Dean Ornish shares new research that shows how adopting healthy lifestyle habits can affect a person at a genetic level. For instance, he says, when you live healthier, eat better, exercise, and love more, your brain cells actually increase. He talks about simple, low-tech and low-cost ways to take advantage of the body's natural desire to heal itself.

Courtesy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbVflDOWCbU, http://www.ted.com

Your genes are not your fate

Courtesy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naWt-i9Q3os, http://www.ted.com

The world now eats (and dies) like Americans

Courtesy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTIY66IPjdY, http://www.ted.com

About Dr. Dean Ornish

Dean Ornish is a clinical professor at UCSF and founder of the Preventive Medicine Research Institute. He's a leading expert on fighting illness -- particularly heart disease with dietary and lifestyle changes.

Dr. Dean Ornish wants you to live longer, and have more fun while you’re at it. He's one of the leading voices in the medical community promoting a balanced, holistic approach to health, and proving that it works. The author of Eat More, Weigh Less and several other best-selling books, Ornish is best known for his lifestyle-based approach to fighting heart disease.

His research at the Preventive Medicine Research Institute (the nonprofit he founded) clinically demonstrated that cardiovascular illnesses -- and, most recently prostate cancer -- can be treated and even reversed through diet and exercise. These findings (once thought to be physiologically implausible) have been widely chronicled in the US media, including Newsweek, for which Ornish writes a column. The fifty-something physician, who's received many honors and awards, was chosen by LIFE Magazine as one of the most influential members of his generation. Among his many pursuits, Ornish is now working with food corporations to help stop America's obesity pandemic from spreading around the globe.