Dr. Lieber's findings upset the conventional medical belief that cirrhosis was caused by poor nutrition, not alcohol. (Rubenstein communications)What A Nut!
Dr. Lieber devoted much of his career to promoting alcohol research as a legitimate science, countering a prevailing perception among doctors and the public that little could be done about alcoholism. He made many of his fundamental findings at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in the Bronx.
In a classic experiment in 1974, Dr. Lieber and a team of researchers reported that alcohol was toxic to the liver of baboons who had been fed the equivalent of a fifth of liquor every day for up to four years. The findings upset conventional medical belief that cirrhosis was due to the poor nutrition commonly linked to alcoholism, not alcohol.
In other experiments, Dr. Lieber deciphered some of the ways alcohol can affect the liver and showed that it could convert various compounds in the body into highly toxic ones. The findings are still debated, but they help explain why heavy drinkers and even some social drinkers seem more vulnerable to pain relievers like acetaminophen (Tylenol, for example), anesthetics, and industrial solvents.
"He was a giant in his field, probably the most eminent in the world in alcohol and the liver," said Dr. Steven Schenker, another such specialist at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
"His concepts put him under a lot of pressure, but he defended his positions brilliantly," Schenker said in an interview.
Charles Saul Lieber was born in Antwerp, Belgium.
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