TED Talks - Dean Ornish on healing

TED is an organization devoted to spreading worthy ideas. Lectures from leading figures in the fields of technology, entertainment, and design are available for free at http://www.ted.com/.

My notes on this particular video are below, but it's well worth watching yourself!

Dean Ornish on healing
Dean Ornish talks about simple, low-tech and low-cost ways to take advantage of the body's natural desire to heal itself.

• Richard's straight notes on what was said,
  
  • and his own comments and observations

• Health and happiness go hand in hand.
• Health isn't something you get or achieve, it's something you lose.
  
  • Ornish sounded confusing on this point. I'd rather say that health isn't something you get or achieve, it's something you continually do. Consistency and continuity is key. You can't eat a salad on January 1st and then for the rest of the year tell people you "eat healthy." You either used to eat healthy, or you are eating healthy. Pick one.
• A strict diet and program is necessary for reversing disease, but if you just want to stay healthy you have a much wider range of options to achieve that goal.
  
  • This is a long-winded way of paraphrasing Mr. Franklin: "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."
• Fortune Teller says, "I give smokers a discount because there's not as much to tell."
  
  • Haha.
• Fear of dying is not an effective motivator to compel most people to be healthy.
  
  • I think this is because life in our culture is actively and aggressively devalued. Religious and 'spiritual' beliefs are responsible for this, in my view. Why take your health in the here and now so seriously, when the after life/reincarnation/heaven/hell/Valhalla is just a few decades away?
• Fear of a lack of sex, however, is effective at persuading people to be healthier.
  
  • Religion figured this one out early. Religions achieve power over people now by focusing them on a future that never materializes, hence the hatred of sexuality at the root of most religious worldviews -- sex focuses people on the here and now, and if you're too focused on your life today, you're not as focused on your life in the ever-after. Islam goes one further -- free virgins after death!
• Almost no one wants to live longer, because living longer is associated with living miserably longer.
  
  • So, focus on living better, not longer. The longer will follow naturally.
• Lonely, depressed people are many times more likely to die early.
  
  • I need a hug!