Ken Strauss (born 1953) is a physician/author currently living in Spain. He is an Internist and Endocrinologist. For three decades he was Global Medical Director for BD, a leading medical and diagnostic enterprise. He is also Director for Safety in Medicine at the European Medical Association [1] in Brussels.
Born in New Orleans, Strauss was raised by missionary parents on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola. He studied at Columbia Bible College (now Columbia International University) from 1971 to 1975 and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (1975–78) with a focus on the biblical languages of Greek and Hebrew. After this he embarked on medical studies. Strauss received his degree as a doctor from the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia, South Carolina, USA (1982–86). He did an Internal Medicine Internship and Residency at the Wake Forest University, North Carolina Baptist Hospital, Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA (1986–89). His Endocrinology Fellowship was at the Harvard Medical School, Boston in the Beth Israel Hospital, Brigham & Women's Hospitals and Joslin Diabetes Center (1989–91).
He has lived most of his life in Latin America and Europe and speaks Spanish and French in addition to his native English. [2] He gives talks frequently to audiences throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia on topics related to diabetes, HIV disease and patient safety. He has directed clinical trials throughout the world, developing medical tools ranging from high-tech molecular instruments to routine injection devices. He has published 102 scientific papers written by himself and is an author on nearly 200 written by others.
Medical practices Strauss has introduced, innovated or enabled:
Strauss has published twenty-eight books, beginning with a novel, La Tendresse, [13] published in 2002 by Black Ace Books of Forfar, Scotland. [14] In it he juxtaposes the friendships and love affairs of its protagonist, Dr. Alain Hamilton, with the brutality of trench warfare during the First World War. In the NYU Literature, Arts & Medicine Database, Jack Coulehan writes: "Two dramatically different themes—tenderness and war—duke it out in this novel. The reality of war is unrelenting. Humanity descends into the deepest levels of hell. All that survives is technique (Dr. Hamilton's skill as a surgeon) and commitment (his dogged persistence in doing his job, despite the failures and hopelessness). The second theme is love. The intimate relationship with his colleague Elizabeth (‘la tendresse’) is the deepest he has ever experienced. It carries them both through the horrors of war." [15]
In another novel, Maria Lindisima, a chance encounter in Paris between Montse, a Catalan scientist, and Fernando, a Colombian entrepreneur, blossoms into a love affair just as Leo, a young American, begins a scheming entanglement with the two. Unknown to Montse, her lab has been infiltrated by the Pentagon (using Leo) to develop a virulent flu strain—nicknamed Maria Lindisima—as a biological weapon. When she finds out, she begins a race against time to produce a naked DNA vaccine, the sole protection against the virus. However, on a visit to Colombia with Fernando, the guerrilla group, the FARC, kidnaps them, thereby acquiring the strain. With Leo's connivance they release it, triggering a pandemic. Montse has succeeded in producing the saving vaccine but she remains captive in the Colombian jungle. Though a thriller, the book is a stinging indictment of America's thirst for world domination and the ends to which some will go to ensure it.
In a third novel, Madness, an orphaned Jewish girl, Rachel, marries a soldier who is later driven mad by the horrors of the First World War. She must live with this madman during the chaos of post-war Germany. Her discovery of her Jewishness coincides with the rise of National Socialism. She escapes to Spain where she fights with the International Brigades against Franco and meets her true love, Janek, a Polish Jew. Both are captured by the fascists and are deported to Hitler's Germany. Rachel escapes and joins the White Rose, a group of German students who attempt to undermine the Nazis using clandestine pamphlets. She becomes the principal smuggler for the Hamburg branch and continues writing pamphlets when the others are captured. She is innocently betrayed by a little girl and is sentenced to death. Madness is Rachel's life story as written from Stadelheim Prison, Munich. Her last entry is January 29, 1945, the day she was beheaded.
