The Ornish Spectrum Prevention Program provides individuals and their family members with a full range of nutrition and lifestyle choices in how to:

• Feel better
• Live longer
• Lose weight
• Gain health

Participants will also learn about the whole foods, low fat nutrition plan that is tailored by the program’s registered dietitian:

• Recipes
• Cooking demonstrations to enjoy
• Eating out tips
• Nutrition label reading

The Spectrum is a lifestyle program that can be tailored to suit almost everyone.

This program is about assessing where you are on “The Spectrum”

• How healthy am I?
• Am I at risk?
• Could I be healthier?
• How can I reduce my risk?

You may have risk factors, such as:

• A family history of diseases - If you have a strong family history, or if genetic testing shows you to be at higher risk, then this information can be a powerful motivator to make bigger changes in diet and lifestyle than you might have otherwise made.
• Lifestyle behaviors that contribute to risk - If you’re trying to reverse heart disease or prevent the incidence and recurrence of cancer, you may need the “pound of cure”—that is, bigger changes in diet and lifestyle than someone who just wants to lower their cholesterol levels a few points or lose a few pounds.

By learning to adapt to the lifestyle behaviors of the Ornish Prevention Program, individuals and their family members can decrease the risk for developing chronic conditions, as well as to manage:

• Diabetes
• High blood pressure
• Heart disease
• Obesity
• Cancer

In short, our scientific studies have demonstrated that the more people changed their diet and lifestyle and the longer they maintained these changes, the better they felt.

The primary determinant of the degree of improvement is not age, disease severity or genetics; it is the degree of change in diet and lifestyle.

Among the many benefits, they noticed:

• A decrease in chest discomfort
• Improved sleeping habits
• More energy…immediately.

Patients have better adherence and clinical outcomes than have ever been reported from a program of comprehensive lifestyle changes.

Here are the latest findings from all of the 3,780 patients who went through Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease via Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield in Pennsylvania, Nebraska, and West Virginia as of October 2011:

• Overall attendance after 1 year was 87.9%;
• 45.2% of these patients had heart disease– 34.0% had type 2 diabetes, and the others had only risk factors (high blood pressure, cholesterol, or weight), yet adherence was comparable in all categories of patients (85-90% after 1 year);
• The average patient lost 13.3 pounds in the first 12 weeks and 15.9 pounds after 1 year;
• Significant reductions in systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, triglycerides, and LDL-cholesterol after 12 weeks were still significant after 1 year;
• Exercise capacity increased from 8.7 to 10.6 METS after 12 weeks (18% increase) and to 10.8 METS after one year (24% increase);
• Significant reductions in depression and hostility (the emotions most strongly linked with heart disease) after 12 weeks that were still significant after 1 year;
• Hemoglobin A1C in diabetics decreased from 7.4% at baseline to 6.5% after 12 weeks and 6.8% after one year (complications of diabetes such as blindness, kidney failure, heart disease, and amputations can be prevented when hemoglobin A1C is less than 7.0%);
• 96.5% of patients reported improvement in severity of angina (chest pain) after 1 year.