Tuesday 31 May 2005
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Pic of the day: Support group? (Screenshot from the anime Final Approach.) OrnishologyI find it amusing that Dr Dean Ornish, MD, founder of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute, is categorized as "alternative medicine". It is certainly true, but it evokes images of aura healing and the like (not that there is anything wrong with aura healing if it works). Dr Ornish has developed a draconian lifestyle change package that can actually reverse the clogging of arteries, and associated heart diseases. This is pretty much a scientific fact, as it is documented in standard research published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. It's been going on for about 25 years, I know I read about this quite a few years ago myself. I was mildly surprised that fatty plaques could actually be organically reversed, something that has still eluded the various pill treatments (although they are growing mighty impressive too). If you wonder why everyone with heart disease is not on this program, you are one of those speed readers. You skipped the word "draconian" in my description. Actually I would only apply that word to the diet, which is bordering on the completely fat-free. You are actually encouraged to eat 3 grams of omega-3 fatty acids a day, and some fatty soy, but no more than 10% of daily calorie intake must come from fat. As mentioned recently, this will cause actual withdrawal symptoms, where people wake in the middle of the night with a burning desire for fat. Luckily the guy has also devised a system for stress management and support groups, which can certainly be needed. ***One of Dr Ornish' more endearing traits, in my eyes, is his rivalry with the Atkins of Atkins diet fame. Not to speak ill of the dead, but I fear that the Atkins diet may cause a lot of unnecessary suffering. Not that it doesn't work if followed in the spirit it was written, but it has caused mainstream media to portray fat as a healthy thing. The point of the Atkins diet is to reduce sugar and white flour intake by eating stuff that gives a lasting satisfaction without releasing a flood of sugar into the blood. Both fat and protein have this effect, although they come with their own problems. (Fat isn't something you want floating around too much in your blood, and protein creates a lot of poisonous byproducts when you burn it, thus putting your kidneys to some serious work.) The Atkins diet also promotes complex starches from vegetables and such, but people tend to skip those since they don't much like them and "sausages are healthy now". In contrast, complex starches are the heart (as it were) of the Ornish diet. Beans, peas, leafy veggies, brown rice and whole grains, soy and (thank goodness) fruit. Yes, it is pretty much vegan, except for the fish oil for the omega-3. (Women can substitute flax oil instead, but this may cause swelling of the prostate in males, not a good idea. Then again, you won't find many male vegans, I suppose. (Insert jokes about vegans and unicorns as needed.)
Dr Ornish tends to make a point out of the bad breath that most
followers of the Atkins diet experience. (This is probably from the
extreme protein intake.) I think he should not be too focused on smell
when he promotes a diet rich in soy, brown beans and peas... That said, it seems like sensible stuff to eat. And with mostly vegetables, you can eat a lot without getting fat. And you probably will, because when you step down the fat intake, the body will react with hunger. I have just had the opportunity to find out how the body reacts if I keep burning more calories than I eat, and avoid open fat wherever I find it. The body is not amused. Day and night I am hungry, whether my stomach actually is able to eat more at the moment or not. It is ... brain hunger may be the best name. More abstract than the contractions of your stomach, but very real. (My Sims react to similar situations by ignoring their current scheduled activities, march to the fridge and "stuff face" as the activity icon says. Until recently I could not fully understand them.) ***Yes, after taking a second look at Dr Ornish' web sites, I have decided that I may borrow some of his ideas. He will probably not be sorry for that, even if I don't buy any of his books for now at least. To the best of my knowledge I don't have any risk factors for heart disease, but it's been a few years since I tested anything so you never know. Anyway, that's not really the point. The point is to find a balance where you can live a healthy life without feeling worse than dead. Let us face it: We all want to live a few extra years, but we are not actually going through with it if the current years feel worse than nothing. As Scientific American pointed out in one of its theme issues on aging: If you start exercising in your middle years, you will live approximately as many hours extra as you exercise. So if you hate exercising, you are basically adding pure suffering to your life. I could make the same point about food. Unlike the few who experiment with severe calorie restriction diets, the purpose of the Ornish lifestyle change is not to prolong the maximum lifespan, but to reach it. By eliminating most heart diseases, hypertension and diabetes, the one half of the population that would stumble before the finish are given a chance. They also report feeling more healthy and energetic. And more sexually active, but hopefully I should be able to avoid that. (This is a marked difference to severe calorie restriction, where sexual desire completely shuts down. That doesn't sound too bad to me.) Contrary to what I may have presented so far, the Ornish lifestyle change is not all about food. Food is the hard part, though. It also promotes moderate exercise, like walking briskly 30 minutes a day or 1 hour every other day. That's what I already do, so I didn't give it much thought. Also meditation and stretching exercises for stress reduction. This is all familiar terrain to me. (I wonder if my athlete-level rest pulse could be partially due to this?) The fourth wheel on the cart, after diet, exercise and stress reduction, is love & intimacy. I can't do that. My soul is no longer human enough. But my body certainly is, so I will try to pick up whatever seems useful from the rest of Dr Ornish' research. As I do with most things. As Johan O. Smith famously said: "I listen even to a drunk man in the street." You never know where you can learn something. But you don't need to do everything everyone tells you. Listen to everything, stick with the good stuff, as the good book says.
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