A. Heather Eliassen | |
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Alma mater | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Dartmouth College |
Scientific career | |
Institutions | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Harvard Medical School Brigham and Women’s Hospital |
Thesis | Lifestyle factors and risk of breast cancer (2004) |
Doctoral advisor | Susan Hankinson |
A. Heather Eliassen is an American public health researcher who is a Professor of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her research considers the epidemiology of breast cancer and the identification of modifiable risk factors to reduce breast cancer risk.
Eliassen studied history at Dartmouth College. [1] She moved to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health for graduate studies, where she majored in epidemiology. Her doctoral research considered lifestyle factors for breast cancer, which she investigated alongside Susan Hankinson. [2]
Eliassen studies lifestyle factors and breast cancer risk. [3] She made use of the Nurses' Health Study to better understand how women adapt their lifestyles to reduce their risk of breast cancer. She showed that adolescent consumption of red meat was associated with premenopausal breast cancer, whilst intake of poultry resulted in a lower risk. [4] Additionally, she showed that high fiber [5] cruciferous and orange vegetables reduce the risk of breast cancer. [6] [7]
Eliassen's research has shown that weight loss and increased exercise can reduce breast cancer risk after menopause. [1] [8] [9] She also showed that increased levels of carotenoids in blood reduced breast cancer risk, with low risk of lethal breast cancer in people with high levels of carotenoids. Eliassen showed that high levels of circulating trans fatty acids was positively correlated with breast cancer risk, which was particularly high for overweight women. [1]
In 2007, Eliassen was made Director of the Brigham and Women's Hospital Biorepository and in 2009 Associated Director of the Nurses' Health Study. [10] [11]
In nutrition, biology, and chemistry, fat usually means any ester of fatty acids, or a mixture of such compounds, most commonly those that occur in living beings or in food.
The Mediterranean diet is a diet inspired by the eating habits and traditional food typical of southern Spain, southern Italy, and Crete, and formulated in the early 1960s. It is distinct from Mediterranean cuisine, which covers the actual cuisines of the Mediterranean countries. While inspired by a specific time and place, the "Mediterranean diet" was later refined based on the results of multiple scientific studies.
The Women's Health Initiative (WHI) was a series of clinical studies initiated by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1991, to address major health issues causing morbidity and mortality in postmenopausal women. It consisted of three clinical trials (CT) and an observational study (OS). In particular, randomized controlled trials were designed and funded that addressed cardiovascular disease, cancer, and osteoporosis.
The abortion–breast cancer hypothesis posits that having an induced abortion can increase the risk of getting breast cancer. This hypothesis is at odds with mainstream scientific opinion and is rejected by major medical professional organizations; despite this, it continues to be widely propagated as pseudoscience, typically in service of an anti-abortion agenda.
Alcohol causes cancers of the oesophagus, liver, breast, colon, oral cavity, rectum, pharynx and laryngeal cancers, and probably causes cancers of the pancreas. Consumption of alcohol in any quantity can cause cancer. The more alcohol is consumed, the higher the cancer risk, and no amount can be considered safe. Alcoholic beverages were classified as a Group 1 carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in 1988.
The Nurses' Health Study is a series of prospective studies that examine epidemiology and the long-term effects of nutrition, hormones, environment, and nurses' work-life on health and disease development. The studies have been among the largest investigations into risk factors for major chronic diseases ever conducted. The Nurses' Health Studies have led to many insights on health and well-being, including cancer prevention, cardiovascular disease, and type 2 diabetes. They have included clinicians, epidemiologists, and statisticians at the Channing Laboratory, Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health, and several Harvard-affiliated hospitals, including Brigham and Women's Hospital, Dana–Farber Cancer Institute, Children's Hospital Boston, and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.
Dietary factors are recognized as having a significant effect on the risk of cancers, with different dietary elements both increasing and reducing risk. Diet and obesity may be related to up to 30–35% of cancer deaths, while physical inactivity appears to be related to 7% risk of cancer occurrence.
Risk factors for breast cancer may be divided into preventable and non-preventable. Their study belongs in the field of epidemiology. Breast cancer, like other forms of cancer, can result from multiple environmental and hereditary risk factors. The term "environmental", as used by cancer researchers, means any risk factor that is not genetically inherited.
The Western pattern diet is a modern dietary pattern that is generally characterized by high intakes of pre-packaged foods, refined grains, red meat, processed meat, high-sugar drinks, candy and sweets, fried foods, industrially produced animal products, butter and other high-fat dairy products, eggs, potatoes, corn, and low intakes of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, pasture-raised animal products, fish, nuts, and seeds.
Diet plays an important role in the genesis of obesity. Personal choices, food advertising, social customs and cultural influences, as well as food availability and pricing all play a role in determining what and how much an individual eats.
The relationship between alcohol and breast cancer is clear: drinking alcoholic beverages, including wine, beer, or liquor, is a risk factor for breast cancer, as well as some other forms of cancer. Drinking alcohol causes more than 100,000 cases of breast cancer worldwide every year. Globally, almost one in 10 cases of breast cancer is caused by women drinking alcoholic beverages. Drinking alcoholic beverages is among the most common modifiable risk factors.
Light in school buildings traditionally is from a combination of daylight and electric light to illuminate learning spaces, hallways, cafeterias, offices and other interior areas. Light fixtures currently in use usually provide students and teachers with satisfactory visual performance, i.e., the ability to read a book, have lunch, or play basketball in a gymnasium. However, classroom lighting may also affect students' circadian systems, which may in turn affect test scores, attendance and behavior.
A preventive mastectomy or prophylactic mastectomy or risk-reducing mastectomy (RRM) is an elective operation to remove the breasts so that the risk of breast cancer is reduced.
Frank B. Hu is a Chinese American nutrition and diabetes researcher. He is Chair of the Department of Nutrition and the Fredrick J. Stare Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Professor of Medicine at the Harvard Medical School.
Donna Spiegelman is a biostatistician and epidemiologist who works at the interface between the two fields as a methodologist, applying statistical solutions to address potential biases in epidemiologic studies.
Stacey Ann Missmer is an American reproductive biologist who is a professor at Michigan State University. She was the first faculty member to be appointed under the Michigan State University Global Health Initiative. Her research considers physical and environmental risk factors for endometriosis and infertility.
Immaculata De Vivo is a molecular epidemiologist and professor at Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health. She is also the Editor-in-Chief of the scientific journal Cancer Causes & Control.
Frank Erwin Speizer is an American physician and epidemiologist, currently Professor of Environmental Health and Environmental Science at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Edward H. Kass Distinguished Professor of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School. He is best known for his work on two major epidemiological cohort studies: the Nurses' Health Study, which explored women's illnesses and health risk factors, and the Harvard Six Cities study, which definitively linked air pollution to higher death rates in urban areas.
Francine Laden is an American epidemiologist who is Professor of Environmental Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Her research has investigated the environmental epidemiology of chronic disease. She serves as co-director of the Harvard University and Boston University center for research on environmental and social stressors in housing across the life course. Laden has also served on the United States Environmental Protection Agency advisory board.
Susan Hankinson is an American cancer researcher who is the Distinguished Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research considers cancer epidemiology and the etiology of breast cancer. Her work has demonstrated the relationship between hormones and breast cancer risk. In 2023, she was awarded the American Association for Cancer Research Award for Research Excellence in Cancer Epidemiology and Prevention.