Scott M.
Grundy, MD, PhD, has received the 1997 Bristol-Myers Squibb/Mead
Johnson Award for Distinguished Achievement in Nutrition Research. Dr
Grundy was the first researcher to demonstrate the advantages of
substituting monounsaturated fats for
polyunsaturated fats in the diet. Dr Grundy's work led to an increase
in the use of olive oil and similar oils in the American cuisine. He
has also made other important discoveries relating to the mechanisms
that control blood cholesterol. Among his findings were
those that led to the development and widespread use of statins—drugs
that lower lipids in the blood.
Dr Grundy is a professor of Internal Medicine and Biochemistry at the
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. He is also
director and chairman for the Center for Human Nutrition and the
Department of Clinical Nutrition at the medical school. His work began
in the 1960s, when he contributed to the development of the
cholesterol balance technique, a method of precisely
measuring the amount of cholesterol that people absorb in
their daily diets and how cholesterol is processed and
distributed in the human body. Ultimately, he showed that the
redistribution rather than the excretion of cholesterol is
the most effective way of lowering lipid levels in the blood. The
redistribution occurs in response to a diet high in polyunsaturated
fat. It is now known that fats increase the number of receptors in the
liver for LDL cholesterol—receptors that literally pull
cholesterol out of the blood and turn it into bile
acids.
Dr Grundy's
© 1998 American Heart Association, Inc.
Cardiovascular News
Award for Dr Scott Grundy