Changes in Bile Acid Subtypes and Improvements in Lipid Metabolism and Atherosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease Risk: The POUNDS Lost trial.
Heianza Y, Xue Q, Rood J, Clish CB, Bray GA, Sacks FM, Qi L.
Am J Clin Nutr. 2024 Feb 28. PMID: 38428740
Professor of Cardiovascular Disease Prevention and Medicine, Emeritus
Nutrition
Professor of Medicine
Medicine-Brigham and Women's Hospital
Harvard Medical School
Dr. Sacks is Professor of Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, Department of Nutrition, Harvard School of Public Health. He is also Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, and a senior attending physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital where he has had a specialty clinic in hyperlipidemia with the cardiovascular division. He is involved in research and public policy in nutrition, cholesterol disorders, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease.
His research program is a combination of laboratory research on human lipoprotein metabolism, and clinical trials in nutrition and cardiovascular disease. The laboratory research concerns the acute and long-term effects of diet on the function of lipoproteins including VLDL, LDL and HDL in humans; and biochemical epidemiology of lipoprotein particle types and CVD. His laboratory is studying HDL speciation based on content of specific proteins, and recently discovered that a type of HDL that contains apolipoprotein C-III predicted higher rates of heart disease, the opposite to the protective relation for the total HDL.Dr. Sacks was Chair of the Design Committee of the DASH study where the DASH diet was designed, and Chair of the Steering Committee for the DASH-Sodium trial. These multi-center National Heart Lung and Blood Institute trials found major beneficial additive effects of low salt and a dietary pattern rich in fruits and vegetables on blood pressure. Dr. Sacks was Co-Chair of the OmniHeart Trial, a multicenter feeding trial that found that a variation of the DASH diet that is higher in protein or unsaturated fat diets further improved blood pressure and lipid risk factors compared to the lower fat DASH-type diet. Dr. Sacks was Principal Investigator of an NIH funded trial on dietary approaches for weight loss and maintenance, the PoundsLost trial. In this trial, 4 diets varying in protein, carbohydrate and fat content were tested in 811 overweight people for 2 years. The diets had the same beneficial effects on weight loss, and all favorably affected risk factors for cardiovascular disease. Dr. Sacks is principal investigator of a new trial that is evaluating the effect of carbohydrate, type and amount, on insulin resistance and cardiovascular risk factors. Dr. Sacks published a clinical review on dietary treatment of hypertension in New England Journal of Medicine. This review emphasized that optimizing diet quality, including sodium reduction, can eliminate the age-related rise in blood pressure with age in just 4 weeks, as shown in new analyses in the DASH-Sodium trial.
Dr. Sacks is active in national and international committees and conferences in dietary and drug treatments of dyslipidemia, and nutrition and health guidelines. He was Chair of the American Heart Association Nutrition Committee which advises the AHA on nutrition policy. He was a member of the Hypertriglyceridemia Guidelines Committee of the Endocrine Society. He was a member of the Lifestyle Working Group of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute, which designed the American Heart Association guidelines for diet and exercise . Dr. Sacks teaches at Harvard School of Public Health as course director for nutritional biochemistry and for scientific writing. Dr. Sacks received the 2011 Research Achievement Award of the American Heart Association for lifetime research accomplishment.
Dr. Sacks has published 220 original research articles and 88 reviews, editorials, and letters.
2011 Research Achievement Award
American Heart Association
Heianza Y, Xue Q, Rood J, Clish CB, Bray GA, Sacks FM, Qi L.
