In remembrance of Eugene Ladislas Kanabrocki (*18 April 1922 • 23 April 2009): A 'General' in the battle of penetrating the normal range and in revealing its relation to the cosmos

Col. Eugene L. (Gene) Kanabrocki, PhD, commanding officer of the 361st Medical Laboratory of the U.S. Army Reserve, together with Col. Lawrence E. (Larry) Scheving, Professor at the University of Arkansas, initiated in May 1969 a linked cross-sectional (hybrid) study at Fort Sam Houston, TX, to examine the oscillatory (circadian) nature of many physiological variables in a group of 13 army men, 22-28 years of age, anticipating that such data would serve, as indeed they did, as time-specified reference values in future investigations of health and aging. In the initial study, 36 variables were examined around the clock in observations at 3-hour intervals. In subsequent 24-hour profiles, mapped in May of 1971 (mostly on new, young subjects, and not officially part of the Aging Project), 1979, 1988, 1993, 1998 and 2003, additional subjects and variables were included. The follow-up studies were conducted at the Hines VA Medical Center in Hines, Illinois. Of the original 13 subjects, four were measured in all 6 studies and another four in 5 of the 6 studies. Three of the eight became diabetic (Type II) and three had vascular circulatory problems. Presently, a bank of circadian data for 187 medically relevant variables of blood (plasma or serum), saliva, urine, vital signs and other variables on the same subjects covers a span of 34 years. Dr. Robert B. Sothern (RBS), of the University of Minnesota, USA, the major analyst of Gene's investigations, in addition to being an add-on subject as he was in three studies, set up the half-hourly monitoring of blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) in the 2003 study that yielded the data suggesting that the standard deviations (SD) of systolic (S) and diastolic (D) BP and HR are influenced by a magnetic storm. Since the standard deviation rather than the amplitude of a vascular spectral component was affected, we may be dealing with a stochastic rather than frequency window-dependent resonance with a magnetic storm. Gene and RBS also found (p<0.08) an about-decadal signature of solar activity in long-acting natriuretic peptide (LANP), vessel dilator (VSDL), insulin, LH, prolactin, T3 uptake and, most importantly, in melatonin (p=0.004), noted solely to constitute a stimulus for follow-up studies, even when resonance occurs in an anticipated Horrebow-Schwabe circadecadal window gauged by relative sunspot (Wolf) numbers and involves many endocrine variables, as anticipated on the basis of independent evidence in melatonin and cortisol. The wealth of circadian information collected in these studies by Gene constitutes a treasure trove of unique advances in the battle of the normal range, with solid contributions also by Prof. Germaine Cornélissen of the University of Minnesota, USA, and by Prof. Ramon C. Hermida of the University of Vigo, Spain.