Assistant Professor of Medicine Dr. Ali Javaheri was featured in an article titled “Translating metabolic and cardiovascular research into effective treatments: What’s next?” In a special 50th Anniversary edition of the journal Cell.
Javaheri was among 10 scientists asked to comment on the future of cardiac metabolism research. His thoughts appear under the heading “Food as medicine and for thought”.
“We are at the dawn of a new specialty in cardiovascular medicine: cardiovascular endocrinology. But will this specialty take a one-size-fits-all approach or embrace the future with personalized nutrition? The complex nature of gene-environment interactions along with the realization of the diversity of the microbiome has led to juxtaposed and daunting implications. First, what we eat, beyond the calories consumed, has profound implications on our health. Second, although we can identify generally healthy habits, achieving optimal cardiometabolic health on an individual basis requires a personalized approach to nutrition, and therefore, despite years of research, we have little idea how to determine what and when one individual should eat. To me, this is the most salient question—given what we know about the uniqueness of each individual, how will we determine optimal personalized nutrition approaches? One might suggest that pharmaceutical alternatives such as GLP-1 agonists will transform obesity and cardiometabolic disease, and that therefore, as these interventions become more ubiquitous and cost-effective, the overall impact of personalized approaches to nutrition and health will actually be diminished. These dueling narratives—the ability to take an ultra-personalized approach to health and nutrition vs. the utilization of pharmacotherapy as a panacea—will shape the future of cardiovascular endocrinology. The ability to identify which individuals will optimally benefit will require engagement with healthcare teams across the spectrum of medicine.”
View entire article here.