Dean Ornish Quotes

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Community Drugs Eating Exercise Healing Health Intimacy

Eating a vegetarian diet, walking (exercising) everyday, and meditating is considered radical. Allowing someone to slice your chest open and graft your leg veins in your heart is considered normal and conservative.

Dean Ornish

Heart, Exercise, Vegetarian Diet

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Think about it: Heart disease and diabetes, which account for more deaths in the U.S. and worldwide than everything else combined, are completely preventable by making comprehensive lifestyle changes. Without drugs or surgery.

Dean Ornish

Change, Death, Heart

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I don't understand why asking people to eat a well-balanced vegetarian diet is considered drastic, while it is medically conservative to cut people open and put them on cholesterol lowering drugs for the rest of their lives.

Dean Ornish

Food, Health, Cutting

"Hearts and Minds" by Roberto Suro, New York Times Magazine, December 29, 1991.

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Poor health is not caused by something you don't have; it's caused by disturbing something that you already have. Health is not something you need to get, it's something you have already if you don't disturb it.

Dean Ornish

Health, Needs, Care

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Love and intimacy are at the roots of what makes us sick and what makes us well, what causes sadness and what brings happiness, what makes us suffer and what leads to healing...I am not aware of any other factor in medicine- not diet, not smoking, not exercise, not stress, not genetics, not drugs, not surgery- that has a greater impact on our quality of life, incidence of illness and premature death from all causes.

Dean Ornish

Stress, Healing, Sadness

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People tend to think of breakthroughs in medicine as a new drug, a laser, or a high-tech surgical procedure. They often have a hard time believing that the simple choices that we make in our lifestyle. What we eat, how we respond to stress, whether or not we smoke cigarettes, how much exercise we get, and the quality of our relationships and support can be as powerful as drugs and surgery. And they often are.

Dean Ornish

Powerful, Stress, Believe

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At a time when 20% of people in the US go to bed hungry each night and almost 50% of the world's population is malnourished, choosing to eat more plant-based foods and less red meat is better for all of us-ourselves, our loved ones, and our planet.

Dean Ornish

Night, People, Red

FaceBook post by Dean Ornish, MD from Mar 12, 2012

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We all have an inner teacher, an inner guide, an inner voice that speaks very clearly but usually not very loudly. That information can be drowned out by the chatter of the mind and the pressure of day-to-day events. But if we quiet down the mind, we can begin to hear what we're not paying attention to. We can find out what's right for us.

Dean Ornish

Teacher, Voice, Intuition

Dean Ornish, M.D. (2010). “Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease: The Only System Scientifically Proven to Reverse Heart Disease Without Drugs orSurgery”, p.110, Ivy Books

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Stress is not so much what you do, but how you react to what you do.

Dean Ornish

Stress

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People who are lonely and depressed are three to 10 times more likely to get sick and die prematurely than those who have a strong sense of love and community. I don’t know any other single factor that affects our health - for better and for worse - to such a strong degree.

Dean Ornish

Lonely, Strong, People

"Dean Ornish Talks Lifestyle As Treatment At NYC’s Integrative Healthcare Symposium". The Huffington Post Interview, www.huffingtonpost.com. February 12, 2012.

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An educated patient is empowered; thus, more likely to become healthy.

Dean Ornish

Healthy, Patient, Educated

"Sharecare Builds A Web 3.0 Bridge To Better Health" by Dean Ornish, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 18, 2010.

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People don't dislike change, they dislike being changed.

Dean Ornish

People, Changed, Dislike

Twitter post from Jan 24, 2012

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When I talk about forgiveness, I mean letting go, not excusing the other person or reconciling with them or condoning the behavior. Just letting go of your own suffering.

Dean Ornish

Letting Go, Mean, Suffering

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I've found that if I tell somebody 'Eat this and don't do that,' it's not only not helpful, it's counterproductive because even more than being healthy, we want to feel free and in control, and as soon as somebody tells us to do something, there's a tendency to do just the opposite.

Dean Ornish

Opposites, Healthy, Want

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Real power is not given to us or even created; real power is realized. It comes from realizing an inner sense of peace, self-worth, and happiness.

Dean Ornish

Real, Self Worth, Power

Dean Ornish, M.D. (2010). “Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease: The Only System Scientifically Proven to Reverse Heart Disease Without Drugs or Surgery”, p.111, Ivy Books

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Love and intimacy are at the root of what makes us sick and what makes us well...I am not aware of any other factor in medicine-not diet, not smoking, not exercise-that has a greater impact.

Dean Ornish

Exercise, Impact, Roots

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The need for love and intimacy is a fundamental human need, as primal as the need for food, water, and air.

Dean Ornish

Air, Water, Needs

"Shining a Light in the Darkness" by Dean Ornish, www.huffingtonpost.com. November 1, 2012.

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Because the biological mechanisms that affect our health and well-being are so dynamic, when people change their diet and lifestyle, they usually feel so much better, so quickly; it reframes the reason for changing from fear of dying to joy of living. Also, the support that patients give each other is a powerful motivator.

Dean Ornish

Change, Powerful, People

"Dean Ornish Talks Lifestyle As Treatment At NYC’s Integrative Healthcare Symposium". www.huffingtonpost.com. February 12, 2012.

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When I use the word spirituality, I don't necessarily mean religion; I mean whatever it is that helps you feel connected to something that is larger than yourself.

Dean Ornish

Spiritual, Mean, Use

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Joy of living is sustainable; fear of dying is not.

Dean Ornish

Joy, Dying, Fear Of Dying

Dean Ornish, M.D. (2007). “The Spectrum: How to Customize a Way of Eating and Living Just Right for You and Your Family”, p.3, Ballantine Books

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Even more than feeling healthy, most people want to feel free and in control.

Dean Ornish

People, Healthy, Feelings

"How to Transform Your Lifestyle and Your Life (Part One)" by Dean Ornish, www.huffingtonpost.com. May 15, 2010.

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Over time, years of meditation gave me glimpses of the interconnectedness and interdependence of all life. I experienced that on one level we are alone, separate, apart from everyone and everything; on another level, we are the Self in different disguises, different names and forms, a part of everyone and everything. This experience of interconnectedness is part of spiritual traditions and the perennial wisdom in virtually all religions and cultures.

Dean Ornish

Spiritual, Self, Years

Dean Ornish (1998). “Love & Survival: The Scientific Basis for the Healing Power of Intimacy”

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The healing power of love and relationships has been documented in an increasing number of well-designed scientific studies involving hundreds of thousands of people throughout the world.

Dean Ornish

Healing, Numbers, People

Dean Ornish (1998). “Love & Survival: The Scientific Basis for the Healing Power of Intimacy”

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In general, losing weight is a good thing for those who are overweight, but it's important to lose weight in a way that enhances your health rather than one that may compromise it.

Dean Ornish

Important, Weight, May

"All Calories are Not the Same!" by Dean Ornish, www.huffingtonpost.com. April 6, 2009.

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Our survival depends on the healing power of love, intimacy and relationships. As individuals. As communities. As a country. As a culture. Perhaps even as a species.

Dean Ornish

Country, Healing, Community

Dean Ornish (1998). “Love & Survival: The Scientific Basis for the Healing Power of Intimacy”

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Born: July 16, 1953
Occupation: Physician
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