Heart Disease May Be Significantly Affected By Lifestyle Changes

By Jody Smith HERWriter

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Dr. Larry Scherwitz, Ph.D., believes strongly that heart disease can be greatly impacted by lifestyle choices like diet, exercise and reducing stress levels. He is convinced that these lifestyle choices can also make a difference in the incidence and severity of some other diseases like arthritis and cancer.

Dr. Scherwitz is an international research scientist specializing in mind-body medicine (psychophysiology) and lifestyle and their key roles in preventing and reversing heart disease and obesity.

(Transcribed from video interview)

Dr. Scherwitz:
Yes, lifestyle has a profound effect not only on heart disease but other risk diseases such as cancer and arthritis. Particularly with diet, exercise, stress management and social support, all can affect the risk and whatever is that greatest risk is the best thing to make the change.

So if you have lots of stress, that’s the thing to focus on, if you have a poor diet, ameliorate that, if you are not exercising, pick up on that. Other things like smoking, lack of sleep, gaining weight are all factors that can increase the risk of heart disease.

About Dr. Scherwitz, Ph.D.:
Larry W. Scherwitz, PhD, is a leader in the field of behavioral medicine research with 25 years experience in developing and testing approaches to managing chronic disease with lifestyle changes. Dr. Scherwitz has been on the faculty of various medical institutions including Baylor College of Medicine, University of California at San Francisco, California Pacific Medical Center, and the Preventive Medicine Research Institute. He worked at the research director with Dr. Dean Ornish to demonstrate that it is possible to reverse coronary heart disease with lifestyle changes including diet, exercise, stress management and social support. Dr. Scherwitz’ is often a keynote speaker at conferences and has published his research discoveries in an array of prestigious medical journals, including the Journal of the American Medical Association, The Lancet, and Psychosomatic Medicine. Presently, Larry and his wife Deborah Kesten, MPH have a coaching practice to help clients lose weight as well as prevent, halt, and reverse heart disease. Larry also consults with clients to help them design studies to evaluate the efficacy of complementary and alternative practices.

Visit Dr. Scherwitz at http://www.enlightened-diet.com

Video:
https://www.empowher.com/heart-disease/content/heart-disease-affected-lifestyle-dr-scherwitz-video

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We value and respect our HERWriters' experiences, but everyone is different. Many of our writers are speaking from personal experience, and what's worked for them may not work for you. Their articles are not a substitute for medical advice, although we hope you can gain knowledge from their insight.