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Cleaves M. Bennett, MD was only two months old when his grandfather, a beloved small town physician, died of heart disease caused by years of hypertension. Yet, he not only followed in the footsteps of his grandfather professionally, but he has made the prevention of hypertension and other chronic conditions associated with it, including diabetes and kidney and cardiovascular disease his life’s work.
After receiving his MD with honors from the University of Rochester in New York in 1960, Dr. Bennett trained at the UCLA Medical Center, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and the National Heart Institute in Bethesda, MD. While a resident at UCLA, he initiated the first successful closed chest cardiac massage (what we now call CPR) in California, and as a resident at the Bronx Municipal Hospital in 1962, he started the first kidney dialysis ever done in New York City. He’s had advance training and experience in kidney diseases and high blood pressure, a specialty called Nephrology, and was one of the first board certified nephrologists in
the early 1970’s. He also spent two years at Duke University, as Chief of Nephrology at the VA Hospital before heading west.
For the past 22 years, he’s served as a Clinical Professor of Medicine for Harbor/UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles. He was honored by the residents with the “Outstanding Teacher Award, Clinical Faculty 1981 & 1982.
Early on during his tenure, Dr. Bennett became frustrated that so much effort was focused on the treatment of high blood pressure or cholesterol with prescription medicines rather than prevention. In 1978 he teamed up with Nathan Pritikin, who espoused diet and exercise to ward off cardiovascular disease, to serve as Medical Director of the Pritikin Longevity Center in Santa Monica. Dr. Bennett followed Pritikin’s diet plan, which limits chicken to once a week, red meat to once a month, and relies on fish, vegetables and whole grains, quit a 20 year smoking habit and began jogging. At age 50 he completed two marathons. He had dropped his cholesterol by 100 points and was healthier than he had ever been in his life. But Pritikin’s very limited diet of no more than 10 percent coming from fats (normal American diets are 35-40 percent), and the high cost of attending the center ($8,000 for 26 days) proved prohibitive to most people.
Hoping to create a more accessible program, Dr. Bennett formed The Inner Health Center, from 1980 – 1992, under the guidance of Tim Gallwey, author of many Inner Game sport books. There he witnessed hundreds of people improve their fitness levels, modify and change their diet and drop their blood pressure and cholesterol, without taking medication. This prompted him to write In 12 Weeks You Can Control Your High Blood Pressure Without Drugs, published by Doubleday Books in July of 1984, along with a companion Control Your High Blood Pressure Cookbook. His week-by-week program based on the scientific tenants of diet, exercise and stress management was supported by some of the most prominent physicians in the field, including John W. Farquhar, MD, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Stanford Heart Disease Prevention Program and Barry M. Brenner, MD, the Samuel A. Levine, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School as well as respected health columnist Jane Brody of the New York Times. Norman Cousins, famed author and statesman said of the book: “Cleaves Bennett is able to bridge the world between physician and public with genuine artistry” .
In 1994, Dr. Bennett was appointed a hospital specialist with Health Care Partners medical group, where he spent 10 years caring for the elderly, many of whom had been taking “a shopping bag of medicines” but were still sick. “We may be living longer but we are not living longer healthy”, became his battle cry and motivated him to update his book and companion cookbook, and focus on prevention rather than the conventional medical treatment of these chronic conditions. In 12 Weeks You Can Control Your High Blood Pressure Without Drugs is coming out in 2006, along with the cookbook. Both will soon be available in Spanish.
Dr. Bennett, 72, remains his own best success story. He walks twice a day with his big Rottweiler, Shadow, and eats a diet of mostly fish, whole grains, fruits and vegetables. His blood pressure is comparable to a man 30-40 years younger. He’s so concerned with our self-destructive tendencies, our high fat diets in the age of Super Size portions, the prevalence of childhood obesity and our precarious health care system that he’s created a non-profit organization, No More Medicines, which will develop various programs aimed at schools and other communities to educate and empower people of all ages to eat healthier and exercise to deal with the root causes of cardiovascular disease rather than its symptoms. Now retired from HealthCare Partners, Bennett has invested heavily into the foundation and his mission is to spread his message and the No More Medicines-Prevention Not Pills movement here in the United States and around the world.
Dr. Bennett has three children, two sons and a daughter, four grandchildren and is involved in the Dancing Horse Ranch in Paso Robles, CA, where he breeds, trains and enjoys a herd of Paso Fino horses. His long term dream is to develop a chain of healthy, organic quality restaurants named “SouperFoods®”.
