skaters struggle emotionally after losing. As Dr. Chrisman puts it, they lacked coping skills for managing failure. "We could use sport as a way of teaching these kinds of coping skills because when you play sports, there's lots of amazing things that happen but they're also stressful. You're going to fail, you're going to miss that goal, you're going to drop the ball and you're going to do it publicly in front of all of these people," Chrisman said. The Sports Institute points out that 40% of teens struggle with depression and anxiety, calling it a crisis. It's also worsened by the pandemic, which Dr. Chrisman said provided an unexpected, natural experiment. "During the pandemic, a lot of sports shut down, and I think parents saw their kids isolated, not physically active, not seeing their friends, and could see the impact of that," Dr. Chrisman said. The "Mentally Strong" program Through a program called "Mentally Strong," the Sports Institute designed an educational tool that trains coaches to teach athletes how to manage stress and reset after tough moments. Rather than using clinical terms like meditation or mindfulness, the program uses sports language, like controlling breathing to help focus and get through challenging moments. "The truth is, it's to be a better athlete, a better student, a better human, because these are really skills for life," Chrisman said. The initiative has been piloted at Ballard, Ingraham, and Garfield high schools in Seattle with the goal of launching an app to support more schools interested in the program. For more information, visit https://thesportsinstitute.com/our-work/mentally-strong/

A Minneapolis family shares their story to raise awareness on the groundbreaking treatment that has helped their daughter. SEATTLE — Artificial intelligence is helping tackle the overwhelming task of treating what's known as "ultra-rare" genetic conditions, many of which lack a cure.  Two-year-old Jorie Kraus has such a condition, known as DeSanto-Shinawi syndrome, a rare genetic disease that affects only dozens of estimated cases worldwide.  Jorie's parents, Dave and Joanie Kraus, are sharing their story to bring awareness to a potential treatment. "I just don't think we would be able to live with ourselves if we have this information, couldn't share it with other people," said father Dave, who splits his time between Twin Cities, Minnesota, and Bellevue, Washington, where he works for Amazon. Doctors at the Mayo Clinic have harnessed the power of AI to develop a personalized treatment for Jorie, calling it a breakthrough. DeSanto-Shinawi syndrome is caused by a missing piece of chromosome 10. It affects heart development and causes severe neurodevelopmental delays. Her parents learned of the diagnosis after Jorie's birth, despite genetic testing after Jorie was conceived via IVF. "When you think you get the testing, you think, oh, I'm gonna have a healthy baby, and they don't realize that that testing only takes care of a small fraction of really what could be when it comes to especially rare diseases or Jorie's case, ultra rare diseases," said Joanie. Unlike other medical challenges the family had faced, this condition presented unique difficulties.  "Everything else had a surgery that she was dealing with. And when it came to this, there was, there was no fix," Dave said.  AI-Driven Drug Discovery The breakthrough came when the Krauses connected with Mayo Clinic doctors Laura Lambert and Whitney Thompson, who utilized the clinic's "BabyFORce" program. The team turned to AI to search through thousands of FDA-approved medications, looking for something that could help Jorie produce more of an important protein that she was missing. The AI identified a commonly-used pediatric neurologic medication that could "upregulate" Jorie's remaining functional gene, essentially boosting production of the protein her body desperately needed. "It's very unlikely that we would have seen it without the AI tool," said Dr. Lambert. Before administering the medication to Jorie, the medical team took an additional precautionary step by testing it on her cells in a laboratory to prove it would work. "What is unique about what we're doing is that we are taking the patient's own cells and taking that extra step of testing the drug in their cells to see if it works before we recommend that it be prescribed to the patient," Dr. Lambert said. "Remarkable Results" Since starting treatment in April, Jorie has shown unprecedented progress. She has gained new skills, including walking with a walker for the first time and saying her first words. Blood tests confirmed that her protein levels have normalized, and a recent MRI showed improvements in her brain. "We've been blown away by how well she's done since starting treatment. So she only started the medication in early April, and even within weeks of starting the medication, we were hearing from her parents that she was gaining new skills," Thompson said.  Future Applications The Mayo Clinic team is now working toward clinical trials to help other children with the same condition and exploring how this AI-driven approach could be applied to other rare genetic diseases. "It gives us a lot of hope too that, you know, not only for this condition, but for other rare genetic conditions, this is a potential approach that could work," Dr. Thompson said. Family's Mission This breakthrough represents a significant advancement in personalized medicine for ultra-rare genetic diseases, potentially opening new pathways for treatment where none previously existed. The Kraus family, motivated by their experience, started a nonprofit called The Jorie Effect to raise funds for this specialized therapy and continue raising hope for Jorie and others facing similar challenges. The family's perspective on their journey reflects the reality many families with medically complex children face.  "Anybody that has a child that's medically complex, I think that's the first thing they'll say is that we don't take anything for granted," Joanie Kraus said.