Dean Ornish, MD
// Clinical Professor of Medicine, University of California
// Founder and President, Preventive Medicine Research Institute
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“One of the seven most powerful teachers in the world.”
For the last three decades Dr. Dean Ornish’s programs have been teaching millions of people to think about how the lifestyle choices they make directly impacts their health and wellbeing.
In a series of scientific research studies Dr. Dean Ornish has shown that changes in diet and lifestyle not only halve the progress of coronary artery disease, but also they are able to reverse it. As a leader in healthcare delivery, clinical research and medicine Dr. Ornish has also been a physician consultant to former US President Bill Clinton.
In a healthcare game changer, Medicare in the US recently agreed to provide coverage for Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease. This is the first time that Medicare has covered a program of comprehensive lifestyle changes.
We filmed with Dr. Ornish in San Francisco where we spoke with some of the participants of a trial to measure the affect of his programs on prostate cancer. The research found that the program could slow, stop or even reverse the progression of early-stage prostate cancer.
“So often I hear people say, ‘Oh, I’ve just got bad genes, it’s all in my genes, what can I do?’ You know, actually you can do a lot. For the last 36 years I’ve directed a series of research studies showing what a powerful difference changes in diet and lifestyle can make not only in preventing disease, but actually including often reversing it.”
Dr. Ornish also recently partnered with Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2009, to show that his programs lengthen telomeres, the ends of our chromosomes that control aging.
The reputation of Dr. Ornish has been heightened by the publication of six best-selling books, including Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease, Eat More, Weigh Less, and Love & Survival. LIFE Magazine considers him one of the 50 most influential members of his generation.
“I’ve spent my whole life professionally documenting what a powerful difference these simple changes can make. You know, we think it has to be a new laser or something really high tech and expensive, a new drug, a surgical technique. We are showing that these very simple choices that we make in our lives each day have a powerful impact on our lives.”
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