Dean Ornish

Dean Ornish, M.D., is the founder, president, and director of the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, California. He is clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and a founder of the Osher Center for Integrative Medicine there. Dr. Ornish received an M.D. from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, was a clinical fellow in medicine at Harvard Medical School, and completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. For the past twenty-three years, Dr. Ornish has directed clinical research demonstrating--for the first time--that comprehensive lifestyle changes may begin to reverse even severe coronary heart disease, without drugs or surgery. He is the author of five bestselling books. His research and writings have been published in The Journal of the American Medical Association, The Lancet, Circulation, the New England Journal of Medicine, The American Journal of Cardiology, and elsewhere. A one-hour documentary of his work was broadcast on NOVA, the PBS science series, and was featured on Bill Moyers's PBS series Healing & the Mind. His work has appeared in virtually all major media. Dr. Ornish has received several awards, including the 1996 Beckmann Medal from the German Society for Prevention and Rehabilitation of Cardiovascular Diseases, the U.S. Army Surgeon General Medal, and the 1994 Outstanding Young Alumnus Award from the University of Texas, Austin. He is a member of the United Nations High Commission on Refugees. He was recognized as one of the most interesting people of 1996 by People magazine and by LIFE magazine as one of the fifty most influential members of his generation.