Ornish program racks up big heart risk reductions: various socioeconomic populations studied.(Clinical Rounds)

ORLANDO, FLA. -- The Ornish program of cardiovascular risk reduction through aggressive lifestyle modification has now been shown to translate well from anything-goes California to the hills of West Virginia and cornfields of Nebraska.

Twelve-week outcomes in 250 participants in the Dr. Dean Ornish Program for Reversing Heart Disease at 13 Midwestern and Appalachian community hospitals constitute "greater reductions in risk factors than have ever before been reported from a community-based lifestyle change program," Dr. Ornish said at the annual scientific sessions of the American Heart Association.

The Ornish program is being offered at hospitals in Kearney, Neb.; Princeton, Parkersburg, Martinsburg, Wheeling, and Charleston, W.Va.; and Windber, Pa., among other locations, with funding from health insurer Highmark Inc. Dr. Ornish and the insurer focused particularly on West Virginia because the state has the highest rate of cardiovascular disease in the nation.

Based on the encouraging results of this 250-patient experience, Medicare has launched a demonstration project involving 1,800 elderly heart patients who are now going through the program at these 13 sites, added Dr. Ornish, president and founder of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute, Sausalito, Calif.

The Ornish program consists of a plant-based diet with no more than 10% of calories from fat, 180 minutes per week of moderate exercise, an hour daily of meditation or other stress-management practices, and biweekly, professionally supervised support group sessions.

"The premise is that when you address these underlying ...