Dr. Dean Ornish revolutionized the world of medicine when he proved that it was possible to reverse heart disease through diet. exercise, stress management techniques, and group support. Since then, the first two factors have become part of the medical canon in treating heart disease, while the last two have been virtually ignored. In An Open Heart, Dr. Ornish turns the focus back to the areas that may be the most powerful healing intervention of all: feelings of love, connectedness, and spiritual transformation. He has found that there is no other factor in medicine -- not diet, smoking, exercise, stress, genetics, drugs, or surgery -- that has such a major impact on quality of life, incidence of illness, and premature death from all causes. Written directly from his experiences as a researcher and from his own life, Dr. Ornish describes the importance of intimacy and social support for his patients from a clinician's standpoint, but also shares his own struggles with intimacy in his personal life and techniques and strategies that he has found for enhancing closeness.Once again at the vanguard in medical treatment, Dr. Ornish offers a practical, provocative, and deeply personal book that will revolutionize the way Americans think about, and combat, heart disease.