Richard Feinberg practices yoga as part of a heart-health program that a Tucson cardiologist and a registered nurse modified from the original created by Dr. Dean Ornish. The California physician advocated a strict diet and lifestyle changes to reverse heart disease. Feinberg, 73, had a heart attack and quadruple bypass in 1994.

James S. Wood / Arizona Daily Star

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Richy Feinberg has been known to snatch a bite of Mongolian beef off someone's plate.

It's not exactly cause for swinging from the chandeliers, but Feinberg figures it beats the hell out of being dead.

Fourteen years ago, Feinberg was almost dead. And he was, absolutely, miserable.

"In 1994 I had a heart attack and a quadruple bypass a week later," says the former New Yorker and stressaholic. He worked for a company that built major exhibits, the kinds of things huge corporations do at a world's fair.

He says went from "pardon the expression, a vegetable" to vegetarian, except for that occasional tidbit of Mongolian beef, in a very short time.

His daughter in Tucson encouraged him to come here. He did and soon came across a Tucson cardiologist who told him about a radical non-invasive program to reverse cardiac disease. The program was based on the work of Dr. Dean Ornish, a California M.D. who preached that a strict diet and lifestyle changes could not only halt, but reverse, coronary disease.

Ornish's strict diet — no meat, low-calorie and very little fat — was getting a lot of attention.

"It's based on Ornish, but now it's Edna's and Katzenberg's program," says Feinberg, referring to Tucson cardiologist Dr. Charles Katzenberg and registered nurse, cardiac specialist and tai chi expert Edna Silva. Feinberg, 73, says they have tuned the Ornish diet over the years to become the Heart Disease Reversal Program, widening the straight and narrow path to heart health enough to make it possible for more people to follow. It offers a little more room for little pleasures and incorporates exercise, stress reduction, meditation.

"Living forever is for turtles," says Feinberg. "If you want to eat meat, make sure it's a tiny piece and twice a week, not a steak every night."

But Feinberg and Silva say most of the people who have gone through the 12-week program over the last 14 years don't see it as a hair-shirt ordeal.

Once they try the vegetarian diet (there's a weekly potluck and lots of help with learning how to eat healthy), find an exercise regime (it's different for everyone and isn't a choice between boot camp and training for a marathon) and learn how to reduce stress (call it meditation, yoga, tai chi or chilling out), they're not only on the way to being healthier, but it's almost certain they're happier, say Silva and Feinberg.

But it's not the usual American medical solution — surgery and drugs — says Silva. This is a do-it-yourself solution, not a bandage like surgery and drugs.

They call it "bypass surgery" for a reason, says Silva. A bypass, literally and figuratively, goes around the problem; it doesn't remove it. If the patient continues to eat and live the same way, the coronary damage will continue.

To the stress reduction, diet change and exercise, people must also add whatever it takes to bring them serenity, a sense of well-being. Silva says that can come from a support system, family, anything that cultivates a sense of well-being, serenity, peacefulness and tranquillity.

It's different for everyone, says Silva. All have their own variations on the diet, how to relax, how to exercise and how to attain that sense of well-being that will contribute to recovering from coronary disease.

Not everyone in the program was as obviously in trouble as Feinberg.

Janet Hooper was celebrating her birthday four years ago when she had a heart attack.

Hooper said she thought of herself as being fit, though she had been gaining a little weight. Still, she was 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighed 150 pounds, "Nobody would look at me and say, 'She's overweight,' " Hooper says now.

Her husband was tuned into the Air Force's fitness program and she was used to setting half her meal aside when eating out. Looking back on it, Hooper says they weren't health nuts or gym rats, but they were consciously leading what seemed a fairly healthy lifestyle.

She was already tackling the weight issue and had lost 15 pounds when she had the heart attack.

It obviously hadn't been enough, so when Hooper was in cardiac rehab and saw a poster for the Heart Disease Reversal Program, she signed up.

Hooper finished the 12 weekly sessions, learned how to really understand the information on content and nutrition labels, chose a fitness program (a mix of weight training and aerobics) and has taken Silva's tips on relaxation and stress reduction. And she attends the once-a-month maintenance sessions for program graduates.

Adhering to her personal version of the program is not a burden, says Hooper. It helps that her husband "is laid back. He eats what I eat. He's at the gym with me. His health is good."

But she says that even after what she's gone through, some of her family members — people who share the same genetic risks that helped put Hooper's health in jeopardy — don't get it.

Hooper says they'll say, "Oh, you poor thing, you still have to eat that way."

She doesn't think of herself as being on a strict diet at all, "I just eat five to seven portions of fruit and vegetables a day, I eat fish, every once in a while a piece of chicken," Hooper says. "I don't eat beef (but) I don't want it."