All those affairs of the heart
Mustaqim Kazi is enthused by a work on handling coronary problems
7 December 2007, 18:00 PM
Dr. Dean Ornish's Program for Reversing Heart Disease
Ivy Books, New York
The book was The New York Times bestseller. Magazine and newspaper reviews showered praises on it. More praises are still coming. The book, from Dr. Dean Ornish, on coronary heart disease, quickly caught the attention of heart patients and health experts, especially the cardiologists. Heart patients are getting immense health benefits by following the lifestyle prescription Dr. Dean Ornish advises them to follow. The book tells the reader, and convincingly so, how blockages in the coronary arteries may begin to reverse, even when the disease is at the advanced stage. That also without surgery and cholesterol lowering drugs.
And exactly this is so. Dr. Dean Ornish conducted a landmark research on patients who had moderate or severe heart disease. He asked the research participants to follow a program, the Opening Your Heart Program that included managing stress, quitting smoking, exercise and a planned diet. After only a year, Dr. Ornish found the result was very encouraging. Even the patients with the severest of the disease began to experience a new life. Their angina pain was greatly reduced or totally disappeared. Their coronary artery disease, the atherosclerotic plaques inside the artery blocking smooth flow of blood into the heart, began to reverse. Many patients who had been advised to do bypass surgery did not have to go through this risky and costly procedure. Almost all patients came up with similar unique experiences of hopefulness, after one year of following the programme. The book notes some of these experiences of the patients in detail for the readers in their own words. This makes the point of the book all the more striking. Read, for example, a study participant's experience of this program: "I began this program over four years ago because I had severe heart disease, diabetes, and terrible chest pains. Now I feel a lot younger. I feel more relaxed than I ever have. I don't have any heart pains like I used to. And I have much more energy than I've had in a long time."
Dr. Dean Ornish has reproduced these epoch making findings for heart patients in this book, originally named by him as Opening Your Heart, that had, however, poetic or philosophical overtones. But the publisher of the book wanted to be more specific and down-to-earth to choose the present name, Dr. Dean Ornish's Program For Reversing Heart Disease with a subtitle, "The Only System Scientifically Proven To Reverse Heart Disease Without Drugs or Surgery".
The book is indeed a work of philosophy for heart patients and for those who had risk factors of heart disease such as hypertension, a high degree of stress, an increased level of cholesterol in blood, obesity, and so want to avoid them. Cardiologists will not also probably do justice to the book if they leave it aside, ignoring its great value. The Washington Post had this to say after the publication of the book: "For Dean Ornish's cardiovascular patients, 'open heart' doesn't mean bypass surgery. His is a spiritual sort of open-heart as in 'open your heart.' Ornish with his noninvasive techniques, is accomplishing the same ends as are his scalpel-wielding colleagues." Indeed, when Dr. Ornish writes the chapter on managing stress, he becomes a virtual yoga teacher. Indeed, a yoga student himself of an Indian swami, Dr. Ornish describes the asanas (yoga poses) with pictures and systematically tells the readers how to practice dhyana (meditation) and pranayanama (breathing control).
And when one reads a fat-free, almost a vegetarian diet in the diet part of his heart program, then one understands that here is a high-profile western doctorhe was one of President Clinton's official physicianswho is eulogising and celebrating the age-old and traditional method of Indian system of having good health and peaceful life. Dr. Ornish tells that the western ways of treating patients have shortcomings. He has wanted to say that the yoga can very well supplement the western way of treating patients through drug and surgery. Indeed, the book can be greatly helpful for the cardiologists, who may want to know how changing lifestyles can make a big difference in treating heart disease and advise their patients accordingly. Larry Dossey, M.D., author of Recovering the Soul, while commenting on Dr. Ornish's book, said: "This is an epochal book. It sets a new standard in our understanding of heart disease, and it is the template against which all other books on any disease whatsoever should be judged. For the purity of science on which its rests, and for the majesty of its spiritual wisdom, this book has no equal in the literature of medicine and health."
For Bangladeshi readers, the recipes Dr. Ornish provides would be difficult to follow, since there a big difference in Western, or more precisely American, cuisine culture or ways of eating. But the general outline of the diet is the same: almost a fat and cholesterol free diet. And the book tells you how to make it. Doing an exercise of walking a minimum 30 minutes daily at least five days a week, practising some yoga poses and breathing control techniques and meditation everyday, you can very well try and see by yourselves what this book really means.
Mustakim Kazi is a journalist and critic.
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