Dr. F.A. Murphy & Mad Cow
Disease, the BSE Epidemic in Great Britain
The announcement by British health authorities that bovine
spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), also known as mad cow
disease, may have been transmitted to humans has led to a
chaotic situation in the UK with ripple effects occurring
throughout Europe and the rest of the world. What is BSE and
what is its relation to scrapie in sheep and Creutzfeldt-Jakob
disease (CJD) in humans?
Dr. Dennis Bier & USDA Diet
Guidelines
Every five years the USDA releases new dietary
guidelines. Every time they do this the guidelines are different
from the ones before. This is because a panel of experts from
across the country considers thousands of new studies and forms
a consensus based on that data. I spoke with one of the panel
members, Dennis Bier, M.D. about the new guidelines. Check the
resource guide at the end of the interview for more
information.
Food For Thought: An Interview with
Nutrition Scientist Dr. Paul Saltman
We are barraged by the media with endless claims and promises
about the value or risks of what we eat and drink and what we
take in the way of dietary supplements. Where is the science? I
spoke with nutrition science authority Dr. Paul Saltman,
professor of biology at UCSD, and author of various texts and
popular books about the science of nutrition, in an effort to
separate some nutrition facts from food fiction.
I. Persson Discusses Hormone
Replacement and Cancer Risk
Even the most complicated scientific studies depend on the
fundamentals of good design and methodology. When the studies
are epidemiological in nature, the picture becomes even more
complex. Recent epidemiologic studies have produced contrasting
results regarding the potential risk of hormone replacement
therapy and risk of breast cancer in menopausal women. How does
one go about sifting the scientific wheat from the statistical
chaff? I asked noted breast cancer researcher and epidemiologist
Ingemaar Persson, M.D., of the department of cancer
epidemiology, University of Uppsala, Sweden, to clarify some of
these issues.
An Interview with
Dr. F. A. Murphy, Ebola Virus expert
The book "The Hot Zone" and the film "Outbreak" have seized
the public's imagination and brought into focus many issues
regarding the very real threats posed by new and emerging
diseases. In this interview we talk with Frederick A. Murphy,
D.V.M., Ph.D., Dean of School of Veterinary Medicine, UC Davis.
At the time of the 'Reston incident', Dr. Murphy was the director
of the National Center for Infectious Diseases at the CDC in
Atlanta. Dr. Murphy is considered one of the world authorities on
viruses. He was the first one to look at Ebola virus
'face-to-face' in the electron microscope. Dr. Murphy appears in
"The Hot Zone" and his now famous photo of the Ebola virus
appears in the film "Outbreak".
An
Interview with Epidemiologist Dr. Charles Hennekens
An interview with noted epidemiologist Charles Hennekens, M.D.,
Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, and Chief,
Division of Preventive Medicine, Brigham and Women's Hospital,
Boston, MA.
We are bombarded with endless, sometimes conflicting, media
reports announcing that this food is good for you or that
activity is bad for you. Where do these claims originate and how
much scientific merit do they have? For example, most of us have
heard that low doses of aspirin taken over the long term
significantly reduce the risk for
heart attack. Dr. Hennekens is the director of the Physicians'
Health Study, the large long-term study which demonstrated
conclusively that aspirin did reduce the chance of a first heart
attack in middle-age men. Another part of that trial is
evaluating the potential role for the antioxidant vitamin
beta-carotene in protecting against heart disease
and cancer, and will be completed next year. I caught up with
Dr. Hennekens at the annual meeting of the American Heart
Association in Dallas and asked him to elaborate on the science
of public health.
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