Reversing Alzheimer’s Disease: Dr. Dean Ornish’s Vegan Lifestyle Program (Part 2 of 2)

“And so in our approach, we say look – everything that we're doing we know is independently linked with heart disease. There's certainly a lot of evidence that exercise is good for you, that managing stress is good for you, that a healthy diet is good for you, that love and support is good for you. And there's a synergy that comes when you do all these things at the same time. So unlike most things we do as doctors, the only side effects of these are good ones. So we're saying, taken as a whole, we're getting these outcomes.”

The program is built on four pillars, and the first is food. The dietary intervention used in Dr. Ornish’s Alzheimer’s study, just as in his heart disease, cancer, and DNA research, is a whole-food, low-fat, high-carbohydrate vegan diet. Participants were encouraged to avoid processed foods, including oils, processed flour, white rice, and processed sugar. The second pillar in the Ornish Lifestyle Program is stress reduction through meditation, yoga, and breathwork. “Our mind affects our body for better and for worse. There’s a powerful connection between what we feel and what happens to us.”

In the Alzheimer’s study, participants were encouraged to walk for 30 minutes per day and to engage in three 30-minute strength-training sessions, adapted to their abilities. Love More is the final pillar of the Ornish Lifestyle Program. Loneliness and social isolation are associated with increased risk of dementia. Patients who embraced the Ornish Lifestyle Program reported many improvements, including regaining the ability to do things that had given them a sense of self-determination, self-satisfaction, and self-sufficiency.