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Heart Disease & Dr Dean Ornish
Heart Disease & Dr Dean Ornish
1 Oct 2020
Disclaimer
Ornish Reversal Program

The Ornish Reversal Program was established by Dr Dean Ornish. This program is centered around a Whole Food Plant-Based diet for combating heart disease.

Is Ornish Reversal Program covered by health insurance? In 2010, Medicare (US Government health insurance system) approved the Ornish Reversal Program for rehabilitation of heart patients. Today, the program is covered by several other health insurance providers — see list of providers.

What's the quality of scientific evidence behind Ornish Reversal Program? A 37-page summary called Ornish Literature Review has a step by step buildup of a 'story' over 30+ years. It explains, 'in 2019, why do we feel reasonably confident that the Ornish Reversal Program reverses heart disease'? Note that we're talking about 'reversal', not merely 'management'. An animated timeline of his major publications from 1978, 1983, 1990, 1998, 2005, 2008, 2010, 2013 is presented at Undo It webpage (scroll down to see "The Proof" timeline).

Videos
TED Talk in 2004

The same talk is available at TED.com (17 mins, 2004). Dean Ornish's talk is not focused on heart disease alone. He talks about healing through diet in general.

The Struggle To Get The Message Out

(9 mins, Oct 2014).

Books by Dr Dean Ornish?

Dr Dean Ornish's Landmark Studies

In 1990, Dr Dean Ornish surprised the medical community by demonstrating through a randomized controlled trial that heart disease could be reversed in a majority of patients! His interventions were fourfold: (a) a low-fat vegetarian diet, (b) no alcohol, (c) walk half an hour every day, and (d) pursue stress reduction activities like yoga and meditation.

Before Ornish's work, nobody in the medical community believed that heart disease could be reversed. Soon after publication of his initial research in 1990, Dean Ornish convinced an insurance company to try his program on patients scheduled for bypass surgeries. The results were fantastic: patients didn't need surgery. As a result, the insurance company saved about $30K per patient.

20 years later, Medicare adopted the Ornish Reversal Program. Many other health insurance companies followed.

Note: Since 1990, our understanding of relationship between lifestyle and heart disease has improved. In fact, a Whole Food Plant-Based community has come into being. For the latest guideline and optimal results, I encourage my friends to adopt Dr Esselstyn's food system, which is stricter than Ornish's original studies. Also, there is no emphasis on meditation or stress management; there is a lot more emphasis on food.

Who is Dean Ornish? Some of my Indian friends refuse to believe that heart disease can be cured. They wonder, "Who is Dean Ornish? How come I have never heard of him?" To help them, I point them to the Wikipedia Page for Dean Ornish. Dean Ornish's original research paper was published in The Lancet ("Can lifestyle changes reverse coronary heart disease?", 1990) which is a top-notch medical journal. Dean Ornish is also the family doctor for former US President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary Clinton. He influenced Bill Clinton to change his diet after he had a heart attack in office.

Dean Ornish's Indian Spiritual Connection

In late 1970s, how did Dean Ornish get the idea that a very low-fat diet without meat, without alcohol, with some mild exercise (walking for half an hour), and some relaxation technique (yoga and meditation) could reverse heart disease? These interventions were the basis of his 1990 study that demonstrated that heart disease could be 'reversed' (not just 'managed' but 'reversed'). The story is captured in a New York Times article from 1998: Scientist at Work: Dean Ornish.

Excerpt from New York Times article (1998):

"It was almost a matter of happenstance that Dr. Ornish found his calling. It happened in 1972 when he dropped out of Rice University in Houston to recover from mononucleosis and depression. At his parents' home in Dallas, Dr. Ornish met Sri Swami Satchidananda, who had been teaching Dr. Ornish's older sister meditation and relaxation techniques. Dr. Ornish asked the swami to help him, too.

''He said, 'Become a vegetarian.' '' Dr. Ornish recalled. ''I said, 'Fine,' '' He said the swami also told him to meditate, practice yoga, exercise and to ''always do something to help someone.'' The swami ''gave me my program,'' Dr. Ornish said. ''I felt better. I felt peaceful.''

Inspired by this experience, Dr. Ornish began a small study several years later, when he was in medical school at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He would see if the program the swami taught him might reverse heart disease.

He found 10 patients. Half chose to follow his program; the others did not. ''I taught yoga and led exercise sessions. I taught nutrition,'' Dr. Ornish said. And he led the participants in a support group where, he said, they shared what he describes as their pain and loneliness. Dr. Ornish said the patients who followed his program ended up with lower blood levels of cholesterol, less chest pain and improved heart function. He followed with his one-month study of 48 patients.

He wrote a book, ''Stress, Diet & Your Heart'' (New American Library) that was copyrighted in 1982, but came out early in January 1983, at about the same time as a scientific paper describing his findings. In 1984 he started his Preventive Medicine Institute and began another study to see if he could detect an actual reversal of atherosclerosis in patients who followed his program. He published a paper in 1990 while, that same year, he published a book, ''Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease'' (Ballantine Books), which climbed to No. 3 on The New York Times best-seller list."

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