When the CEO of a hospital experiences a heart attack, he undoubtedly receives the best of care. But traditional medicine alone may not be enough to prevent another life-threatening event-- even for him.

So thought Dr. Robert Klint, chief executive officer of Swedish American Health System located in Rockford, Ill. After his heart attack, he attended a week-long Dr. Dean Ornish Program for Reversing Heart Disease and was so impressed with the treatment and results that he brought the program back to his own hospital. Klint, together with Dr. Roger Greenlaw, a colleague interested in disease prevention, founded the Midwest Center for Health and Healing in 1997 as a subsidiary of the hospital.

The center, which operates independently from the hospital, has served to give Swedish American a high visibility "brand" in the community as an institution that not only practices traditional medine, but also helps patients effectively change their behavior to achieve optimal health.

The Keys to Change

The two main components to the center's mission are its behavior and dietary modification programs: the Dr. Dean Omish Program for Reversing Heart Disease, and CHIP-- the Coronary Health Improvement Project, says Barbara Croyle, executive director at the center.

"The people who participate in the Ornish program most often have already had a cardiac event such as a heart attack or bypass surgery," she says.

The program embodies four lifestyle modalities that include a low fat vegetarian diet, regular practice of stress management techniques, moderate aerobic exercise and participation in group support sessions.

"The CHIP program, developed by Dr. Hans Diehl, is primarily for people who may not yet have any evidence of disease," says Croyle, "but who want to lessen the likelihood it will develop. This is an intensive 30-day educational and motivational program."

CHIP is based on the Surgeon General's assertion that 75% of all western diseases are "lifestyle" related. The nutritional foundation of CHIP is a starch-based vegetarian diet coupled with daily exercise, as well as other lifestyle changes.

"The trick to both of these programs, if you will, is that it is a true lifestyle change," says Croyle. "If you look at these programs simply as diets you will fail because they both require a whole different way of thinking about food and its impact on total health."

Locking in Lifestyle Change

"We realize that when you ask people to change their lifestyles-in some cases quite drastically-you in turn have to support that change," says Croyle.

One way the Center does that is by working with corporations to educate their employees about the CHIP program. Not only are they supporting the company's employees, but the program may also positively impact the corporate bottom line by helping to reduce the cost of health benefits.

The center also works with local restaurants, providing nutritional workshops at the center and identifying CHIP and Ornish approved items on the restaurant menus.

The center itself houses the Midwest Market, a shop that carries a wide assortment of organic foods, vegetarian, low fat and no cholesterol products, nutritional supplements and cookbooks. Cooking classes are also offered a few times each month.

Program participants eat out together and also go on shopping tours to markets and grocery stores. "We show them how to eat, how to shop, how to choose foods in a restaurant and we provide recipes for them to use at home. We offer them as complete a package as we possibly can," adds Croyle.

From Healthy.net