Dean Ornish on Sustainable Lifestyle Choices

Imagine this. A friend has been diagnosed with an early stage, slow growing prostate cancer. After talking with his phyician he decided to start making some lifestyle changes instead. He started exercising. Then he changed his eating habits, took fish oil. First one thing, then another. After three months of significant lifestyle interventions something astonishing happened. His genes changed.    

        

I don't know about you but the thought that the lifestyle changes -- like my cycling for example, or your daily 3-mile run -- may actually change my genes sends chills up my spine.  And this was only one of the incredibly hopeful points that Dean Ornish, MD, founder of the nonprofit Preventative Medicine Research Institute (pmri.org) and clinical professor of medicine at UCSF made Tuesday at a lecture sponsored by MD Anderson's Integrative Medicine Program Lecture Series (CIMER).  Here's what Dr. Ornish had to say:

1) Our genes are not our fate.  

The example above is from an actual study conducted at PMRI and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (http://bit.ly/bXc8WO) 2008.  Thirty men with low-risk prostate cancer -- who had decided not to undergo conventional treatment -- were biopsied at the beginning of the study and then three months after making comprehensive lifestyle changes.  Those changes in part included meditation, yoga-based-stretching, and a weekly support group in addition to a plant-based diet and moderate exercise.  
        In a column published in Newsweek the same year, Dr. Ornish wrote, "We found that many disease-promoting genes (including those associated with cancer, heart disease, and inflammation) were down-regulated or 'turned off,' where as protective disease-preventing genes were up-regulated or 'turned-on.'...Dr. Craig Venter's pioneering research is showing that one way to change your genes is to synthesize new ones.  Another may be to change your lifestyle."
       Another thing that the researchers found, is apparent in the example. "Your body has a remarkable capacity for healing itself & doing so much faster than we imagined."  Conditions once considered impossible to change...may not be. 

2) Sustainable lifestyle changes are based on joy, pleasure and freedom.

Thirty years of investigating the power of lifestyle choices have revealed what works. "Fear is not a sustainable motivator.  There's no point in giving up something unless you gain something in returned,” he said. “I’d rather see us thinking about lifestyle as an actual treatment plan and not a preventative measure.”  Promoting health, instead of preventing illness, for example.
        Dr. Ornish eventually channeled his findings into a program and book titled, The Spectrum, a scale of choices in diet, exercise, stress reductions and nutritional supplements that can be applied for chronic diseases, including cancer.  "To the degree that you move in a healthier direction along this spectrum," said, " you're likely to look better, feel better, lose weight and gain health.  Then it's much easier to maintain the changes."  He wants to see people make informed choices -- not from fear -- but from an understanding of what they can do for their own health. “It's not ‘all or nothing,’ he said.  “We need to put together programs for eating and living based on what's right for the individual.” 

3)  Community builds health.

“Anything that removes our sense of community decreases health.  What ultimately frees us from our suffering  are altruism. Compassion. And love.  We can’t always cure but we can ALWAYS help people heal.”

For more information on Dean Ornish, MD, and the Preventative Medicine Research Institute: http://www.pmri.org/