Is this for REAL: CHANGING LIFESTYLE CHANGES GENE EXPRESSION?

[Boule de feu]

What do you know about this?

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/ornish08/ornish08_index.html

 

[Wonko]

CBT propoganda from the looks of it - living in th UK I find it hard to have a positive view on anything claiming to be "evidence based"

 

[Chris]

Hey, catch up, you guys! Dean Ornish has been demonstrating (via high tech imaging) improvements in coronary artery flow and heart perfusion through lifestyle changes (diet, stress reduction via yoga and meditation etc.) for 25 years--read his early "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease," and his recent "Spectrum," in which he shows that this works for prostate cancer too, and probably would for breast cancer, but he can't demonstrate that for ethical reasons (won't explain now). This is solid science--read it! And for more on diet and gene expression, please read Colin Campbell, "The China Study," --he is Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell U, not another dumb diet book. Yes, you can have a gene, but some things can either turn it on and produce that protein, or keep it turned off, and the protein is not produced.

This does not mean, however, that it can totally suppress a retrovirus--there are limits, alas. But yes, in short, Dean Ornish is very much for real, and has long been one of my medical heroes. Read him! Best wishes, Chris

 

[Boule de feu]

Hey, catch up, you guys! Dean Ornish has been demonstrating (via high tech imaging) improvements in coronary artery flow and heart perfusion through lifestyle changes (diet, stress reduction via yoga and meditation etc.) for 25 years--read his early "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease," and his recent "Spectrum," in which he shows that this works for prostate cancer too, and probably would for breast cancer, but he can't demonstrate that for ethical reasons (won't explain now). This is solid science--read it! And for more on diet and gene expression, please read Colin Campbell, "The China Study," --he is Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell U, not another dumb diet book. Yes, you can have a gene, but some things can either turn it on and produce that protein, or keep it turned off, and the protein is not produced.

This does not mean, however, that it can totally suppress a retrovirus--there are limits, alas. But yes, in short, Dean Ornish is very much for real, and has long been one of my medical heroes. Read him! Best wishes, Chris

I wonder how they check if a gene has been switched on or off because of lifestyle changes? How can they be so sure that this is what made it switch in the first place? I will have to read about it. I'm too curious, now.

 

[MDL]

Hey, catch up, you guys! Dean Ornish has been demonstrating (via high tech imaging) improvements in coronary artery flow and heart perfusion through lifestyle changes (diet, stress reduction via yoga and meditation etc.) for 25 years--read his early "Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease," and his recent "Spectrum," in which he shows that this works for prostate cancer too, and probably would for breast cancer, but he can't demonstrate that for ethical reasons (won't explain now). This is solid science--read it! And for more on diet and gene expression, please read Colin Campbell, "The China Study," --he is Professor Emeritus of Nutritional Biochemistry at Cornell U, not another dumb diet book. Yes, you can have a gene, but some things can either turn it on and produce that protein, or keep it turned off, and the protein is not produced.

This does not mean, however, that it can totally suppress a retrovirus--there are limits, alas. But yes, in short, Dean Ornish is very much for real, and has long been one of my medical heroes. Read him! Best wishes, Chris

The China Study is worth reading.

 

[julius]

I haven't read his work, but I believe when he talks about gene expression he is talking about epigenetics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epigenetics.


i love this little bit from the Edge article;

In 1995, I had a conversation with the Administrator (director) of Medicare at the time. In that meeting, he said, "Dean, before I'll consider doing a Medicare demonstration project, you first need to get a letter from the director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health stating that your program is safe."

"You mean that it's safe as an alternative to bypass surgery or angioplasty?"

"No, just that it's safe."

I was incredulous. "You want me to get a letter saying that it's safe for older Americans to walk, meditate, quit smoking, and eat fruits and vegetables?"

"That's right."

 

[Chris]

Yes, it is a great look into the real workings and thinkings of the medical bureaucracy that rules in our world. Ornish also tells a story about going to a cardiology conference, and having a cardio say to him "you have got your hand in our pockets"--i.e. they have a right to make money doing bypasses and angioplasties, the hell with the patient's health and financial status; getting patients to change their diets and habits won't make cardiologists rich! (Unless they manage to write best sellers about what they are doing, as Ornish did). Chris

 

[*GG*]

I wonder how they check if a gene has been switched on or off because of lifestyle changes? How can they be so sure that this is what made it switch in the first place? I will have to read about it. I'm too curious, now.

Yes, good point!

 

[Boule de feu]

Yes, it is a great look into the real workings and thinkings of the medical bureaucracy that rules in our world. Ornish also tells a story about going to a cardiology conference, and having a cardio say to him "you have got your hand in our pockets"--i.e. they have a right to make money doing bypasses and angioplasties, the hell with the patient's health and financial status; getting patients to change their diets and habits won't make cardiologists rich! (Unless they manage to write best sellers about what they are doing, as Ornish did). Chris

It reminds me of a story I have heard on this subject. Actually, it was a book written by a great cardiologist who would refuse to operate on her patients unless they would commit to having better lifestyle habits. She would make them swear. She knew that her patients would not make it without this commitment. Aaaarrrghhh! I can't remember the author's name/ the book's title.