Am J Clin Nutr. 2024 Feb 28. PMID: 38428740
Wu R, Williams C, Zhou J, Schlackow I, Emberson J, Reith C, Keech A, Robson J, Armitage J, Gray A, Simes J, Baigent C, Mihaylova B, Armitage J, Baigent C, Barnes E, Blackwell L, Collins R, Davies K, Emberson J, Fulcher J, Halls H, Herrington WG, Holland L, Keech A, Kirby A, Mihaylova B, O'Connell R, Preiss D, Reith C, Simes J, Wilson K, Blazing M, Braunwald E, Lemos J, Murphy S, Pedersen TR, Pfeffer M, White H, Wiviott S, Clearfield M, Downs JR, Gotto A, Weis S, Fellström B, Holdaas H, Jardine A, Pedersen TR, Gordon D, Davis B, Furberg C, Grimm R, Pressel S, Probstfield JL, Rahman M, Simpson L, Koren M, Dahlöf B, Gupta A, Poulter N, Sever P, Wedel H, Knopp RH, Cobbe S, Fellström B, Holdaas H, Jardine A, Schmieder R, Zannad F, Betteridge DJ, Colhoun HM, Durrington PN, Fuller J, Hitman GA, Neil A, Braunwald E, Davis B, Hawkins CM, Moyé L, Pfeffer M, Sacks F, Kjekshus J, Wedel H, Wikstrand J, Wanner C, Krane V, Franzosi MG, Latini R, Lucci D, Maggioni A, Marchioli R, Nicolis EB, Tavazzi L, Tognoni G, Bosch J, Lonn E, Yusuf S, Armitage J, Bowman L, Collins R, Keech A, Landray M, Parish S, Peto R, Sleight P, Kastelein JJ, Pedersen TR, Glynn R, Gotto A, Kastelein JJ, Koenig W, MacFadyen J, Ridker PM, Keech A, MacMahon S, Marschner I, Tonkin A, Shaw J, Simes J, White H, Serruys PW, Knatterud G, Blauw GJ, Cobbe S, Ford I, Macfarlane P, Packard C, Sattar N, Shepherd J, Trompet S, Braunwald E, Cannon CP, Murphy S, Collins R, Armitage J, Bowman L, Bulbulia R, Haynes R, Parish S, Peto R, Sleight P, Amarenco P, Welch KM, Kjekshus J, Pedersen TR, Wilhelmsen L, Barter P, Gotto A, LaRosa J, Kastelein JJ, Shepherd J, Cobbe S, Ford I, Kean S, Macfarlane P, Packard C, Roberston M, Sattar N, Shepherd J, Young R, Arashi H, Clarke R, Flather M, Goto S, Goldbourt U, Hopewell J, Hovingh GK, Kitas G, Newman C, Sabatine MS, Schwartz GG, Smeeth L, Tobert J, Varigos J, Yamamguchi J.
Br J Gen Pract. 2024 Feb 19. PMID: 38373851
Xue Q, Heianza Y, Li X, Wang X, Ma H, Rood J, Dorans KS, Mills KT, Liu X, Bray GA, Sacks FM, Qi L.
Clin Nutr. 2024 Mar. 43(3):892-899. PMID: 38382419
Zheng C, Andraski AB, Khoo C, Furtado JD, Sacks FM.
Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2024 02. 44(2):435-451. PMID: 38126174
Heianza Y, Zhou T, Wang X, Furtado JD, Appel LJ, Sacks FM, Qi L.
Diabetologia. 2024 Mar. 67(3):506-515. PMID: 38052941
Li X, Shao X, Kou M, Wang X, Ma H, Grundberg E, Bazzano LA, Smith SR, Bray GA, Sacks FM, Qi L.
Diabetes Care. 2023 Dec 01. 46(12):2201-2207. PMID: 37770056
Andraski AB, Sacks FM, Aikawa M, Singh SA.
Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol. 2024 01. 44(1):76-88. PMID: 38031838
Gangwar A, Deodhar SS, Saldanha S, Melander O, Abbasi F, Pearce RW, Collier TS, McPhaul MJ, Furtado JD, Sacks FM, Merrill NJ, McDermott JE, Melchior JT, Rohatgi A.
Int J Mol Sci. 2023 Oct 24. 24(21). PMID: 37958510
Gu X, Drouin-Chartier JP, Sacks FM, Hu FB, Rosner B, Willett WC.
Am J Clin Nutr. 2023 12. 118(6):1153-1163. PMID: 38044023
Qi L, Heianza Y, Li X, Sacks FM, Bray GA.
Nutrients. 2023 Aug 21. 15(16). PMID: 37630855
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