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Professor Francesco P Cappuccio

MBBS, MD, MSc (Epid), DSc, DLSHTM, FRCP, FFPH, FBIHS, FAOP, FESC, FAHA

Cephalon Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine & Epidemiology
Honorary Consultant Cardiovascular Physician
Head, World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Nutrition
Director, European Centre of Excellence in Hypertension and Cardio-Metabolic Research
Past-President, British and Irish Hypertension Society

Tel: +44 (0)24 7657 3129
Academic Office | Tel: +44 (0)2476 574530 / 523543

Researcher ID: D-3028-2009
ORCID-ID: 0000-0002-7842-5493

Listed as world-leading researcher on Stanford University's global listing
Listed in the fist 100 Top Italian Scientists on the global listing

Profile
Franco moved to Warwick in July 2005 to take up the newly established Cephalon Chair in Cardiovascular Medicine & Epidemiology. He is a cardiovascular physician, a clinical epidemiologist and a public health expert. After his medical degree in Naples, he moved to Britain where he trained at Charing Cross Hospital, St George's Hospital Medical School and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine in London. In 2000 he became Professor of Clinical Epidemiology & Primary Care at St George's, University of London.His main interests are in the prevention, detection and management of hypertension and its complications of the heart, brain, kidneys and the circulation. His research interests are the epidemiology of cardiovascular disease, nutrition and health, metabolic abnormalities and cardiovascular risk, risk in ethnic minorities, both in developed and developing countries. Franco heads up a multi-disciplinary research group with a number of research objectives: to develop and establish a programme of national and international cardiovascular epidemiology, to develop and establish a significant national and international programme of research into Sleep, Health and Society, to facilitate clinical research into sleep disorders, to assist the development of undergraduate and postgraduate education into sleep medicine and its impact on health and society.
Qualifications
1981 MB, BS (Hons) University of Naples
1984 MD (Hons) University of Naples
1993 MSc (Epidemiology) University of London
1996 MRCP Member of the Royal College of Physicians of London
1996 CCST in General Medicine
1997 DLSHTM University of London
1999 FRCP Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London
2000 MFPHM (now MFPH) Member of the Faculty of Public Health
2002 European Diploma of Hypertension Specialist (ESH)
2006 FFPH Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health
2007 FAHA Fellow of the American Heart Association
2012 DSc University of Warwick
2014 FBHS Fellow of the British and Irish Hypertension Society
2017 FESC Fellow of the European Society of Cardiology
2021 FAOP Fellow of the Association of Physicians of Great Britain & Ireland
Current Roles
  • 2006- Technical Adviser, World Health Organization (WHO)
  • 2008- Head, WHO CC for Nutrition
  • 2008- Director, ESH CoE in Hypertension & Cardio-Metabolic Research
  • 2011- Member, WHO Expert Advisory Panel on Nutrition
  • 2017- Expert Adviser, NICE Centre for Guidelines (CfG)
  • 2021- Editorial Board, Nutrients
  • 2022- Chair, Grand Round Committee, UHCW NHS Trust
  • 2022- Joint-CI, FOUND Trial (NIHR funded)

Awards
  • 2003 2002 RCGP and Boots The Chemists Research Paper of the Year Award (Royal College of General Practitioners)
  • 2003 I.S.H.I.B. Distinguished Researcher Award for 2003 (International Society of Hypertension in Blacks)
  • 2005 40th Anniversary Gold Medal of the Lithuanian Society of Cardiology
  • 2007 International Fellowship of the American Heart Association (FAHA)
  • 2008- European Society of Hypertension Centre of Excellence in Hypertension & Cardio-Metabolic Research
  • 2008-22 World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Nutrition
  • 2019 World Hypertension League Recognition of Excellence Award in Dietary Salt Reduction

Membership of learned societies

National

Association of Physicians of Great Britain & Ireland (APGB&I)
British and Irish Hypertension Society (BIHS)
British Sleep Society (BSS)

International

European Society of Hypertension (ESH)
American Society of Hypertension (ASH)
American Sleep Association (ASA)
American Heart Association (AHA)
Council on High Blood Pressure of the American Heart Association (AHA)
Council on Epidemiology & Prevention of the American Heart Association (AHA)
International Society of Hypertension in Blacks (ISHIB) (Scientific Planning C'tees 1997; 2001; 2003)
European Society of Cardiology (ESC)
Council on Hypertension of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC)

Publications

1983 - 1997Link opens in a new window

1998 - 2010Link opens in a new window

2011 - 2024Link opens in a new window

Events

Sodium and Health (27th March 2024)

Francesco Cappuccio, Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine & Epidemiology at the University of Warwick Medical School, and Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Nutrition, calls upon journals and editors to ensure that unfounded claims about sodium intake be rigorously challenged by independent reviewers before publication; to avoid editorial writers who have been co-authors with the subject paper's authors; to require truthful statements of conflicts of interest; to ensure that their pages are used only by those who seek to advance knowledge by engaging in the scientific method and its collegiate pursuit. He explains the problem in an interview to Faculti (https://faculti.net/sodium-and-health-old-myths/). March 27, 2024.


