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Presentation: Dietary Factors, NAFLD, and Metabolic Syndrome
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Time: Friday Afternoon
Purpose: To demonstrate the role of fructose in the pathogenesis of metabolic syndrome
Objectives:
Discuss the change in dietary patterns in children over the past 30 years
Recognize the differences and similarities between hepatic glucose vs. ethanol vs. fructose metabolism
Explain reactive oxygen species formation and cell damage along with the role of fructose in this process
Current Positions:
Professor of Clinical Pediatrics, Division of Endocrinology, UCSF
Director, Weight Assessment for Teen and Child Health (WATCH) Program, UCSF
Bio
Robert H. Lustig, M.D. is Professor of Clinical Pediatrics in the Division of Endocrinology, and Director of the Weight Assessment for Teen and Child Health (WATCH) Program at UCSF. Dr. Lustig is a neuroendocrinologist, with basic and clinical training relative to hypothalamic development, anatomy, and function. For the last decade, Dr. Lustig’s clinical research has focused on the regulation of energy balance by the central nervous system. He is currently investigating the contribution of biochemical, neural, hormonal, and genetic influences in the expression of the current obesity epidemic both in children and adults. He is interested in the hypothalamic signal transduction of the hormones insulin and leptin, how these two systems interact, and how they become dysfunctional in obesity. He is studying the interplay between the changes in the nutritional environment and defective hormone signaling; in particular, the role of fructose and lack of fiber in the genesis of the metabolic syndrome. He is assessing the cardiovascular morbidity associated with insulin excess, and developing methods to evaluate and prevent this phenomenon in children. He is analyzing the utility of assessing insulin dynamics in targeting obesity diagnosis and pharmacotherapy. He is also researching the utility of laparoscopic truncal vagotomy in the treatment of morbid obesity in adults and children.
Dr. Lustig graduated from MIT in 1976, and received his M.D. from Cornell University Medical College in 1980. He completed his pediatric residency at St. Louis Children’s Hospital in 1983, and his pediatric endocrine fellowship at UCSF in 1984. From there, he spent six years as a research associate in neuroendocrinology at The Rockefeller University. He has been on the faculty both at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and at the University of Tennessee and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis.
Dr. Lustig has authored 80 peer-reviewed articles and 40 chapter and reviews. He has mentored 20 pediatric endocrine fellows, and trained numerous other allied health professionals. He provides endocrinologic support to several protocols of the Children’s Oncology Group. He is the former Chairman of the Ad hoc Obesity Task Force of the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society, and currently a member of the Pediatric Obesity Practice Guidelines Subcommittee of The Endocrine Society, a member of the Obesity Task Force of the Endocrine Society, a member of the Pediatric Obesity Devices Committee of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and a member of the Steering Committee of the International Endocrine Alliance to Combat Obesity. He is also the Endocrine and Obesity representative to the Program Committee of the Pediatric Academic Societies. He provides consultation for several childhood obesity local and national advocacy groups, including the San Francisco Dept. of Public Health Childhood Obesity Task Force.