Lifestyle Medicine

Ornish Lifestyle Medicine is the first and only program that is scientifically proven to reverse, treat, and prevent the progression of heart disease and other chronic diseases. Lifestyle medicine is a new paradigm of medicine using lifestyle changes to treat and even reverse chronic illnesses. Ornish Lifestyle Medicine is training hospitals, clinics, and physician groups throughout the country and achieving bigger changes in lifestyle, better clinical outcomes, larger cost savings, and better adherence than ever before documented.

Today, Ornish Lifestyle Medicine is reimbursed by Medicare and many other commercial payers, offered in more than 30 states, and delivered with a turnkey process that is optimized by decades of operating knowledge. Most importantly, it has empowered tens of thousands of people from across the country to take their lives back by transforming suffering into health and well-being.

Lifestyle Medicine

The Ornish Lifestyle Medicine program has been proven to reverse, treat, and prevent the progression of chronic diseases by dealing with the root causes and not just its effects. The combined effect of all four lifestyle elements makes the transformative difference.

EAT WELL: Enjoy nourishingly delicious meals and discover friendly ways to prepare them at home.

MOVE MORE: Experience the vitality that comes from daily moderate activity.

STRESS LESS: Learn a range of techniques to relax, release stress and react in healthier ways.

LOVE MORE: Give and receive emotional support to help unlock the healing power of community.

A Growing National Site Network

The Ornish Lifestyle Medicine site network is growing rapidly, including national partnerships with Medicare and many health insurance companies, including Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield in 14 states (including New York and California), Aetna, HMSA, Blue Shield of California, Highmark West Virginia and others. Some of these private insurers are also reimbursing for patients who have risk factors for coronary heart disease.

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Improved Conditions

In addition to heart disease, the Ornish Lifestyle Medicine program has been proven to reverse type 2 diabetes and may slow, stop, or even reverse the progression of early-stage prostate cancer.

Most people who were told that they would need to take drugs for the rest of their lives to lower their cholesterol levels, blood pressure, or blood sugar have been able to reduce or even discontinue these under their doctor’s supervision.

Changing your lifestyle also changes your genes—turning on (up-regulating) protective genes that help keep us healthy, and turning off (down-regulating) genes that cause oxidative stress, chronic inflammation, and the genes that promote prostate cancer, breast cancer, and colon cancer—over 500 genes in only three months. Our genes are a predisposition, but our genes are not our fate.

In collaboration with Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, who received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for her pioneering work with telomeres and telomerase, Dr. Ornish and his colleagues found that these lifestyle changes lengthened telomeres, the ends of our chromosomes that regulate longevity—in a real sense, beginning to reverse aging at a cellular level.

Health Benefits

Angina (chest pain) was reduced by over 90% and blood flow to the heart improved significantly in just three weeks.

After one year, coronary arteries became significantly less clogged, and there was even more improvement after five years.

Benefits often include:

Reduced risk of a heart-related event
Decreased chest pain (angina)
Lowered chances of needing future surgery
Lessened dependence on medications
Lowered cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar and lose weight
Increased amount of exercise you can do while making it more enjoyable
Manage stress more effectively
Become a part of an emotionally supportive and encouraging community
Improved overall quality of life