Love & Survival: The Scientific Basis for the Healing Power of Intimacy (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "Love and survival. What do they have to do with each other?..." (more)
Key Phrases: group support sessions, comprehensive lifestyle changes, severe coronary heart disease, San Francisco, Mother Teresa, Swami Satchidananda (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Many people know Dean Ornish as the doctor who proved that symptoms of heart disease can be reversed with a regimen of a low-fat diet, exercise, and stress reduction. In Love & Survival, he concentrates on the less tangible aspects of a healthful life. Through anecdotes and dozens of scientific studies, Ornish demonstrates that personal intimacy and other aspects of emotional well-being--all the elements that make up what we call "love"--are as important to our physical condition as to our mental health. Not only do these positive emotions motivate us to make better lifestyle choices, Ornish argues, they also have a powerful direct effect on our bodies, giving us stronger immune systems, better cardiovascular functioning, and longer life expectancies. But the benefits of opening our hearts to others go beyond curing our bodies of disease; it's also the first step toward healing our entire lives.

From Booklist

With best-sellers on reducing stress and modifying diet to alleviate and reverse the effects of physical heart disease to his credit, Ornish now tackles "emotional and spiritual heart disease," the remedy for which consists of "love and intimacy." Ornish argues that affection is crucial to health with research findings as well as clinical-anecdotal evidence. The second of six fat chapters presents studies demonstrating that those who give and receive love are healthier than those who don't; this is intriguing and persuasive testimony that many may find squares with common sense. Succeeding chapters present the anecdotal evidence, beginning with Ornish's account of his own life-reversal (at 40, he found he was far better at giving than living his own advice) and continuing with advice on behaving and speaking so as to foster love, the story of a middle-aged physician (Ornish's patient) learning to heal his heart disease by coming to terms with anger, and the massive final chapter's interviews with other physicians and healers about their experience with the healing powers of love. Ornish conceives love broadly, bringing in the love of God as well as of mate, family, and friends, and he presents commitment as crucial to loving relationships, especially marriage, although his is a sadder-but-wiser perspective on matrimony than the never-divorced Catherine M. Wallace's in Fidelity (reviewed in this issue). With interviews in all media, a PBS documentary, a lecture tour, and a food-line launch accompanying publication, Love & Survival bids fair to be this year's Eight Weeks to Optimum Health. Ray Olson

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 284 pages
• Publisher: HarperCollins; 1st edition (February 17, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060172134
• ISBN-13: 978-0060172138
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #163,087 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Points the way to better health and greater happiness., November 18, 2002

By	Adam Khan (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Love and Survival: 8 Pathways to Intimacy and Health (Paperback)

One of the biggest chapters in this book summarizes the studies showing how closeness to other people is good for your health. Ornish runs a clinic for people who have had a heart attack. And his clinic was the first to show that heart disease can actually be reversed. Doctors used to believe, up until very recently, that you can't reverse heart disease. You may be able to slow it down a little, but once your arteries were clogged, it was gospel that you couldn't unclog them. Ornish showed that you can. They use diet and exercise and...teaching people how to become closer to the people they love. And that increased closeness is a big part of the patient's improvement in health.

These men (usually) have a heart attack and their doctor tells them they don't have long to live. They're scared, of course. They come to Ornish's clinic and he tells them they need to learn to be close to people or they're going to die! For the first time in their lives, these men become interested in relationships!

I read Love and Survival right after reading the book, Brain Sex, where I discovered that men aren't naturally as interested in relationships as women. Even two- or three-day old babies show this difference. A female baby will look much longer at a human face than at an object. A baby boy is equally interested in objects and people. Extend that interest out over a lifetime and you have women whose lives are relationship-centered and men who don't have time for relationships because they're busy with other things. Then I read in Ornish's book what it takes for men to finally become interested in getting closer to people: The threat of death! So they get interested, and they improve their relationships, and they learn how to become close to people. Some time later they come back to Ornish and report that they are happier than they've ever been. Of course. We all know being close to people is the most important thing in the world and it's the one thing that can't be peeled away. When people are dying, on the battlefield or deathbed or in some survival situation, and they know they are going to die, the one thing people say is, "Tell my wife I love her." Or husband. Kids. The people who are close to you are what really matter. And getting close to them.

This book struck me like a revelation. I have been interested in how to get along with people and how to get people to like me and how to persuade people to my point of view, but I had never realized the value of really being close to people. I knew relationships were important but I had missed the point! This book has totally changed the way I've been interacting with people, and you know what? I've never been happier! Seriously.

Ornish gives you some good ideas about HOW to get closer to people. He gives you some practical steps to take. I'm the author of the book, Self-Help Stuff That Works, and I'll tell you something: Ornish's book contains quite a bit of stuff that works to bring you closer to the people you love.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Profound and Important Way to Improve Your Life, January 28, 1999

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

I had read Dr. Ornish's books about diet and health, and found them to be very helpful. Then, I read this one. This is by far the most important book that he has written, because how we handle our relationships with others is more important to our health than even what we eat and how we exercise. A little of this information was familiar to me from reading the New York Times Science section, but most of it was not. Clearly the biggest disease of our modern culture is our estrangement from each other. For most of history, we lived with others in small, intimate groups. Now that the population is much larger, we live in large groups with no close relationships. Even our families are losing that intimacy. This book puts the priorities back where they should be. Having close relationships with others comes first. This book is a blessing to us all. Thank you, Dr. Ornish! This book would be a great gift to everyone you care about on Valentine's Day.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Amazing book, October 30, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Love and Survival: 8 Pathways to Intimacy and Health (Paperback)

Before reading this book I was familiar with Dr. Ornish's work with diet and exercise reversing heart disease. From that exposure he came off as being slightly fanatical and rigid to me.

Well, was this book ever a surprise! Having done a lot of work on myself emotionally and spiritually a lot of the book was already known to me, but the way Dr. Ornish ties this all together with the scientific evidence blew me away, reinforcing a lot of what I had already suspected. In addition, in my personal life it has helped my spouse and I refocus ourselves into what is important in life. It is especially interesting because as an MD we would expect Dr. Ornish to take the stance that most of us have experienced with the medical profession i.e pushing the latest pills and technical wonders and leaving the emotions and spirituality to "others" (often with a sneer).

I highly recommend this book as it can jumpstart a lot if my case is any indication. It is funny, in the book Dr. Ornish quotes the old expression "when the student is ready, the teacher will appear". This book helped both my spouse and I recognize a teacher like that in our lives and I suspect it might help others see the teacher or teachers around themselves as well:)

Especially in these days of heartache and pain after 9/11 this book is a valuable tool into healing and hope as well.