Doreen,
Unfortunately, Atkins has applied for several grants over the years to fund this type of research and they were all denied. This was held up in his face at the Great Nutrition Debate of 2000 by Ornish. He made fun of him for not having studies. And when Ornish said that Atkins had plenty of money himself, the audience applauded. It went like this:
17 DR. ORNISH: First of all, let me say that I would
18 love to see some data from Dr. Atkins showing that he can
19 actually get reversal of heart disease, measuring the
20 underlying disease process.
21 DR. ATKINS: We're working on it.
22 DR. ORNISH: Well good. I'd love to see it.
23 DR. ATKINS: We're not as good a fundraiser as you
24 are. We have to dig into our own pockets. That's the
25 problem.
p.122
1 DR. ORNISH: Carolyn, could I address that issue?
2 MS. O'NEIL: Yes.
3 DR. ORNISH: I think with the number of books
4 you've sold, you could probably fund your own studies,
5 but --
6 (Applause.)
Debate is at:
http://www.usda.gov/cnpp/Seminars/GND/Proceedings.txt
So Atkins is damned if he does and damned if he don't!
The little hyperlink to the right that says "Studies suggest Atkins diet is safe!" talked about this Westman study back in February. Link is here:
http://www.lowcarb.ca/articles/article148.html
I can 't wait until The American Journal of Medicine puts up their July issue. They currently have June 15 as the current issue.
Also, if you want to share the Duke Health Briefs link to this new research, it's here:
http://www.news.mc.duke.edu/news/article.php?id=5676
By the way, Dr. Eric Westman is a legitimate researcher. He's had at least 33 published studies since 1993.