Body/Mind Healing: Dr. Dean Ornish
Dr. Dean Ornish on Meditation and Healing
East-West, July/August 1991 "Prescription for a Sick Heart" p2
"To underscore the point, Ornish tells of another volunteer who, although lowering his cholesterol from 271 to 192, still had not gotten it down to the point that Ornish thought it necessary for reversal of blockage to take place. But Ornish was wrong. Angiograms revealed that the man's arteries had opened up, and his risk of having another heart attack had lessened. He had followed all parts of the program. Daily, he did the yoga and meditation and other stress relief techniques. And he followed suggestions for opening himself up-to his own feelings, to other people, and to a Higher Power.
For him the emotional aspect of the program worked, dramatically so.""Fellow doctors are inclined to give Ornish a more careful hearing since the results of his study appeared in the prestigious Lancet. In the year long study, Ornish and a team of researchers followed 41 individuals with serious coronary disease whom they randomly divided into two groups. One group adopted Ornish's lifestyle program, while a control group was asked to continue following their doctors' recommendations, which generally included moderation of dietary fat (fat calories at roughly 30 percent of total caloric intake, versus Ornish's 10 percent), a moderate exercise program, and no smoking.
Both groups were tested at the beginning of the study and again one year later, using angiography and positron emission topography (PET) scans. By allowing doctors to see the inside of arteries, these tests enable them to know what effect a drug or dietary change has had on the arteries.
East-West, July/August 1991 "Prescription for a Sick Heart" p2
"To underscore the point, Ornish tells of another volunteer who, although lowering his cholesterol from 271 to 192, still had not gotten it down to the point that Ornish thought it necessary for reversal of blockage to take place. But Ornish was wrong. Angiograms revealed that the man's arteries had opened up, and his risk of having another heart attack had lessened. He had followed all parts of the program. Daily, he did the yoga and meditation and other stress relief techniques. And he followed suggestions for opening himself up-to his own feelings, to other people, and to a Higher Power.
For him the emotional aspect of the program worked, dramatically so.""Fellow doctors are inclined to give Ornish a more careful hearing since the results of his study appeared in the prestigious Lancet. In the year long study, Ornish and a team of researchers followed 41 individuals with serious coronary disease whom they randomly divided into two groups. One group adopted Ornish's lifestyle program, while a control group was asked to continue following their doctors' recommendations, which generally included moderation of dietary fat (fat calories at roughly 30 percent of total caloric intake, versus Ornish's 10 percent), a moderate exercise program, and no smoking.
Both groups were tested at the beginning of the study and again one year later, using angiography and positron emission topography (PET) scans. By allowing doctors to see the inside of arteries, these tests enable them to know what effect a drug or dietary change has had on the arteries.