Strauss has also written Javea...Yes!, a romping post-apocalyptic bike ride across Europe, which has become a Mad Max world. Billy Poem is an ambitious children's book exploring the surreal world of the critically ill. It is told from the perspective of two children, lingering between life and death, who explore this magical world of ‘In Between’ as they lie in comas in Intensive Care. Their search leads them inside a mountain which hides the secrets of death. They bravely plunge in, seeking to find and defang it. Ugly Duckling is an alternative history of the 45th occupant of the White House with a surprise outcome that both Republicans and Democrats will be delighted with. A failed attempt at regime change is hijacked by the most unlikely source, a black African, who throws the whole playbook at Ugly before discovering the secret to his transformation, thank to a mysterious Rwandan woman, a Magnetiseuse Energéticienne. Beauty Like a Tightened Bow uses poetic prose to recount an unrequited love, which is imagined as a long ambling conversation.
In his play Ship of Folly, Hearts of Gold Strauss tells the story of the Peace Ship chartered by Henry Ford which sailed from America to Europe in December 1915 with the grandiose intention of arbitrating the end of the First World War. On board were many champions of bizarre causes and social evangelists. Ford invested his fortune and reputation in the endeavour but, despite his sincere convictions and towering personality, he was betrayed by his own arrogance, naivety and petty prejudices. Ship of Folly is a cautionary tale in which Hearts of Gold are no match for powerful conspirators. In another play, Bananas, anyone?, the American invasion of the Dominican Republic in 1965 is parodied. Strauss lived through this revolution with his parents, who were missionaries there at the time. The play shows how it wounded and humiliated the country, as well as all involved. A third play, Ann and Rachid Rachid, is about Extraordinary Rendition and how this dragnet in the War on Terror so easily caught up innocents like Dr. Rachid Rachid.
Additionally, Strauss has published several volumes of poetry, short stories, children's stories, theater and screenplays. All are available as ebooks on Kindle or paperbacks through Amazon. Strauss also regularly posts new work on his blog.
Strauss's scientific interests are widespread.
His interest in immunology has led to publications in HIV disease, cellular activation and natural killer cell function, tumor immunology, HLA-B27-related rheumatologic conditions and screening, transplant cross-matching and graph rejection, pathophysiology of multiple sclerosis, leukemia diagnosis and minimal residual disease, platelet activation in vascular disease and stem cell transplantation in cancer patients. Publications in endocrinology cover the subjects of diabetes management and education, efficacy of insulin injecting devices, safe injection technique, intensive glucose management, GP office management of diabetes and the epidemiology of diabetes in developing regions of Africa and Eastern Europe. Additionally, Strauss has published on peripheral and central line catheters, anesthesia and surgical devices, safety injection devices, sharps disposal units, spinal and epidural catheters and vaccination devices.
Intended as a retreat for health care artists, Le Jardin des Arts, is located in le Château du Jardin, a property owned by Strauss and listed as an architectural heritage site in Belgium. The official site for Patrimoine Architectural Belge [16] describes it as follows:.
Tongre-Notre-Dame is best known for its basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary, but it also has some unexpected treasures, such as the Château du Jardin. Built in the mid-19th century, this mansion stands in the middle of extensive formally laid out grounds. Today, the Château du Jardin is the property of an endocrinologist, Ken Strauss. He undertook the restoration of the residence with a view to holding medical seminars there. The Château du Jardin is a neo-classical, rectangular building. The frontage and rear external wall are two stories high, faced with finishing plaster and surmounted by a Mansard roof bordered with a wooden cornice. The façades have large rectangular window openings.
Dr. Strauss is a widower currently living in Javea, Spain. In 1979 he married Jeannette Reyes (1952-2011) from Bogota, Colombia with whom he had two children, Patrick (1982) and Natalia (1988). With his companion, Fabienne Menchior (1964-2018), he had a third child, Camille (2005).
