Ornish, Dean HeadshotDean Ornish, MD

Founder and President, Preventive Medicine Research Institute

 

Dean Ornish, M.D., is the founder and president of the non-profit Preventive Medicine Research Institute and Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCSF and at UCSD. For over 40 years, he has directed clinical research demonstrating, for the first time, that comprehensive lifestyle changes may begin to reverse the progression of even severe coronary heart disease and also early-stage prostate cancer as well as other chronic diseases. 

In 2010, CMS created a new Medicare benefit category to cover his reversing heart disease program, and it is now covering this when offered virtually via Zoom nationwide.  He is currently directing the first randomized controlled trial to determine if these intensive lifestyle changes may stop or reverse the progression of early-stage Alzheimer’s disease.

He is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of seven books.  His three main-stage TED.com talks have been viewed by over seven million people.

He was appointed by President Clinton and also by President Obama to White House Advisory Commissions and by Governor Newsom and Maria Shriver to the Governor’s Brain Trust on Alzheimer’s Disease Prevention and Preparedness.  He is also a member of The Lancet Oncology “Moonshot Commission” and has been a member of the board of directors of the San Francisco Food Bank.

The “Ornish diet” has been rated “#1 for Heart Health” by a panel of experts at U.S. News & World Report for 11 years from 2011-2022.  He co-chaired the Google Health Advisory Council 2007-9.

He was recognized as “one of the 125 most extraordinary University of Texas alumni in the past 125 years;” a “National Public Health Hero” award from the University of California, Berkeley; the Beckmann Medal from the German Society for Prevention and Rehabilitation of Cardiovascular Diseases; by TIME magazine as a “TIME 100 Innovator;” by LIFE magazine as “one of the fifty most influential members of his generation;” by People magazine as “one of the most interesting people of the year;” and by Forbes magazine as “one of the world’s seven most powerful teachers.”  www.ornish.com & www.PMRI.org & www.undoitbook.com