Forbes: Dr. Dean Ornish Partners with Healthways to Expand Impact
Our ability to connect with others and ourselves is at the root 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.
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In a recent interview on Forbes.com, Dr. Ornish and Bob Porter, the Managing Partner for the new Dr. Dean Ornish Program for Reversing Heart Disease (Intensive Cardiac Rehabilitation) at Healthways, sat down with Forbes’ contributor Devin Thorpe to talk about the program’s approach to changing the way we treat heart disease.
My colleagues and I have partnered with Healthways to help create a new paradigm of real health care
Dr. Dean Ornish, a social entrepreneur at heart, has spent his entire career working to improve health through lifestyle changes. Now, he’s partnered with Healthways to implement a program to reverse heart disease without surgery or medication. This radical approach to cardiac treatment is proving the value of collaboration for social entrepreneurs. Dr. Ornish, who is a familiar name and face in the media, highlights some of the problems with the American health care system. He notes:
- Most of the $3.0 trillion spent annually on health care in the U.S. is spent on sick care
- A shocking 25 percent of the adult population, 60 million people, are taking cholesterol-lowering drugs
“My colleagues and I have partnered with Healthways to help create a new paradigm of real health care by addressing the personal lifestyle choices we make that are often an underlying cause of many chronic diseases,” Dr. Ornish notes. Bob Porter, the Managing Director for the new Dr. Dean Ornish Program for Reversal of Cardiac Disease at Healthways, commented specifically on heart disease, “Chronic disease, and specifically cardiac disease, is a growing clinical and financial crisis in the US and other parts of the world.” Porter adds, “Through decades of rigorous research, Dr. Dean Ornish has proven that adoption of a healthy lifestyle rooted in four, integrated elements – diet, exercise, stress management, and love and support – can not only prevent the onset of chronic disease but actually reverse the progression of disease process.”
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