Barry Pittard Attacks Dr. K.J.S. 'Sunny' Anand

Exposing Barry Pittard
The Australian Pit-Bull Of The Anti-Sai Movement

Barry Pittard waged a vicious smear campaign against Dr. K.J.S. 'Sunny' Anand simply because he is a prominent Sathya Sai Baba devotee and for no other reason.

On the ExBaba site, Barry Pittard wrote an article against Dr. Anand, entitled "Dr Kanwaljeet Sunny Anand's Pregnant Myths". In true pit-bull attack mode, Pittard replicated this artice on:

1) The Mumbai Indymedia site under the title "Dr. Kanwaljeet (Sunny) Anand Fails Science Test".

2) The Pressbox.co.uk site under the title "Dr. Sunny Anand's and Sathya Sai Baba's Pregnant Myths".

3) The Suleka.com forum under the title "Dr. Kawaljeet Sunny Anand Extols Sathya Sai Baba as God".

4) The Arkansas.indymedia.org site under the title "US Birth Scientist's Pregnant Myths: A Sathya Sai Baba Travail".

5) The I-Newswire.com site under the title "The Top Bush Advisor Says Sathya Sai Baba is God".

6) The free-press-release site under the title "Sunny Anand and Sathya Sai Baba: Pregnant Myths".

7) The Conspiracy Theory Research List (CTRL) site under the title "US Birth Scientist's Pregnant Myths: A Sathya Sai Baba Travail".

Dr. Sunny Anand has never publicly spoken out against Anti-Sai Activists or Barry Pittard. It is Barry Pittard's typical vindictiveness and mean-spiritedness that prompts him to attack notable Sai Devotees, apparently out of jealously and spite.

ABOUT DR. SUNNY ANAND:

K.J.S. ('Sunny') Anand , M.D., D.Phil.

Title
Professor of Pediatrics, Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Neurobiology

Medical School
M.B.B.S., Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College, University of Indore, Indore, India

PhD
D.Phil., Jesus College, University of Oxford, UK; F.A.A.P., American Academy of Pediatrics, Elk Grove Village IL

Residency
Research Fellow, University Department of Paediatrics, University of Oxford, Oxford, U.K.; Research Fellow in Anesthesia, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA; Clinical Fellow in Pediatrics, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA

Fellowship
Clinical Fellow, Neonatal and Pediatric Intensive Care Units, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts

Post Doctoral Training
Intern, Maharaja Yeshwantrao Hospital, Indore, India; Intern, Hindu Rao

Board Certification(s)
1981, Registered Medical Practitioner, Madhya Pradesh Board, Bhopal, India; 1991, Board Certification in Pediatrics, American Board of Pediatrics; 1994, Board Certification in Pediatric Critical Care, American Board of Pediatrics; 1997, Arkansas State Medical Board, Little Rock, Arkansas

Major Interests
Neurobiology and behavioral effects of neonatal pain.

Research Interests
Dr. Anand's research interests are focused on mechanisms of cell death during critical periods for human or rodent brain development, primarily including:
(a) NMDA receptor-mediated excitotoxicity resulting from repetitive pain and (b) enhanced naturally occurring neuronal apoptosis during early development due to maternal separation. The pattern and magnitude of cellular changes depend on genetic variability as well as the timing, intensity, and duration of adverse environmental experiences:

1. Diverse developmental inputs during infancy cause activation and increased cell death in specific areas during the first postnatal week. These data suggest that early enrichment may allow the increased survival of neurons during cortical development.

2. Acute pain causes uncoupling of opioid receptors in the forebrain, leading to a decreased tonic inhibition of foci associated with pain processing in the brain-stem and spinal cord. This novel mechanism explains why tissue injury leads to prolonged periods of hyperalgesia.

3. Inflammatory pain occurring in the right forelimb leads to the bilateral activation of somatosensory and other cortical areas, as well as multiple foci in the limbic system, thalamus, and hypothalamus. Supraspinal pain processing shifts from subcortical areas in rat pups to cortical areas by two weeks after birth. Near-infra red spectroscopy in the human neonate showed similar patterns with bilateral activation of the somatosensory cortex following a unilateral painful stimulus (venipuncture).

4. Inflammatory pain increases neurodegenerative changes in newborn rat pups with specific regional changes noted in the first week after birth. Thus, repetitive pain may explain the poor cognitive outcomes of ex-preterm children.

5. Pre-emptive continuous morphine analgesia does not alter the incidence of early intraventricular hemorrhage or periventricular leukomalacia, but intermittent morphine boluses may increase the vulnerability of preterm neonates to develop these lesions.

Thus, converging lines of investigation, including clinical studies and basic neuroscience research, are focused on investigating the role and mechanisms of neuronal cell death caused by repetitive or prolonged pain. These changes may help to explain the behavioral abnormalities and poor cognitive outcomes noted from follow-up studies of ex-preterm neonates during their childhood and adolescence.

Selected Publications By Dr. KJS Anand:
Anand KJS, Peterson B, Hall RW. Gastric suction at birth: not an innocent bystander. Journal of Pediatrics, 2004 (in press).

Anand KJS, Hall RW, Desai NS, et al. Effects of pre-emptive morphine analgesia in ventilated preterm neonates: Primary outcomes from the NEOPAIN trial. The Lancet, 2004, 363: 1673-1682.

Anand KJS, Runeson B, Jacobson B. Gastric suction at birth associated with long-term risk for functional intestinal disorders in later life: A case-control study. Journal of Pediatrics, 2004; 144(4): 449-454.

Anand KJS, Soriano SG. Anesthetic agents and the immature brain: are these toxic or therapeutic agents? Anesthesiology 2004, 101(2): 527-530, 2004.

Liu JG, Rovnaghi CR, Garg S, Anand KJS. Hyperalgesia in young rats associated with opioid receptor desensitization in the forebrain. European Journal of Pharmacology, 2004; 491 (2-3): 127-136.

Anand KJS, Suresh S. Tracheal intubation in neonates, infants and children: Is there a right way? Critical Care Medicine, 2004; 32(2): 614-616.

Sharek PJ, Powers R, Koehn A, Anand KJS. Evaluation and development of potentially better practices to improve pain management of neonates. Pediatrics, 2004 (in press).

Anand KJS, Aranda JV, Berde CB, et al. Analgesia and anesthesia for neonates: Summary of findings from the FDA/NICHD Task Force. Pediatrics, 2004 (in press).

Simons SHP, van Dijk M, van Lingen RA, Roofthooft D, Duivenvoorden HJ, Jongeneel N, Bunkers C, Smink E, Anand KJS, van den Anker JN, Tibboel D.

Routine morphine infusion in preterm newborns who received ventilatory support: A randomized controlled trial. JAMA 290: 2419-2427, 2003.

Bouwmeester NJ, Hop WC, Van Dijk M, Anand KJS, et al. Postoperative pain in the neonate: age-related differences in morphine requirements and metabolism. Intensive Care Medicine 2003; 29(11): 2009-2015.

Simons SHP, van Dijk M, Anand KJS, et al. Do we still hurt newborn babies? A prospective study of procedural pain and analgesia in neonates. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Med. 157:1058-1064, 2003.