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August 25, 2008
Soundbites

Take heart advice with grain of salt?
“Our taste buds have devolved, instead of evolved,” said Cheryl Williams, a nutritionist with Emory’s Heart and Vascular Center, explaining that one reason the American diet is high in salt is because our taste buds are accustomed to it. In her talk “Nutrition for the Heart” at Emory Clinic, Williams said that it’s important to limit salt intake to about one teaspoon per day, or 2,300 milligrams.

“First get rid of your saltshaker – that’s going to be half the battle,” she said. The less salt you eat, the less you will crave it, she said. “Taste buds renew themselves regularly, so you can retrain them.” — Carol Clark

Grant writing expert gives tips
When drafting the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson said that he wanted a document in “terms so clear and direct as to demand their consent.” Paul Casella used such examples during his recent University Research Committee workshops on grant writing for science, medicine and the humanities.

“Good writing is clear and concise,” said Casella, of the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine.

“The Declaration of Independence is kind of like a grant proposal, except we took [the land] away first and sent in the application later,” he said. “In a perfect world it would always be like that.”
Materials are available at http://www.urc.emory.edu/workshops. — Carol Clark

‘Blood and Oil’ are fascinating mix
“We live in a day and age where the wonders and mystery of surgery are somewhat diluted by the ease and access of technology,” noted Bahair Ghazi.

The general surgery chief resident took his audience at Emory University Hospital’s Grand Rounds through “the history of our medical specialty, where masterpieces were not only appreciated for talent but were appreciated for medical documentation —where art was record and pictorial depiction was truth.”
Ghazi’s slideshow of masterpieces of art and surgery showed how surgery evolved from the lowly status of “work of the hand, not the head,” to how barbers got to be surgeons to the 16th century when “surgery begins to acquire status,” to the sanitary accoutrements of the 20th century. — Leslie King