the silliness of it all

[Guest guest]

what conclusions i wonder could we draw from this sad event, perhaps

not unlike atkins but most certainly on the other side of the fence:

 

Dr. Lynn Allan Smaha, 63, Who Saw Bad Habits as Heart Risk, Is Dead

 

By JEREMY PEARCE Published: April 20, 2006

New York Times

 

Dr. Lynn A. Smaha, an interventional cardiologist and former

president of the American Heart Association who drew attention to

behavioral factors in the prevention of heart disease, died on April

14 at his home in Penn Yan, N.Y. He was 63. The cause was a heart

attack. Dr. Smaha was a runner and had been exercising before he

collapsed, his family said. As president of the heart association

from 1999 to 2000, he acknowledged the technological advances in

heart treatments while warning of the human factors that continued to

undermine them. At a national conference on cardiovascular disease

held in Atlanta in 2000, Dr. Smaha (pronounced SMAH-hah) said that

medication and exercise could help control high blood pressure,

obesity and other risk factors, but "our ability as a society to

effectively apply what we know works against heart disease is

abysmal." Dr. Smaha added, "We have the treatments; we're just not

applying them." In the same year, he warned of the risks of smoking

marijuana, after a study found that middle-aged users experienced a

rapid jump in heart rate and a fivefold increase in their risk for a

heart attack. The study was conducted by researchers at Harvard,

Massachusetts General Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical

Center in Boston. After stepping down from his role at the heart

association, Dr. Smaha continued to be an advocate for more active

patient involvement in heart therapy. He practiced cardiology with

the Guthrie Clinic, a group practice, in Sayre, Pa. Lynn Allan Smaha

was born in Marshalltown, Iowa. He attended Iowa State before earning

his master's and medical degrees from the University of Iowa. In

1971, he also received a doctorate in anatomy from the University of

Iowa. Dr. Smaha joined the Guthrie Clinic in 1978 and served as the

clinic's president from 1990 to 1998. He was president of Robert

Packer Hospital, also in Sayre, from 1987 to 1989. Dr. Smaha also

taught at Cornell University and at Hahnemann University's medical

school. The American Heart Association honored him with its

distinguished service award in 2001. Dr. Smaha is survived by his

wife of 29 years, Angie. A previous marriage ended in divorce. He is

also survived by three daughters, Nicole, of Philadelphia; Tonya, of

Marshalltown; and Heather, of Wilkes-Barre, Pa.; by a brother, Mark,

of Poulsbo, Wash.; and by two stepsons, Scott Olmstead of Buffalo and

Bryan Olmstead of Albany.

Caldecott

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