"Keep on keeping on" was the message behind cardiologist and diet expert Dr. Dean Ornish's visit to Pittsburgh yesterday. During a luncheon at Gilda's Club in the Strip District, Dr. Ornish congratulated representatives from area hospitals that offer Ornish programs for their efforts and encouraged them to continue promoting healthy living.

Dr. Ornish, founder and president of the Sausalito, Calif.-based nonprofit Preventive Medicine Research Institute and clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, is the face behind the Ornish Reversal and Advantage programs.

These programs instruct participants on not only preventing but even reversing health conditions such as hypertension, heart disease, diabetes and prostate cancer through meditation, gentle exercise, a low-protein diet and community support.

"Yeah, it can be hard," Dr. Ornish said about motivating program participants to adopt an Ornish lifestyle, "but that's part of the fun."

Since 1997, increasing numbers of hospitals across the country have made the Ornish Reversal and Advantage programs available at their facilities or at other community locations. It began as a way to regulate diet in cardiac patients, but the Ornish programs have grown to become one of the nation's top heart-healthy lifestyle efforts.

"It's very rewarding to finally meet someone who is the name behind the program," said Lexi Robinson, program director at Jefferson Regional Medical Center. The hospital has offered the Ornish Reversal and Advantage programs to those approved or recommended by a physician since 2005.

Frick and Westmoreland hospitals in Westmoreland County and Monongahela Valley Hospital in Washington County also have Ornish program sites.

The Ornish programs advocate the same keys to improved health, but the Reversal program is more rigorous and spans one year, with 12 weeks of bi-weekly meetings at the start of the program. The Ornish Advantage is more education-based for those wishing to learn about an Ornish lifestyle before adopting it. Advantage program participants meet once a week for six weeks.

Medicare, Highmark and UPMC cover the costs of the programs for most participants. Scholarships are also available.

We're "not just all about treating an illness once you have it," said Bob Frank, Jefferson's executive vice president and chief operating officer. "We're about preventing that occurrence."

Dr. Ornish explained yesterday he recently shared the Ornish program's prevention and treatment capabilities with the Obama administration, hoping the federal government will pass legislation making Ornish programs more affordable for hospitals to offer.

"[The federal government] has seen our work as a model for what real health reform can be," Dr. Ornish said.

He also lectured on studies that indicate Ornish programs' practices can reduce cholesterol levels, increase blood flow to the brain and heart and downregulate genes related to prostate and breast cancer. A 2005 study comparing four leading diets found that in all four, weight loss came with a lower heart disease risk.

"Regardless of age or how sick you are," he said, "… the more you change [about yourself] the better you get. … We want people to know they have a choice."

Although Dr. Ornish celebrated the success of the Ornish program, he attributed this to those in attendance, to the joint effort between the client and the health professional.

"What's the difference between 'illness' and 'wellness?'?" he asked. His answer: "The 'i' in 'illness' and the 'we' in wellness."

Washington correspondent Daniel Malloy writes the "Pittsburgh On The Potomac" blog exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.