Dean Ornish

Dean Ornish, MD, is the founder and president of the nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute and Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCSF and Clinical Professor of Medicine at UCSD.  He received his MD from the Baylor College of Medicine, was a clinical fellow in medicine at Harvard Medical School, and completed an internship and residency in internal medicine at the Massachusetts General Hospital.  He earned a BA in Humanities summa cum laude from the University of Texas in Austin, where he gave the baccalaureate address.

For over 45 years, he has directed clinical research demonstrating, for the first time, that comprehensive lifestyle changes may begin to reverse even severe coronary heart disease, without drugs or surgery. Medicare created a new benefit category, “intensive cardiac rehabilitation,” to provide coverage for this program, which is now being covered when offered virtually. He directed the first randomized controlled trial demonstrating that comprehensive lifestyle changes may slow, stop, or reverse the progression of early-stage prostate cancer. His research showed that comprehensive lifestyle changes affect gene expression, “turning on” disease-preventing genes and “turning off” genes that promote cancer and heart disease, as well as the first controlled study showing that these lifestyle changes may begin to reverse cellular aging by lengthening telomeres, the ends of our chromosomes, which regulate aging (in collaboration with Dr. Elizabeth Blackburn, Nobel Laureate). He recently directed the first randomized controlled trial showing that lifestyle changes may often improve cognition and function in those with early Alzheimer’s disease.

He is a #1 New York Times bestselling author of UnDo It! (co authored with Anne Ornish) and six other books, all national bestsellers. His three main-stage TED.com talks have been viewed by over seven million people.  

The research that he and his colleagues conducted has been published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, Lancet, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Circulation, New England Journal of Medicine, American Journal of Cardiology, Lancet Oncology, and elsewhere. A one-hour documentary on their work was broadcast on NOVA, the PBS science series, and was featured in The Game Changers and other documentaries. He has written a monthly column for TIME, Newsweek, and Reader’s Digest magazines, is a LinkedIn Influencer, and was Medical Editor of the Huffington Post from 2010 to 2016.  

Dr. Ornish was appointed by President Clinton to the White House Commission on Complementary and Alternative Medicine Policy; by President Obama to the White House Advisory Group on Prevention, Health Promotion, and Integrative and Public Health; and by Governor Newsom to the Governor’s Brain Trust on Alzheimer’s Disease Prevention and Preparedness. He is also a member of the Lancet Oncology “Moonshot Commission.”  He has been a member of the boards of directors of the San Francisco Food Bank and the J. Craig Venter Institute. Dr. Ornish and colleagues established a lifestyle medicine clinic at the St. Vincent de Paul Homeless Shelter in San Francisco, where over 10,000 homeless people were treated.

The “Ornish diet” was rated “#1 for Heart Health” by a panel of experts at U.S. News & World Report for 11 years. He co-chaired the Google Health Advisory Council with Marissa Mayer from 2007 to 2009.

He received the 1994 Outstanding Young Alumnus Award from the University of Texas, Austin; the University of California, Berkeley, “National Public Health Hero” award; the Jan J. Kellermann Memorial Award for distinguished contribution in the field of cardiovascular disease prevention from the International Academy of Cardiology; a U.S. Surgeon General Citation; a Presidential Citation from the American Psychological Association; the inaugural “Lifetime Achievement Award” from the American College of Lifestyle Medicine; the Beckmann Medal from the German Society for Prevention and Rehabilitation of Cardiovascular Diseases; the “Pioneer in Integrative Medicine” award from California Pacific Medical Center; the Stanley Wallach Award from the American College of Nutrition; the Glenn Foundation Award for Research; the Bravewell Collaborative Pioneer of Integrative Medicine award; the Sheila Kar Health Foundation Humanitarian Award from Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles; the Plantrician Project Luminary Award; and the Benjamin Spock Compassion in Medicine award from the George Washington University School of Medicine.

Dr. Ornish was recognized as “one of the 125 most extraordinary University of Texas alumni in the past 125 years;” 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.”