Day 033 - 10 Oct 94 - Page 03
1 Q. If we go into a little bit of background; what is your
2 medical background?
3 A. I attended medical school at the George Washington
4 University in Washington DC. I got my MD degree in 1980.
5 Following that, I did a general internship which then
6 transitioned into a residency in psychiatry, which
7 I completed in 1984 and began medical practice in 1984; I
8 have been in continuous practice since that time.
9
10 Q. That practice or that work that you did, was that mostly
11 psychiatric work?
12 A. My medical practice was and is. However, I have done
13 a considerable body of work both in terms -- well,
14 particularly in terms of research and writing in the area
15 of nutrition, nutrition and its role in chronic disease,
16 and investigating factors that assist dietary changes to
17 prevent chronic disease and reviewing research relating to
18 those topics.
19
20 Q. Just before we go into that, is there any family
21 background which has sharpened your interest in that
22 field?
23 A. Well, my father was a specialist in diabetes, and
24 I might say, however, the rest of my family is cattle
25 ranchers -- it has been the family business -- however, my
26 father's specialty in diabetes I think, perhaps, peaked my
27 interest in looking at medicine and in ways to prevent
28 illnesses that take quite a toll, both in the United
29 States and elsewhere.
30
31 Q. Is he still alive, your father?
32 A. He, regrettably, has cancer at the moment, but he is
33 doing reasonably well.
34
35 Q. Your first job, did that have any -- your first medical
36 position, what was that?
37 A. Well, that would have been before I went to medical
38 school. I had a position in a hospital in Minneapolis,
39 Minnesota, where I worked as an assistant at autopsies in
40 which the cause of death was to be determined; and over
41 the course of a year I was quite impressed with diseases
42 that might be theoretical to other people. When you
43 actually take a colon cancer out, or take out a prostate
44 tumour, or breast cancer, or you look into a person's
45 skull and see what a stroke looks like -- these things
46 become quite graphic. I became quite concerned about what
47 factors might avert these conditions.
48
49 Q. So it is true to say that you have had a continuing
50 interest from that time in 1975 on such matters?
51 A. Yes, with a particular interest in how can these
52 problems be prevented.
53
54 Q. What positions in terms of psychiatry did you reach?
55 A. As I was finishing my training, I was promoted to the
56 faculty of the George Washington University before I
57 had completed my training, which is a bit unusual; but
58 I was in charge of emergency psychiatry, after which
59 I moved to New York City and ran a psychiatric unit, my
60 first year in practice. But it was there that I became
