Everyday Health: Turning Back the Clock on Heart Disease

Lifestyle changes can undo damage to the heart. Here are some highlights from Dr. Ornish’s Everyday Health interview with staff writer Jennifer Brown.

Limitations of high-tech medicine have become increasingly clear, especially in the area of cardiovascular disease. 

Dr. Ornish: The traditional treatments for heart disease are drugs and surgery. More recently that’s been changing to some degree. In a 2012 consensus statement, the conclusion was that the mainstay for coronary heart disease should focus on eliminating all unhealthy behaviors. That’s really exciting to me! That’s a big change. There’s a convergence of forces that really make this the right idea at the right time. Limitations of high-tech medicine have become increasingly clear, especially in the area of cardiovascular disease. At the same time, we’ve been publishing studies now for 37 years — randomized trials — where we’re able to show for the first time that lifestyle changes alone can not only slow the progression of disease but can actually reverse it in most cases.

We found that these same lifestyle changes that can reverse heart disease could stop and reverse disease in men with early stage prostate cancer, could reverse type 2 diabetes, could change gene expression in over 500 genes.

EH: When you talk about disease reversal, is this the same as a cure?

Dr. Ornish: I think cure is too strong a word. I would prefer to say that instead of getting worse and worse — the so-called natural history of heart disease, which is not at all natural — that people can get better and better in most cases. The power of these very simple and low-cost interventions is becoming increasingly well documented. A randomized trial showed that the heart disease was improving in terms of the blood flow and the function of the heart. Then in the Lifestyle Trial there was some reversal in blockage of the arteries…whereas the control group got worse and worse. We found that these same lifestyle changes that can reverse heart disease could stop and reverse disease in men with early stage prostate cancer, could reverse type 2 diabetes, could change gene expression in over 500 genes, and most recently we found that we could actually lengthen telomeres, the ends of our chromosomes that control aging. Telomeres were longer by about 10 percent in people who went through our lifestyle program, and shorter in the control group.

For the full interview click here.