Biography

Dr. Gold is a teacher of the year, researcher and inventor who has worked for over 40 years to develop models for understanding the effects of tobacco, cocaine , opiates, other drugs, and food on the brain and behavior. He has pioneered the noradrenergic theory for opiate action, dopmaine theory for cocaine addiction, second hand smoke as first-hand smoke for the non-smoker, and the food addiction hypothesis. He has been awarded Distinguished Alumni awards from Washington University, Yale University and the University of Florida as well as Lifetime Achievement awards in addiction medicine and pharmacology. Dr. Gold has developed translational research models which have led to the invention of new treatments for addicts, pain, in use today…and also conceptualized hypotheses which were more than novel and have also lasted the test of replication and clinical trials--for decades. Dr. Gold has pioneered the hypothesis of hedonic overeating or pathological attachment to food as an addiction. This work is much less controversial now that many recognize the similarities between great food and compulsive overeating and other process addictions such as gambling and sex. Dr. Gold has recently Co-Chaired a historic Experts Conference at Yale , a similar Globesity Conference in China, and an American Society of Addiction Medicine Symposium to focus attention on the great progress that has been made in evaluating and extending this food as an addiction hypothesis over the past decade. Dr Gold and Yale’s Kelly Brownell have recently completed the Food Addiction Textbook (Oxford, 2012). In addition to a career as an academic, Dr. Gold is a frequently quoted an expert in the national and international news and also well-known for his appearance as an expert on TV shows from CNN’s Larry King to Oprah .

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