WHD_ESH

Consensus statement by

the World Hypertension League, Resolve To Save Lives and the International Society of Hypertension
Dietary sodium (salt) global call to action

Today the Journal of Human Hypertension publishes a comprehensive fact sheet and global call to action aimed at nutrition, hypertension, cardiovascular and other health care clinicians and scientists, and health advocates, as well as organizations to which they belong. The World Hypertension League, Resolve to Save Lives and the International Society of Hypertension fact sheet and global call to action on reducing dietary sodium (salt) is supported by 70 national and international health and scientific organizations 1. As such the Fact Sheet and Global Call represent the position of mainstream scientific and health care organizations.

The global call to action outlines:

  • the burden of disease caused by high dietary sodium,
  • scientific evidence supporting recommendations to reduce dietary sodium,
  • dietary recommendations to reduce dietary sodium,
  • estimated levels of sodium intake,
  • cost effectiveness of programs to reduce dietary sodium,
  • sources of controversy,
  • Interventions to reduce dietary sodium and
  • Updated resources on the adverse health effects of high dietary sodium and interventions to reduce dietary sodium.

The call encourages all health care professionals, scientists, and the organizations that represent them to advocate for sodium reduction to be a high global priority and for all nations to develop effective programs to reduce sodium intake to recommended levels. Organizations can review the Global Call to Action and indicate their support for the Call by contacting the World Hypertension League at whleague17@gmail.com. An updated list of supporting organizations will be maintained until 2025. The Call to Action can be rapidly accessed at https://rdcu.be/cNIMn.

  1. Campbell NRC, Whelton PK, Orias M, al. e. 2022 World Hypertension League, Resolve To Save Lives and International Society of Hypertension Dietary Sodium (Salt) Global Call To Action. J Hum Hypertens. 2022; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41371-022-00690-0.

Read a Short Summary here

Read the Open Access Full Report here.


HOT OFF THE PRESS - March 2022

An International Call for Action:
Flawed research undermining dietary salt guidelines that protect cardiovascular health 

“The question of contagion in various diseases has often been discussed with a degree of acrimony that is unusual in medical or other scientific enquiries. […] It is the great pecuniary interests involved …” John Snow, 1853.

Professor Francesco Cappuccio highlights in the World Hypertension League Newsletter the content of a report published by 25 leading experts in nutrition and CVD prevention who denounce the incorrect claim that a moderate reduction in sodium (salt) consumption is harmful. The report explains why the claim is based on flawed methods, poor rigour in research methodology and bias.

Read the Open Access Report here.


SALT AWARENESS WEEK 2022
ROUND TABLE: ACCELERATING SALT REDUCTION IN THE UK
FREE REGISTRATION

Background: Salt reduction is internationally recognised as a powerful and cost-effective prevention policy. The UK’s salt reduction programme has formed the model for international momentum; to date, 57 countries have salt targets, including 19 sets of mandated targets. New evidence from South Africa shows their mandated salt targets have led to a 1.2g/day drop in population salt intake since 2016.

The policy landscape has been dominated by obesity as opposed to cardiovascular prevention for several years, and key prevention policies due to come into place in 2022, including further advertising restrictions and price/location promotion restrictions, have focused on sugar and calorie reduction at the expense of salt. In light of the ever-increasing body of evidence implicating salt in cardiovascular disease, the World Health Organization have released Global Sodium Benchmarks to accelerate progress, which in many cases are more ambitious than the UK targets.

SAW 2022

Participants in this roundtable will be asked to draw from their diverse experiences in public health and prevention to identify common ground on the need for salt reduction in the UK and highlight barriers and opportunities to achieving progress in salt reduction.

Purpose: To create consensus that salt reduction progress is needed to prevent cardiovascular disease, responsible for one in four deaths in the UK, and identify how to accelerate progress.

Preparation: Please consider the following questions for discussion at the roundtable:

  • What are the strengths and weaknesses of the current salt reduction programme? Think in terms of progress made, resources required, stakeholders involved
  • What are the main barriers to progress?
  • What are the immediate steps and shifts necessary to address the challenges? Think of UK and international experience
  • How can we work together to improve the programme?

Agenda:

  • Welcome and ground rules (10 mins)
  • Introductions (10 mins)
  • Discussion and feedback (60 mins)
  • Concluding remarks and close (10 mins)

US and British health specialists support the NHS

The Guardian | Letter | Sun 3 May 2015 21.08 BST


FP Cappuccio

Useful Links
LATEST NEWS
Sleep and Health News

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    CNN (04/09/2015)

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    BBC News(24/03/2015)

    BBC World Service (21/02/2015)

      Diet and Health News