HIV disease
Immunology
Endocrinology
Pediatrics
Oncology
Infectious Disease
Medical Safety
Intravenous Therapy
Diabetes Therapy
Insulin Injection Technique
Insulin Therapy
Lipohypertrophy related to Insulin Therapy
Medicine in the European Union
Medicine in Central Europe
Medicine in China
Medicine in India
Medicine in Africa
Medicine in Latin America
Medicine in Turkey
Insulin is a peptide hormone produced by beta cells of the pancreatic islets encoded in humans by the insulin (INS) gene. It is the main anabolic hormone of the body. It regulates the metabolism of carbohydrates, fats, and protein by promoting the absorption of glucose from the blood into cells of the liver, fat, and skeletal muscles. In these tissues the absorbed glucose is converted into either glycogen, via glycogenesis, or fats (triglycerides), via lipogenesis; in the liver, glucose is converted into both. Glucose production and secretion by the liver are strongly inhibited by high concentrations of insulin in the blood. Circulating insulin also affects the synthesis of proteins in a wide variety of tissues. It is thus an anabolic hormone, promoting the conversion of small molecules in the blood into large molecules in the cells. Low insulin in the blood has the opposite effect, promoting widespread catabolism, especially of reserve body fat.
Intensive insulin therapy or flexible insulin therapy is a therapeutic regimen for diabetes mellitus treatment. This newer approach contrasts with conventional insulin therapy. Rather than minimize the number of insulin injections per day, the intensive approach favors flexible meal times with variable carbohydrate as well as flexible physical activities. The trade-off is the increase from 2 or 3 injections per day to 4 or more injections per day, which was considered "intensive" relative to the older approach. In North America in 2004, many endocrinologists prefer the term "flexible insulin therapy" (FIT) to "intensive therapy" and use it to refer to any method of replacing insulin that attempts to mimic the pattern of small continuous basal insulin secretion of a working pancreas combined with larger insulin secretions at mealtimes. The semantic distinction reflects changing treatment.
Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a potentially life-threatening complication of diabetes mellitus. Signs and symptoms may include vomiting, abdominal pain, deep gasping breathing, increased urination, weakness, confusion and occasionally loss of consciousness. A person's breath may develop a specific "fruity" smell. The onset of symptoms is usually rapid. People without a previous diagnosis of diabetes may develop DKA as the first obvious symptom.
A syringe is a simple reciprocating pump consisting of a plunger that fits tightly within a cylindrical tube called a barrel. The plunger can be linearly pulled and pushed along the inside of the tube, allowing the syringe to take in and expel liquid or gas through a discharge orifice at the front (open) end of the tube. The open end of the syringe may be fitted with a hypodermic needle, a nozzle or tubing to direct the flow into and out of the barrel. Syringes are frequently used in clinical medicine to administer injections, infuse intravenous therapy into the bloodstream, apply compounds such as glue or lubricant, and draw/measure liquids. There are also prefilled syringes.
Lipodystrophy syndromes are a group of genetic or acquired disorders in which the body is unable to produce and maintain healthy fat tissue. The medical condition is characterized by abnormal or degenerative conditions of the body's adipose tissue. A more specific term, lipoatrophy, is used when describing the loss of fat from one area. This condition is also characterized by a lack of circulating leptin which may lead to osteosclerosis. The absence of fat tissue is associated with insulin resistance, hypertriglyceridemia, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) and metabolic syndrome.
Subcutaneous administration is the insertion of medications beneath the skin either by injection or infusion.
Angiography or arteriography is a medical imaging technique used to visualize the inside, or lumen, of blood vessels and organs of the body, with particular interest in the arteries, veins, and the heart chambers. Modern angiography is performed by injecting a radio-opaque contrast agent into the blood vessel and imaging using X-ray based techniques such as fluoroscopy.
Resistin also known as adipose tissue-specific secretory factor (ADSF) or C/EBP-epsilon-regulated myeloid-specific secreted cysteine-rich protein (XCP1) is a cysteine-rich peptide hormone derived from adipose tissue that in humans is encoded by the RETN gene.
