Transcripts

Dr. Dean Ornish:
Well the genes are a predisposition but they're not a death sentence for most people.

Dr. Dean Ornish, author of the book The Spectrum…

Heart disease is a good example of that. There is a genetic predisposition but the inner heart studies show that if people just make simple changes in lifestyle, that at least ninety to ninety-five percent of heart disease is completely preventable today.

And by changes Dr. Ornish means changing the way you eat, exercise, manage stress - those types of things.

We published two new studies and what we show for the first time was that changing lifestyle changes genes in men who had early stage prostate cancer. And in fact by turning on the disease-preventing genes and turning off the disease-promoting genes (the genes that promote diseases like heart disease, prostate cancer, breast cancer) I think these findings really capture people's imaginations because so often people have what I call genetic nihilism"It's all in my genes, there's not much I can do". Well it turns out we can do a lot more than we thought.

And the results of making these changes appear very quickly.

Not only do your genes change but your brain gets more blood in just the few hours when you make these changes. You think more clearly, you have more energy, you need less sleep, your skin gets more blood so you don't age and wrinkle as quickly - and so it's not just about living longer or preventing disease it's about improving the quality of life - living better.

You can link to Dr. Ornish's website from ours: somethingyoushouldknow.net I'm Mike Carruthers and that's Something You Should Know.