Lewis E. Braverman
{{Short description|American endocrinologist (1929–2019)}}
{{use American English|date=August 2019}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=August 2019}}
{{Infobox medical person
|name = Lewis E. Braverman
|image =
|image_size =
|caption =
|alt =
|birth_name =
|birth_date = {{birth date|1929|3|30}}
|birth_place = Boston, Massachusetts, US
|death_date = {{death date and age|2019|6|10|1929|3|30}}
|death_place = Boston, Massachusetts, US
|education =
|occupation = Medical doctor
|years_active =
|known_for = Discovery that humans convert thyroxine to triiodothyronine
Amiodarone-induced thyroid dysfunction
Work on thyrotoxicosis factitia; environmental pollutants as endocrine disruptors
|relations =
|work_institutions = Tufts St Elizabeth's Hospital, Boston
University of Massachusetts Medical Center
Boston University
|specialism = Endocrinology
|research_field = Study of thyroid hormone
}}
Lewis E. Braverman (March 30, 1929 – June 10, 2019) was a U.S. endocrinologist who specialized in thyroid gland problems. He discovered that humans converted thyroxine to triiodothyronine. He was a mentor to physicians for over 40 years.
Early life and education
Lewis E. Braverman was born in Boston on March 30, 1929{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RyggAQAAMAAJ&q=%22Braverman+Lewis%22+1929 |title=Directory|publisher=American College of Physicians |date=1973 |accessdate=2019-08-26}} where his father was a general practitioner and his mother helped run the practice. He grew up in Quincy, Massachusetts and went to Milton Academy in neighboring Milton, Massachusetts.{{Cite web|title=Vol 12 Issue 7 p.3-4|url=https://www.thyroid.org/patient-thyroid-information/ct-for-patients/july-2019/vol-12-issue-7-p-3-4/|access-date=2021-01-02|website=American Thyroid Association|language=en-US}} He attended Harvard College, graduated in 1951, and then went to Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, graduating MD in 1955.{{Cite journal |last=Marcus |first=Adam |date=2019-08-03 |title=Lewis E Braverman |journal=The Lancet |language=English |volume=394 |issue=10196 |page=378 |doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(19)31673-3 |issn=0140-6736|doi-access=free }}
Career
Braverman was an intern at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston. Thereafter he served for two years in the U.S. military in France under the Berry Plan. He returned to the United States for an internal medicine residency at Boston City Hospital, and trained with the director of the Thorndike Memorial Laboratory.
From 1962 to 1975 Braverman was chief of endocrinology at Tufts University School of Medicine St Elizabeth's Hospital, and from 1975 to 1998 at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. From 1999 until retirement in 2017, he was chief of endocrinology at Boston University.
=Work and legacy=
Braverman discovered that thyroid hormone is metabolized to triiodo-L-thyronine (T3) in tissues outside the thyroid gland in humans, and published this in 1970 with his colleagues Sidney H. Ingbar and Kenneth Sterling.{{Cite journal |last1=Braverman |first1=Lewis E. |last2=Ingbar |first2=Sidney H. |last3=Sterling |first3=Kenneth |date=1970-05-01 |title=Conversion of Thyroxine (T4) to triiodothyronine (T3) in athyreotic human subjects |journal=Journal of Clinical Investigation |language=en |volume=49 |issue=5 |pages=855–864 |doi=10.1172/JCI106304 |issn=0021-9738 |pmc=535757 |pmid=4986007}}
He found the cause of a 1984 outbreak of thyrotoxicosis in Minnesota, South Dakota, and Iowa was ground beef contaminated with tissue from the animals' thyroid glands."[https://www.endocrine.org/~/media/endosociety/files/about-us/sawin/lewisbraverman_transcript.doc?la=en Lewis E. Braverman]." Interview by Michael Chappelle. Oral and Video History Interviews. The Endocrine Society, June 22, 2014. Web. October 2, 2016.
Braverman is also credited with the discovery that the heart drug amiodarone was one of the most common causes of iodine-induced thyrotoxicosis, a finding which he published, with others, in 1985.{{Cite journal |last1=Martino |first1=E. |last2=Aghini-Lombardi |first2=F. |last3=Lippi |first3=F. |last4=Baschieri |first4=L. |last5=Safran |first5=M. |last6=Braverman |first6=L. E. |last7=Pinchera |first7=A. |date=1985 |title=Twenty-four hour radioactive iodine uptake in 35 patients with amiodarone associated thyrotoxicosis |journal=Journal of Nuclear Medicine |volume=26 |issue=12 |pages=1402–1407 |issn=0161-5505 |pmid=4067643}}{{rp|24–25}}[https://www.thyroid.org/portfolio/braverman-interested-thyroidology/ ATA History – Lewis Braverman on what made him interested in thyroidology] American Thyroid Association. October 2015
Personal life
He was married and had two sons, Daniel and William Braverman.{{Cite journal |date=2019-06-13 |title=Lewis E. Braverman, MD |url=https://www.thyroid.org/braverman/ |journal=American Thyroid Association |language=en-US}} He died from Waldenström macroglobulinemia on June 10, 2019, aged 90 years.
References
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Category:American endocrinologists
Category:Physicians from Boston
Category:Military personnel from Massachusetts
Category:Harvard College alumni
Category:Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons alumni