Meetings are held on the second Monday of the month at Monroe Community Hospital.
Bring a friend. Sit with and meet other Ornish members.
To find the answers to these questions and lots more, we feel the information we are collecting will be a building block to help us understand ourselves better. You should have received the survey by now, and please, we are depending on you to complete it and send it back within the next two weeks.
Our thanks go to Carol Podgorski, Ph.D. and William Hall, MD of the University of Rochester/Monroe Community Hospital Center for Lifetime Wellness, who along with Ed Ehlers and Dr. Bob Klein, designed this important survey.
Three of the four parts of the Ornish program Diet, Exercise and Stress Reduction are relatively clear in terms of what they are and how to do them. Psychosocial is not. Our Ornish business cards define it as "opening your heart to self and others through group support and spirituality."
When I first met Dean at his California Retreat, I told him I felt like I knew him a long time because of how freely he shares his own pain and feelings. He confided that it is very hard to determine where to draw the line. In his book he points out that all the major predictors for heart disease only account for 50% of the actual incidences and that perhaps a less verifiable factor such as building walls around our hearts may be a major cause. This leads me to Al-Anon.
Al-Anon is a subgroup of Alcoholics Anonymous and theoretically it is only for friends and relatives of Alcoholics. However, others are invited to share their feelings without judgement, criticism, advice or crosstalk. It is a confidential setting where people share their innermost feelings or in Dean's words "tearing down the walls around our hearts" when one person shares his/her feelings other people feel more comfortable sharing theirs and people feel closer together. Prior to Christmas at an OSGGR small group meeting everyone was asked to relate to the Holidays and stress. My answer was a shallow one but deep down I felt there was a connection I wanted to make.
A few days later at an Al-Anon meeting I started talking about how Christmas reminded me of my childhood and how my mother's love turned dreams into reality and how I miss those times and miss her. I was weeping as I shared those feelings and it felt wonderful and therapeutic. That session made preparing for Christmas much more enjoyable.
The moral of this story is to share how sharing feelings is healthy and how Al-Anon is a vehicle that helps me and could help you.
April 13: Wayne Wallace, M.D.
"A cardiologist speaks & answers questions about the Ornish Program"
June 8: Dolly Dickson & Allyson Prace
"A survival program for non-cooks on the Ornish Program"
"STORE WALKS" serve as a general introduction to a natural foods market for those looking to eat more healthfully or can be tailored to the shopper's specific nutritional needs:
Participants receive a printed packet that includes shopping information, food storage tips, cooking charts and recipes.
Location: Lori's Natural Foods Center, Genesee Valley Regional Market, 900 Jefferson Rd. (across from Kinko's Copy Center)
Cost: $25.00 per person for a 1-hour session (only $5.00 co-payment for Blue Choice, Blue Choice Option, Greater Rochester Health Plan, Premier Health Plan and Strong Care members) (only $15 co-payment for Preferred Care Members)
Contact:Lori's Natural Foods Center at 424-2323 to schedule with the dietitian.
Part 1: Thursday, February 12, 6:00-8:00 pm.
Part 2: Thursday, February 19 6:00-8:00 pm
All participants will receive an information packet containing recipes.
Instructor: Allyson Prace, Nutrition Advisor for the Ornish Support Group of Greater Rochester
Fee: $50.00 per person (includes both classes)
Location: Lori's Natural Foods Center Education Room , Genesee Valley Regional Market,
900 Jefferson Road.
To Register: Contact Lori's at 424-2323 Class size limited.
Barry Franklin, the director of cardiac rehabilitation at the William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan, and his colleagues took ten healthy men, aged 22 to 35, and measured their heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen uptake as they used a plastic shovel to clear heavy, wet snow.
The researchers compared these measurements to ones taken while the men exercised on a treadmill to the point of exhaustion, reaching their peak heart rate. Shoveling snow was even more demanding than the all-out run, says Franklin. Just two minutes of shoveling pushed the heart rate of all but one man above the recommended training zone for aerobic exercise (70 to 85 percent of maximum.) After ten minutes, the men's heart rates reached 97 percent of maximum - and blood pressure actually rose higher than when they ran on the treadmill.
No wonder: Each shovelful of snow weighed about 16 pounds, and each man lifted about 12 shovelfuls a minute, or 2,000 pounds for ten minutes' work. " That's the equivalent of moving a sports car," says Franklin. If snow is wet, shoveling also involves pushing against a nearly immovable load; most people unconsciously hold their breath during such exertion. Finally, cold air constricts blood vessels. These things combine to raise heart rate and blood pressure to the point that susceptible people may suffer chest pain, irregular heartbeat, or a heart attack.
Particularly at risk are people who smoke, are sedentary, or have high blood pressure or high cholesterol--as well as those with symptoms of possible heart disease, such as dizziness during xertion and heart palpitations. Such people should think twice before shoveling snow, says Franklin. "Hire a plow or the neighbor's kid." - Patricia Long
[Reprinted from Health, November/December 1995]
Call to reserve your place and mention that you are following the Ornish diet. These Restaurants are willing to support our member's diets. Please support them in return.
For Neanderthals, such as myself, who are not on the internet yet, our Webmaster, Dr. David Stern, printed out details of another great Web Site. Here are some highlights:
Jean's Story: Jean is a housewife whose doctor advised her to schedule heart surgery. Instead, she read Dr. Ornish's book and changed her life. She was nice enough to write her story for us, and patient enough to wait for it to appear on the web. Thanks, Jean!
Heartful Dodger: Tommy Lasorda learned the hard way that eating well matters. From the Orange County Register, the former Slim-Fast spokesman suffered a heart attack and discovered Dr. Ornish.
Aiko Pinkoski: Not a cardiac patient, this software engineer started following the program for weight loss maintenance, and reports that she feels "healthier in general, and cured [of] a lot of minor health problems."
We know we like this guy because of the nice things he says about us:
"Ornish Heart Program Support Group of Greater Rochester (New York) Initially formed by heart
patients who had read Dr. Dean Ornish's book, this group is now so well organized they'll almost make
you want to move to their city just to attend their meetings! Be sure to click on the link to their
most recent newsletter."
The site address is:
We've added two new books to our lending library. The author, Bryanna Clark Grogan, was influenced by the work of Dr. Ornish, so you can expect that the recipes are both vegetarian and meet his guidelines for fat content. In addition, the recipes in both books are vegan--that is they contain no eggs or dairy products. Sorry to say that one--"The (Almost) No Fat Holiday Cookbook"--arrived just a bit too late for this holiday season. But keep it in mind for it has recipes suitable for many upcoming holidays, such as St. Valentine's Day.
The second book is "The (Almost) No Fat Cookbook" and is by the same author. The recipes are varied, and include dishes such as: vegetarian roasts, low-fat vegetarian pancakes, sausages, Caesar and potato salads, and suggestions for dairy-free, low-fat cheese substitutes. Feel free to borrow these and other books in our library. As always, we ask simply that you keep borrowed books no longer than one month so that they are available to others.
Please try it and let Bill Gray's know if you liked it because they've discontinued it at their Greece restaurant due to low demand. I had mine at Gray's Perinton Square Mall restaurant.