Salim Yusuf

Salim Yusuf (born 26 November 1952) is an Indian-born Canadian physician, the Marion W. Burke Chair in Cardiovascular Disease at McMaster University Medical School. He is a cardiologist and epidemiologist, He also formerly served as president of the World Heart Federation. Yusuf has criticized the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and disputes the scientific consensus on dietary sodium and saturated fat intake.

Early life and education Salim Yusuf was born in 1952 in a middle class family

Career In 1984, Yusuf moved to the National Institutes of Health in the United States, where he led clinical trials that showed the value of ACE inhibitors in people with left ventricular dysfunction and the optimal use of digoxin).

From 1999 to 2004, he also held an appointment as a senior scientist at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.

In 2011, he was the world's second-most-cited cardiology researcher, where he initiated the Emerging Leaders Program which is now named after him.

Views on saturated fat and salt intake and their relationship to cardiovascular disease Yusuf has disputed the prevailing view in the medical community that increased consumption of saturated fat and dietary sodium causes cardiovascular disease and has questioned dietary guidelines that call for reduction in their intake. In 2017, Yusuf spoke at the Cardiology Update 2017 symposium in which he disputed the saturated fat guidelines whilst admitting he is not an expert in nutrition. He stated that a higher saturated fat intake is protective and eating more dietary carbohydrates is harmful. These ideas were criticized by other medical researchers and nutritionists such as David L. Katz, who described them as "bizarre" and "misguided". In 2018, he co-authored a controversial paper which argued that sodium intake is associated with cardiovascular disease only in communities where mean intake is greater than 5 g/day. He is also a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. In 2014, he was awarded the Canada Gairdner Wightman Award and was inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame. In 2024, Yusuf received an honorary doctorate degree from Oxford University.

Personal life Yusuf is married to Wahida Yusuf. They have three children, two of which also studied medicine.

Selected publications