I want to get old gracefully. I want to have good posture, I want to be healthy and be an example to my children. ~ Sting
Dr. Dean Ornish is a medical doctor from California who has dedicated his life to diet and lifestyle research and their effect on disease. He is also well-known as an author advocating lifestyle changes to improve health.
He is the founder, president, and director of the non-profit Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California, where he holds the Safeway Chair and Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.
His first book on lifestyle changes and weight loss called Eat More; Weigh Less talked about Dr. Dean Ornish’s Life Choice Program for Losing Weight Safely While Eating Abundantly.
A study he released in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1998 showed that it was possible for heart disease to be prevented and reversed through comprehensive lifestyle changes. During this study healthy effects on obesity were observed too.
A earlier study on prostrate cancer; directed by Dr. Ornish, and Peter Carroll, MD, chair of the Department of Urology, both of the University Of California, San Francisco, and the late William Fair, MD, Chief of Urologic Surgery and Chair of Urologic Oncology, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center was released in the September 2005 issue of the Journal of Urology.
In that study after one year, the researchers found that psa levels (a protein marker for prostate cancer) decreased in men in the group who made comprehensive lifestyle changes but increased in the comparison group.
Also, they found that serum from the participants inhibited prostate tumor growth in vitro by 70 percent in the lifestyle-change group but only 9 percent in the comparison group.
His most recent study shows changes at the genetic level.
The researchers tracked 30 men with low-risk prostate cancer who decided against conventional medical treatment. The men underwent three months of major lifestyle changes. They lost weight, lowered their blood pressure and saw other health improvements; but most interesting; researchers also found the activity of disease-preventing genes increased while a number of disease-promoting genes, including those involved in prostate cancer and breast cancer, shut down.
Participants in the both studies were placed on a diet consisting primarily of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and legumes supplemented with soy, vitamins and minerals. They participated in moderate aerobic exercise, yoga/meditation, and a weekly support group session. A registered dietitian was available for consultation, and a nurse case manager contacted the participants regularly.
“It’s an exciting finding because so often people say, ‘Oh, it’s all in my genes, what can I do?’ Well, it turns out you may be able to do a lot,” Ornish, said in a telephone interview.
“‘In just three months, I can change hundreds of my genes simply by changing what I eat and how I live?’ That’s pretty exciting,” Ornish said. “The implications of our study are not limited to men with prostate cancer.”
For me this is one of the most exciting articles I have written; we can change oiur genes! How amazing!
by Trudy Scott Prevost; Rainbow Health and Wellness; Dominica
