Dean Ornish

Ornish begins with some scary statistics. Forty million Americans have been *diagnosed* with cardiovascular disease. Obviously there are many more who don’t even know they have it. Sixty million people have high blood pressure. Eighty million people have elevated cholesterol levels. And over 1.5 million American shave heart attacks every year. These facts alone should be enough to scare you into reading this book.

Ornish and his colleagues found that medications for these conditions don’t show more always work. They believe that comprehensive lifestyle changes to lower stress levels, eat healthier, and exercise more, can, however, make a difference, and telling you how to do that forms the bulk of this book.

This book is divided into three parts. Part one gives an overview of research about how lifestyle factors affect heart disease, for better or worse. Part two is a “how-to” section for help not only in preventing heart disease but reversing it. Part three is a cookbook with over 150 recipes for healthy eating.

I highly recommend this book. Even if you just make partial changes based on your reading, it may help you live longer. show less

The Spectrum by Dean Ornish, M.D. details the research Dr. Ornish and others have done regarding maintaining health and preventing disease. Dr. Ornish delves into the effects of food, stress, exercise, and attitude on health. He explains that the research reveals that while general healthy eating works for everyone, there are aspects of any diet that won't. Some people respond differently to different things based on their genetic makeup and other factors. Ornish provides insight into the show more idea of thinking prevention rather than cure. He explains that many diseases are related to diet and lifestyle and can be completely avoided if people are willing to change their diet, exercise more, and embrace meditation. Ornish teamed up with Art Smith to create recipes for the book. Some of the recipes sound delicious but several use ingredients I find suspect at best casting some doubt on the veracity of the book. I've yet to make any of the recipes, but they sound easy enough. I'll never make many of the recipes in this book because I eat a vegan, oil-free, primarily whole food diet. I watched the meditation DVD that came with The Spectrum and am looking forward to using it when I need a little aid with my meditation. The Spectrum is an interesting book based on research that provides solutions for those seeking to improve their health. show less

This is a very, very restricted diet, yet very much not a fad diet. It's actually backed by science, and Doctor Ornish actually is well known in the medical community for being able to reverse blockages to the heart using diet, instead of surgery or drugs. So this actually isn't snake oil, but rooted in science, and the focus of the diet isn't actually losing weight, but getting healthy. The down side? Well, this diet bans meat, poultry, fish and seafood--which may be fine for vegetarians, show more but hard on the rest of us. He also bans avocados and nuts and seeds--which would also be hard on vegetarians. And is arguably unnecessary, because as noted in a review of the diet on WebMD:

Frank Hu, MD, PhD, assistant professor of medicine at the Harvard School of Public Health, is critical of how severely fat is limited on the diet. "The data from numerous studies show that it is the type of fat, rather than the total amount, which is related to cardiovascular health," he says. "Polyunsaturated and monounsaturated oils actually protect against cardiovascular incidents." For example, Hu says, Ornish advocates limiting the consumption of fish and nuts, and Hu adds, "There is strong evidence that the fat in them is protective against coronary heart disease in both epidemiological studies and clinical trials."

Translation--salmon and walnuts are good for you! Still, this is much, much healthier than most diets out there, it doesn't require calorie counting, and even if you decide not to rigidly follow it, this book offers tasty and healthy recipes for Appetizers, Salads, Soups, Main Courses and Side Dishes, Pasta, Pizza, Bread, Rice and other grain dishes and Desserts. So recommended, even if with a grain of the proverbial salt. show less

I believe in life style medicine, which is what Dr. Ornish offers in this book. I chose it over traditional medical practices whenever I can. I am a life long vegetarian part time vegan now so his diet choices are not far off from my daily diet. I have read his previous books but really enjoyed the way this one was set up with a quick start easy program. It is really so simple and written so clearly. There was a more personal touch feel to this book, with his wife's involvement. It really in show more complete with exercise suggestions and recipes. I will purchase a copy of this to give to my mother who goes to a Dr. that never tells her to change her lifestyle, he just gives her a new pill. Bravo Dr. Ornish I love how you set this one up.
Thank you to the publisher for gifting me a copy for an honest review show less