Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh

Infobox Scientist


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name = Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh


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citizenship = USA
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field = nephrology, internal medicine, nutrition , pediatrics, epidemiology
work_institution = Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
alma_mater = UCLA
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Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh, MD, MPH, PhD (b. November 11, 1963), (also known as Kam Kalantar, pronounced like calendar) is an American physician, clinician scientist, educator, practitioner, consultant and investigator in medicine, nephrology, nutrition and epidemiology.

Kalantar-Zadeh’s controversial hypotheses about the longevity of individuals with chronic disease states, also known as reverse epidemiology, has instigated significant amount of debate and created camps of proponents and opponents across the globe. According to the reverse epidemiology hypothesis, obesity or hypercholesterolemia may counterintuitively be protective and associated with greater survival in certain groups of people, such as elderly individuals, dialysis patients or those with chronic disease states and wasting syndrome (cachexia), whereas normal to low body mass index or normal values of serum cholesterol may be detrimental and associated with worse mortality. This hypothesis is in sharp contradistinction to the conventional cardiovascular epidemiology, as advanced by the Framingham Heart Study, in that obesity and hypercholesterolemia are detrimental in the general population.

Education

Kalantar-Zadeh received his MD degree from the University of Bonn in Germany, an additional “Doctoris medicinae” (Dr. med.) degree from University of Erlangen-Nuremberg in Germany, and a master’s degree in Public Health (Master of Public Health, MPH) and a PhD in epidemiology from University of California Berkeley in Berkeley, California.

A practicing triple board certified physician specialist (internist, pediatrician and nephrologist), he completed his residency at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Brooklyn and his nephrology fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF).

Career

An associate professor of medicine, pediatrics and epidemiology at UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine [http://www.ucla.edu/] , Kalantar-Zadeh is currently based at the Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute [http://www.labiomed.org] at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center [http://www.harbor-ucla.org/] in Torrance, CA, U.S., director of Harold Simmons Center for Kidney Disease Research and Epidemiology, a research center to study improving longevity in individuals with chronic kidney disease, director of dialysis expansion program and epidemiology, and director of Harbor-UCLA Medical Foundation Inc/DaVita dialysis clinic in Long Beach, CA.

Recognized world-wide for his expansive work in the fields of outcome research and epidemiology of patients with chronic disease states including chronic kidney disease ,dialysis andchronic heart failure, Kalantar-Zadeh is considered the pioneering authority in reverse epidemiology including obesity paradox and lipid paradox, as well as burnt-out diabetes mellitus, racial survival paradoxes, malnutrition-inflammation complex, also known as malnutrition-inflammation-cachexia syndrome (MICS), protein-energy wasting, kidney disease wasting, kidney bone disease and the role of alkaline phosphatase, anemia of inflammation, iron deficiency, acid-base disorders and hypoalbuminemia. Kalantar-Zadeh's innovations and hypotheses have had significant impact in advancing the new field of cachexia in chronic disease states, although his claims about instigating a paradigm shift is questionable.

He has written several book chapters and over 120 Medline cited research articles in various areas of medicine and science. Kalantar-Zadeh lectures frequently on non-traditional cardiovascular risk factors in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD), including malnutrition-inflammation complex, wasting syndrome, reverse epidemiology, obesity paradox, mineral and bone disorders, anemia, iron deficiency, health-related quality of life and acid-base homeostasis.

Honors

Kalantar-Zadeh has received the 2007 annual National Kidney Foundation (NKF) Joel D Kopple award in renal nutrition, and career awards and grants from organizations such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) [http://www.nih.gov] , the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) [http://www.kidney.org] , and the American Heart Association (AHA) [http://www.americanheart.org] .

Listed or mentioned in several national directories of topphysicians in the USA including America’s Top Doctors® by Castle Connolly Medical Ltd [http://www.castleconnolly.com] , Best Doctors® [http://www.BestDoctors.com] and America’s Top Physicians, Kalantar-Zadeh is recognized for providing medical care to dialysis patients and kidney transplant recipients as well as those with chronic kidney disease or acute kidney injury.

He has been a council or committee member of several professional associations, including the “American Society of Nephrology” [http://www.asn-online.com/] , National Kidney Foundation [http://www.kidney.org/] , and International Society of Renal Nutrition and Metabolism [http://www.renalnutrition.com] ; and has served as a member of the editorial board of several journals including the “Journal of American Society of Nephrology” [http://www.jasn.org] , “American Journal of Nephrology”, “Advances in Chronic Kidney Disease” [http://www.ACKDjournal.org] , “Journal of Renal Nutrition”, “Clinical Nephrology”, “International Urology & Nephrology”, “Central European Journal of Medicine” and “Renal & Urology News [http://www.renalandurologynews.com] .

Others

A multi-disciplinarian, apart from medical science and epidemiology, Kalantar-Zadeh has interests in paradigm shifts in science, business economics, strategies and information systems, as well as molecular biology, medical genetics and bioinformatics. He is known for his activist politics, his support of environmentalist causes, anti-racism initiatives, and civil rights and civil liberties.

He lives in Palos Verdes, California, with his wife, Dr. H. Grace, a clinical pharmacist of Korean American heritage; and three young daughters Sara, Diana and Hannah. His brother, Kourosh Kalantar-Zadeh, is a nanotechnology scientist investigator in Australia.

References

* Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
* UCLA
* [http://www.kalantar.com/ Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh's homepage]
* [http://in-cites.com/scientists/KamyarKalantar-Zadeh.html InCite Interview with Kalantar-Zadeh about Reverse Epidemiology]
* [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=search&db=pubmed&term=kalantar-zadeh%20k%5BAU%5D PubMed publications of K. Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh]
* [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=search&db=pubmed&term=reverse_epidemiology PubMed publications about reverse epidemiology]
* [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=search&db=pubmed&term=obesity_paradox PubMed publications about obesity paradox]
* [http://www.cachexia.com/ Cachexia Society]
* [http://www.NIEDstudy.org/ Nutrition & Inflammation Evaluation in Dialysis (NIED) Study]

Persondata
NAME= Kalantar-Zadeh, Kamyar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES=
SHORT DESCRIPTION=American Nephrology
DATE OF BIRTH= 1963-11-11
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DATE OF DEATH=
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