Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh

Who is Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh?

Kamyar Kalantar-Zadeh is an American physician doing research in nephrology, nutrition, and epidemiology. He is best known for his hypothesis about the longevity of individuals with chronic disease states, also known as reverse epidemiology. According to this hypothesis, obesity or hypercholesterolemia may counterintuitively be protective and associated with greater survival in certain groups of people, such as elderly individuals, dialysis patients, or those with chronic disease states and wasting syndrome, whereas normal to low body mass index or normal values of serum cholesterol may be detrimental and associated with worse mortality.