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Copyright © 1998 Nando.net Copyright © 1998 Scripps-McClatchy Western (March 19, 1998 00:30 a.m. EST http://www.nando.net) -- Dr. Dean Ornish is focused on feelings these days. After two decades of teaching millions, through books and videos, how changes in their diets may save their lives from heart disease, Ornish has discovered that diet isn't the only factor involved. There's also intimacy. Turns out that love really can mend a broken heart. In his new book, "Love and Survival: The Scientific Basis for the Healing Power of Intimacy" (Harper Collins, $25), Ornish has gathered medical research from around the world. That research, from the most prestigious research facilities from Stanford University to Finland, strongly supports the contention that the cumulative effect of intimacy - touching, giving and receiving love, even just speaking intimately - has measurable effects on heart disease. And not just heart disease. "I am not aware of any other factor in medicine - not diet, not smoking, not exercise, not stress, not genetics, not drugs, not surgery - that has a greater impact on our quality of life, incidence of illness and premature death from all causes," he declares. "It's not that diet's not important," he cautions. "But it's only a part. What's impressive to me is that in study after study, people who feel isolated have three to five times the rates of premature death and disease as those who have connections to other people. "I think the real epidemic in this country is loneliness and isolation." The research Ornish has gathered is wide-ranging. In a study at Stanford, women with breast cancer who got medical care and took part in weekly group discussions, in which they received emotional support and were allowed to express their feelings, lived on average twice as long as those who received only medical care. A study in Amsterdam indicated that elderly people who felt they had loving support were half as likely to die as those who didn't; pregnant women in Guatemala who were given constant emotional support during delivery suffered fewer complications and averaged 8.7 hours to deliver, vs. 19.3 hours for women who did it alone. Other studies show that couples who argue have lowered immune system function, that pet owners survived post-heart attack complications at a rate six times greater than non- pet owners, and even that people with fewer types of relationships are more susceptible to the common cold. "These effects are mind-boggling," says Ornish, "But they are well-documented." The reasons for these healing effects are wide-ranging and in some cases, remain a mystery. Ornish devotes a chapter in the book to trying to explain them. "The point of Chapter 6 was to ask a number of people who have diverse backgrounds, everyone from psychologists to scientists to Buddhist scholars for their ideas about why this works this way. In a way, it's like the blind man and the elephant, everyone has a piece of it. "I find that besides the physiological effects, there's the concept of energy or life force, which is part of most non-Western traditions. Whether you call it kundalini, prana or chi, which are some non-Western names for it, it's the life force, and it seems that when you shut yourself off from other people, you shut yourself off from that source of life energy, whatever you want to call it." Ornish knows that a lot of this will be dismissed as "touchy-feely stuff," and notes, "It's so easy to make fun of sharing feelings, particularly when you don't have the ability to do it. But we're seeing that it has an impact." Ornish himself has felt the impact of feelings. Happily, and not coincidentally, Ornish has, at 44, fallen in love. He becomes reticent when asked about the relationship, but took the unusual step of writing a chapter in the book that explained his own personal transformation from isolated and somewhat depressed workaholic to someone who's finally figuring out what's important. He included the chapter because, he says, "I wanted to try to model what I was recommending people do, making my feelings known. It was difficult to write, and I still have some anxiety about it. But people, especially people who are isolated, often feel that they're the only person who feels that way, and it's healing for them to find out that they're not. "I was hoping people could learn from my mistakes." He cautions that falling in love isn't necessary to improve one's sense of connection and, by extension, one's health. "It's not just romantic love," he says. "It's whatever takes you out of isolation. Romantic love is a subset of a much larger thing, which is a sense of connectedness. "The main idea is that we can only be intimate to the degree we make ourselves vulnerable - and if you can't be vulnerable, those walls that protect you ultimately isolate you." And that isolation, the book asserts, may ultimately kill you. David Barton, The Sacramento Bee.