Dean Ornish

Dean Ornish (* July 16, 1953 in Dallas, Texas, United States) is an American physician.

Life

Born in Dallas Ornish put the school leaving examination in his hometown at Hillcrest High School. Subsequently, he earned a bachelor's degree in Human Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin and then went to Houston where he earned his doctorate at Baylor College of Medicine. Further studies joined the Harvard Medical School in Boston. At Massachusetts General Hospital, he worked as an assistant doctor and found his first steady job. Ornish began to do research in the field of heart disease in the late 1970s as a student. In July 1984 he began the Lifestyle Heart Study in San Francisco. It was a controlled study on the success of a low-fat diet associated with a stress management in a small group of heart patients.

Therapy

Ornish has developed a specific therapy for the treatment of heart disease, is to make the operations unnecessary. Part of this is the so-called Ornish diet. It is strictly vegetarian and limits the fat content in the diet to ten percent of the recorded amount of calories and cholesterol intake to only five milligrams daily. The cardiologists of the American Association American Heart Association ( AHA) recommended fat percentage was up to 30% of caloric intake and 300 mg of cholesterol daily. The proportion of carbohydrates is about 75 percent, the proportion of protein about 15 percent. The only allowed animal products are very low-fat dairy and egg whites. Sugar is permitted in small quantities, coffee and tea are prohibited. To avoid deficiency, Ornish recommends dietary supplements such as multivitamins, folic acid, selenium, flaxseed oil and fish oil for women for men.

In addition to the dieting is carried out as a smoking cessation group therapy, and the change in diet to extremely low-fat diet. The groups practice beyond yoga and meditation.

Results of a study were published in the late 1980s. They showed that myocardial injury were decreased by coronary atherosclerosis in many patients. Ornish aroused great attention for its therapeutic approach. He believes that stress management, preventing social isolation and mental breakdown pressure large share of the therapy success.

Ornish is a permanent member of the medical faculty of the University of California at San Francisco and president and director of the Research Institute of Preventive Medicine near Sausalito.

Studies

Ornish published in the late 1980s includes the results of a randomized study conducted by himself for the treatment of coronary heart disease with his therapy concept that exercise, relaxation and diet. However, only 22 patients were enrolled for a year part. In 82 percent of this small group, the vasoconstriction of the arteries decreased by an average of 2.2 percent. The 20 patients of the control group fed on the recommendations of the American Heart Association; with them, there was an increase in the stenosis by an average of 3.4 percent. 20 patients in the experimental and 15 in the control group participated in a four-year follow-up study. The results suggest that the arteriosclerosis of the Ornish group declined by 7.9 percent, while there was a deterioration in the control group, although 60 percent of these participants took lipid-lowering drugs. The LDL - cholesterol levels in the experimental group were 20 percent lower than at the beginning after five years; However, here, there was no significant difference to the comparison group. The weight loss by the Ornish diet after one year was approximately ten kilograms after five years, only five kilograms. In the comparison group, the weight of the participants did not change much. Within five years there were in the control group 45 so-called " cardiac events " in the Ornish group showed only 25 A positron emission tomography scan, that the progression of coronary heart disease in almost all patients in this group had to stop leave.

The fact that the Ornish diet positively affected when not sick and in a year cardiovascular risk factors leads to a significant weight loss, has not been confirmed in independent studies. 2005, the result of a study from Boston was published, in which 160 people for one year that practiced a different diet into four groups; one of them was the Ornish diet. A preliminary investigation was the influence on cardiovascular risk factors. Half of the Ornish group gave up within the test period, the strict fat restriction was held by virtually no one. After a year of fat percentage was recorded at an average of 35 percent instead of ten. The weight loss was 6.6 percent and corresponded to that of the other diets, including the Atkins diet. The LDL cholesterol levels decreased by an average of 25 mg / dl, but the HDL value did not increase. The blood sugar levels dropped in the fasting state ( empty stomach) most of all four groups by 8.2 mg / dl.

An American study from 2007, when again the effect of four diets - Atkins, Ornish, Zone diet, and LEARN - were compared in four groups, the Ornish group took an average of only 2.2 kg from within a year. The influence on the measured cholesterol and insulin levels as well as blood pressure were small. At participated in the study between 20 and 50 years Women who suffered neither from diabetes mellitus or heart disease.

Works

• Stress, Diet, and Your Heart, NN, 1982
• D. Ornish, LW shear joke, RS Doody, D. Kesten, SM McLanahan, SE Brown et al.: Effects of stress management training and dietary changes in Treating ischemic heart disease. JAMA, 249: 54, 1983
• D. Ornish et al. (1990 ): Can lifestyle changes reverse coronary heart disease? The Lifestyle Heart Trial. Lancet July 21, 336 ( 8708 ): pp. 129-133.
• Revolution in cardiac therapy. Luechow, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-363-03108-4
• The revolutionary therapy: healing with love. Goldmann, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-442-16348- X
• Heart Healthy diet Heyne, Munich 2000, ISBN 3-453-17178-0
• Eat more, weigh less. Earthscan, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-426-76124-6