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Boston University School of Public Health

Free and open to the public

In memory of Dr. William J. Bicknell, Founder and Chair Emeritus of the Department of International Health.

Bicknell endowed this annual lectureship to provide “a periodic but regular infusion of iconoclasts and original thinkers who will bring ideas to students and faculty that stretch, upset, stimulate, and leave us with renewed energy and commitment to make a real difference in the lives of the poor and the underserved.”

Should Alcohol Consumption Be Encouraged as Part of a Healthy Lifestyle?

A Debate

Over the past three decades, more than 100 large, long-term prospective studies have shown positive cardiovascular effects from moderate alcohol consumption of one or two drinks per day. Health professionals are increasingly feeling pressure to promote limited alcohol consumption as part of a healthy diet. But do the significant potential risks associated with increased alcohol consumption – higher incidence of dependence, accidents, and overall mortality – outweigh the potential health benefits?

Questions: kara@bu.edu

Moderator

Martha M. Werler, DSc, MPH

Professor and Chair, Epidemiology Boston University School of Public Health

Dr. Martha Werler became Chair of Epidemiology in July of this year after more than 28 years at the Slone Epidemiology Center at Boston University. She is a perinatal epidemiologist whose research is supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and includes projects on maternal serum markers of infection and abdominal wall defects; gene-environment interactions and clubfoot; medications, folic acid intake, and inheritance in relation to spina bifida; biomarkers of hemostasis, vasculogenesis, and vitamin A pathways in relation to craniofacial anomalies; and psycho-social and cognitive outcomes in children born with craniofacial birth defects. She has published more than 150 papers and book chapters; received the National Birth Defect Prevention Network Oakley Award, the Society for Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiologic Research Mentoring Award, and the Teratology Society Fraser Award; and served on numerous NIH advisory and review boards. Dr. Werler is Director of the BU Reproductive, Perinatal, and Pediatric Epidemiology training program for pre-doctoral candidates in Epidemiology and teaches Design and Conduct of Case- Control Studies.

Panelists

Proposer

R. Curtis Ellison, MD, MS

Professor of Medicine & Public Health Director, Institute on Lifestyle & Health Boston University School of Medicine Scientific Co-Director, International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research

Dr. R. Curtis Ellison has been Professor of Medicine and Public Health at Boston University School of Medicine since 1989 and is former chief of the Evans Section of Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology. He holds degrees from Davidson College, the Medical University of South Carolina, and Harvard School of Public Health. With training in internal medicine, cardiology, and epidemiology, Dr. Ellison serves as a senior investigator in the Framingham Heart Study and has been the principal investigator of a number of research studies on the interaction of genetic and environmental factors in determining the risk of cardiovascular diseases. In 1994, Dr. Ellison established and became the director of the Institute on Lifestyle and Health at Boston University School of Medicine, which was formed to review and critique emerging reports on alcohol and health. In 2010, the institute expanded into the International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research, which Dr. Ellison founded and continues to serve as scientific co-director. With input from 40 international scientists working in the field, the forum reviews and evaluates emerging research on alcohol and health and regularly publishes critiques on its website, International Scientific Forum on Alcohol Research.

Second

Lionel Tiger, PhD

Charles Darwin Professor Emeritus Department of Anthropology Rutgers University

Dr. Lionel Tiger, the Charles Darwin Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Rutgers, conducts multifaceted research that develops evolutionary perspectives on human behavior and institutions in industrial and postindustrial society. One of his current projects is developing the relationship between neurophysiology and religious behavior and social structures with Dr. Michael McGuire, Director of the Neuropsychiatric Institute at the UCLA Medical School; the team presented a paper in 2007 to the Gruter Institute for Legal and Behavioral Research on links between religion and the brain. Dr. Tiger continues to deliver many lectures to diverse groups including the Institute of Contemporary Art (London), the Harvard Faculty Club, the American Museum of Natural History, Mount Sinai Hospital, and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Navy at the Center for Naval Analysis (Arlington). His topics range from “Men in the Changing Worlds of Production and Reproduction” to “Is Religion the Human Default?” “Alcohol and Pleasure,” “The Decline of Males,” “What Would Darwin Say?” and “Primordial Social Skills.”

Opposer

Richard Saitz, MD, MPH

Professor and Chair Department of Community Health Sciences Boston University School of Public Health Professor of Medicine Boston University School of Medicine

Dr. Richard Saitz is a general internist and primary care physician, chair and professor of Community Health Sciences at Boston University School of Public Health, and professor of medicine at Boston University School of Medicine. He is certified by the American Boards of Internal Medicine and Addiction Medicine and is editor of a leading textbook on addiction medicine. Dr. Saitz has authored more than 160 peer-reviewed scientific articles. His primary areas of expertise and research are early identification and brief intervention for unhealthy alcohol and other drug use, integrating substance-related and general health care, and improving the quality of care for people with addictions across the spectrum of use, particularly in general medical care settings. Among his honors are the Boston Jaycees Ten Outstanding Young Leaders Award, Best Doctors in America®, the R. Brinkley Smithers Distinguished Scientist Award (American Society of Addiction Medicine), and the Research Society on Alcoholism Distinguished Scientist Award.

Second

Timothy Naimi, MD, MPH

Associate Professor of Medicine Associate Professor of Public Health BU Schools of Medicine & Public Health

Dr. Timothy Naimi is a physician and alcohol epidemiologist at Boston Medical Center (BMC) and an associate professor at the Boston University Schools of Medicine and Public Health. Dr. Naimi received his bachelor’s degree from Harvard College, his MD from the University of Massachusetts, and his MPH from the Harvard School of Public Health. He completed a combined internal medicine-pediatrics residency program at Massachusetts General Hospital and a preventive medicine residency at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Prior to BMC, Dr. Naimi worked as a clinician for the US Indian Health Service and as a senior epidemiologist with the Alcohol Team at CDC. His current research interests, for which he receives grant support from the National Institutes of Health and CDC, include binge drinking, youth drinking, health effects of low-dose ethanol, and the impact of alcohol control policies on youth and adult alcohol consumption patterns. He has co-authored more than 70 published manuscripts and book chapters.