In 1984, Yusuf moved to the
National Institutes of Health in the United States, where he led clinical trials that showed the value of
ACE inhibitors in people with
left ventricular dysfunction and the optimal use of
digoxin). From 1999 to 2004, he also held an appointment as a senior scientist at the
Canadian Institutes of Health Research. In 2011, he was the world's second-most-cited cardiology researcher, where he initiated the Emerging Leaders Program which is now named after him.
Views on saturated fat and salt intake and their relationship to cardiovascular disease Yusuf has disputed the prevailing view in the medical community that increased consumption of
saturated fat and
dietary sodium causes
cardiovascular disease and has questioned dietary guidelines that call for reduction in their intake. In 2017, Yusuf spoke at the Cardiology Update 2017 symposium in which he disputed the saturated fat guidelines whilst admitting he is not an expert in nutrition. He stated that a higher saturated fat intake is protective and eating more
dietary carbohydrates is harmful. These ideas were criticized by other medical researchers and nutritionists such as
David L. Katz, who described them as "bizarre" and "misguided". In 2018, he co-authored a controversial paper which argued that sodium intake is associated with cardiovascular disease only in communities where mean intake is greater than 5 g/day. ==Honours==