Ornish - Dr. Dean Ornishs Program for Reversing Heart Disease: The Only System Scientifically Proven to Reverse Heart Disease Without Drugs or Surgery

For Dean Ornishs cardiovascular patients, open heart doesnt mean bypass surgery. His is a spiritual sort of open heartas in open your heart. Ornish, with his noninvasive techniques, is accomplishing the same ends as are his scalpel-wielding colleagues.

The Washington Post

Revolution is brewing. Until very recently, doctors believed that the ravages of heart disease, the nations #1 killer, were irreversiblethat by the time cholesterol deposits had so choked the vital blood vessels feeding the heart as to bring on chest pains or heart attack, patients had no hope of ever again having a healthy heart. Now a growing body of research shows that people can actually clean out their coronary arteries. The first hard evidence that lifestyle changes aloneno drugs, no surgerycan set heart-disease patients on the road to improved health appeared in a study directed by Dr. Dean Ornish.

U.S. News & World Report

This is more than a book on reversing heart disease; it is a powerful and wise prescription for opening the heart in its deepest sense. Dr. Ornishs humanity, wit, and integrity shine through on every page, affirming the best of what medicine has to offer. You dont have to have heart disease to be healed through this extraordinary book and program.

J OAN B ORYSENKO , P H .D.

Dr. Ornishs research offers strong scientific evidence that lifestyle changes alone can actually reverse the progression of the atherosclerotic plaques in coronary arteries. These lifestyle changes can begin to reverse even severe coronary artery disease after only one year, without the use of cholesterol-lowering drugs.

C LAUDE L ENFANT , M.D.

Director, National Heart, Lung, & Blood Institute
National Institutes of Health

Strict changes in diet and lifestyle can not only prevent heart attacks but can actually reverse the clogging of the arteries according to a study conducted by Dr. Dean Ornish. The findings may have far-reaching implications for the treatment of severe heart disease, offering patients a low-risk alternative to cholesterol-lowering drugs, bypass operations, and angioplasty.

The New York Times

In his book, Ornish describes how changes in lifestyle alone, like reducing stress as well as fat, can effectively reverse heart disease.

Time

Dr. Ornishs landmark research validates the advice he provides.

A LEXANDER L EAF , M.D.

Chairman, Department of Preventive

Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology

Harvard Medical School

Dr. Ornishs program can lead to a better life as well as a longer one. It is the only program scientifically validated to begin reversing even severe coronary disease without using cholesterol-lowering drugs or surgery.

D R . S TEPHEN M. W EISS , P H .D.

Chief, Behavioral Medicine Branch

National Heart, Lung, & Blood Institute

National Institutes of Health

This is an epochal book. It sets a new standard in our understanding of heart disease, and it is the template against which all other books on any disease whatsoever should be judged. For the purity of the science on which it rests, and for the majesty of its spiritual wisdom, this book has no equal in the literature of medicine and health.

L ARRY D OSSEY , M.D.

Author of Recovering the Soul

Dr. Ornish is on the right road and we need to get on it also.

W ILLIAM C. R OBERTS , M.D.

Editor in Chief

American Journal of Cardiology

For the first time, we have a carefully done scientific study that shows, even in advanced stages, this disease can be reversed with lifestyle changes. This is a landmark study.

Readers Digest

Sale of this book without a front cover may be unauthorized. If this book is coverless, it may have been reported to the publisher as unsold or destroyed and neither the author nor the publisher may have received payment for it.

An Ivy Book

Published by The Random House Publishing Group

Copyright 1990, 1996 by Dean Ornish, M.D.

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Ivy Books, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and simultaneously in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.

Owing to limitations of space, all acknowledgments for permission to reprint previously published material may be found on , which constitute an extension of this copyright page.

Ivy Books and colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.

www.ballantinebooks.com

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 95-94897

ISBN 0-8041-1038-7

eBook ISBN: 978-0-307-76367-9

This edition published by arrangement with Random House, Inc.

First Ballantine Books Trade Edition: September 1991

First Ballantine Books Mass Market Edition: February 1996

v3.1

Contents

Introduction to the Recipes by
Shirley Elizabeth Brown, M.D., and
Martha Rose Shulman

The Opening Your Heart program is an adjunct to, not a substitute for, conventional medical therapy. If you have coronary heart disease or other health problems, please consult your physician before beginning this program. Each person is different, and so this book is not suggesting that you do or do not have bypass surgery, angioplasty, other medical procedures, or take medications. These choices are personal decisions, ones that you should make only after talking with your physician. If you are taking cardiac medications, your physician may wish to decrease or discontinue some or all of these if your blood pressure, cholesterol level, or clinical status improve. Do not make any changes in your medication regimen without consulting your doctor; it can be very dangerous to suddenly stop taking some drugs.

In this book, the term heart disease is understood to mean coronary heart disease unless otherwise noted.

Except where indicated, the names of the patients who participated in our study have not been changed. All of these patients have given permission to publish their names as a way of sharing with you what they have learned and experienced.

No treatment program, including drugs, surgery, or lifestyle changes, is effective for everyone. The program described in this book may not cause reversal of coronary artery disease in everyone who follows it. Some people may become worse despite any treatments or lifestyle changes.

One of my goals in writing this book is to help increase your understanding of heart disease. Another goal is to strengthen the communication between you and your doctor. In this context, you may wish to share this book with him or her. Discuss it with your doctor so that the two of you can work together more effectively to help you achieve greater health and happiness.