Director:
Elliot M Berry MD, FRCP

Staff
Research Director:
Yosefa Avraham Ph.D

Research Associates:
Dgal Dubnov MSc, MD
Shu Hao MD, MPH
Zehava Kluger Ph.D
Shai Shoham Ph.D

Clinical Activities
This unit deals with problems of clinical nutrition, in particular those associated with weight regulation. A multidisciplinary team of physicians, dieticians, psychiatrists and psychologists provide outpatient treatment for patients with obesity and the more severe eating disorders of anorexia and bulimia.

Teaching Activities
Teaching includes a separate course of lectures for students of medicine, pharmacology and nursing. There is also a Masters course in Nutrition and Metabolism as well as a course in public health nutrition for the international MPH course.

Research Activities
Disorders of body weight regulation. The effect of nutrition on cognitive function. Animal models of anorexia. The biological regulation of the antioxidant system in man. Mediterranean Diet and disease.

Research Topics

1. Models of anorexia through diet restriction, activity and separation stress. The effect of tyrosine and anandamide on behavior and brain neurochemistry in mice. We suggest that lack of nutritionally derived precursors (aminoacids) neurotransmitters contribute to some of the neuro-behavioral consequences of semi-starvation as in anorexia nervosa. We have developed the three above models to mimic aspects of the clinical disease to study the effects of nutrition on cognitive function.

2. Diet and brain function in Man. This is an on-going collaborative, longitudinal study with the University of Cambridge, UK to analyze dietary habits and cognitive function in over 4000 healthy people. The findings are relevant for recommending optimal diets to help preserve mental function in the elderly.

3. Exercise in the treatment of obesity. This study is in collaboration with the Wingate Institute for Physical Activity to determine the metabolic effects of exercise and caloric restriction in the management of severe obesity.

4. Diet and disease: the role of antioxidants. Although antioxidants are considered protective against heart disease and cancer, supplementation is not always beneficial. We are among the first to suggest that there may be interaction and regulation between the many different antioxidant species in particular vitamins E and C and how this may impact on lipid peroxidation in heart disease and cancer. This includes the "benefits" of olive oil (oleic acid) and the Mediterranean diet.

Future Projects
Establishing a Center at Hadassah and the Hebrew University for the multidisciplinary treatment of Lifestyle, Eating and Weight Disorders. There would be an outpatient facility, inpatient treatment (separate from the closed psychiatry setting) and research coordination of neuro-psycho-biology projects. The center would also deal with prevention of lifestyle diseases dependent on obesity, such as heart disease and diabetes requiring the combined therapeutic modalities of nutrition, exercise and behaviour modification.

Tel: (02)7588298