An insulinoma is a tumour of the pancreas that is derived from beta cells and secretes insulin. It is a rare form of a neuroendocrine tumour. Most insulinomas are benign in that they grow exclusively at their origin within the pancreas, but a minority metastasize. Insulinomas are one of the functional pancreatic neuroendocrine tumour (PNET) group. In the Medical Subject Headings classification, insulinoma is the only subtype of "islet cell adenoma".
Pramlintide is an injectable amylin analogue drug for diabetes, developed by Amylin Pharmaceuticals. Pramlintide is sold as an acetate salt.
An insulin analog is any of several types of medical insulin that are altered forms of the hormone insulin, different from any occurring in nature, but still available to the human body for performing the same action as human insulin in terms of controlling blood glucose levels in diabetes. Through genetic engineering of the underlying DNA, the amino acid sequence of insulin can be changed to alter its ADME characteristics. Officially, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) refers to these agents as insulin receptor ligands, although they are usually just referred to as insulin analogs or even just insulin.
Islet transplantation is the transplantation of isolated islets from a donor pancreas into another person. It is a treatment for type 1 diabetes. Once transplanted, the islets begin to produce insulin, actively regulating the level of glucose in the blood.
Lipohypertrophy is a lump under the skin caused by accumulation of extra fat at the site of many subcutaneous injections of insulin. It may be unsightly, mildly painful, and may change the timing or completeness of insulin action. It is a common, minor, chronic complication of diabetes mellitus.
An injection port is a medical device used for the administration of insulin or other physician-approved medicine into the subcutaneous tissue. The device is similar to infusion sets used by insulin pumps, except it is configured to receive a syringe instead of a tubing system. An injection port is usually a disposable device applied by the patient and worn for period of 3–5 days. When giving shots via an injection port, the needle stays above the surface of the skin. Medication is delivered via a short soft cannula. An injection port can be used in conjunction with multiple daily injections of insulin by people with diabetes. It can also be used for the subcutaneous administration of any other physician prescribed medication.
As a medication, insulin is any pharmaceutical preparation of the protein hormone insulin that is used to treat high blood glucose. Such conditions include type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes, and complications of diabetes such as diabetic ketoacidosis and hyperosmolar hyperglycemic states. Insulin is also used along with glucose to treat hyperkalemia. Typically it is given by injection under the skin, but some forms may also be used by injection into a vein or muscle. There are various types of insulin, suitable for various time spans. The types are often all called insulin in the broad sense, although in a more precise sense, insulin is identical to the naturally occurring molecule whereas insulin analogues have slightly different molecules that allow for modified time of action. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines. In 2021, it was the 179th most commonly prescribed medication in the United States, with more than 2 million prescriptions.
Lixisenatide is a once-daily injectable GLP-1 receptor agonist for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
Leonid Poretsky is a Russian-born American endocrinologist. His research interests include mechanisms of insulin action in the ovary, endocrinological aspects of AIDS, and clinical outcomes in diabetes. He has authored over 150 publications and has served on the National Institutes of Health's review committees and on the editorial boards of the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism and other endocrine journals.
A low dead space syringe (LDSS) or low dead-volume syringe is a type of syringe with a design that seeks to limit dead space that exists between the syringe hub and needle.
An injector pen is a device used for injecting medication under the skin. First introduced in the 1980s, injector pens are designed to make injectable medication easier and more convenient to use, thus increasing patient adherence. The primary difference between injector pens and traditional vial and syringe administration is the easier use of an injector pen by people with low dexterity, poor vision, or who need portability to administer medicine on time. Injector pens also decrease the fear or adversity towards self-injection of medications, which increases the likelihood that a person takes the medication.
Tirzepatide, sold under the brand names Mounjaro and Zepbound, is an antidiabetic medication used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes and for weight loss. Tirzepatide is administered via subcutaneous injections.