Dean Ornish

Dean Ornish is a renowned American physician, researcher, and author whose life’s work has focused on helping people reclaim their health and lives through lifestyle medicine. He is the founder of the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute and the creator of the world-renowned Ornish Program for Reversing Heart Disease, which has helped millions of people around the world improve their overall health and well-being.

Dr. Ornish was born in Dallas, Texas in 1953 and attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he earned his bachelor's degree, and later went to the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas where he received his medical degree. After graduation, he trained and practiced as a clinician in Houston and then at the Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital. He subsequently pursued a research fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

Since then, his work has been featured in more than 200 scientific publications and was the first to demonstrate that comprehensive lifestyle changes may begin to reverse the progression of even severe coronary heart disease, without drugs or surgery. His groundbreaking research was published in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) and has since become the foundation of evidence-based lifestyle medicine.

His work has been featured in Time, Newsweek, and on ABC, NBC, and CBS News. He has appeared on Oprah and Larry King Live, as well as numerous other television programs. He is the recipient of the Presidential National Medal of the Technology and Innovation from President Clinton.

He has written several books, including the best-selling “Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease”, which focuses on lifestyle changes as the way to reverse heart disease without drugs or surgery. “Eat More, Weigh Less” describes the Ornish Method of Nutritional Eating, and “The Spectrum”, which is a science-based approach to individualized eating that allows readers to personalize their approach to healthy eating.

Dr. Ornish also wrote the book “The Myth of Hot Air” which tackled the idea that there is a "cure" for everything and that pills and treatments cannot replace a healthy lifestyle. Additionally, his work has been featured in “Put Your Heart On”, which looks at how unhealthy diets, inactivity, and smoking are turning coronary heart disease into a global epidemic.

His most recent book is The Lifestyle Heart Trial: The Revolutionary Program that Reverses Heart Disease, which further explores and explains the Ornish Program for Reversing Heart Disease and how to prevent it through lifestyle changes. He also co-authored “The Healthiest Diet on the Planet” with his son, Sasha, which outlines their plant-based foods diet for health, fitness, and longevity.

The work of Dr. Dean Ornish has been instrumental in changing how people view and approach the treatment of heart disease. He has shown that comprehensive lifestyle changes can not only help mitigate but actually reverse the progression of coronary heart disease and improve individual overall health. He believes that simple changes in diet and lifestyle can be powerful aids to improving and maintaining better health.