Dr. Frank Yanowitz, medical director and co-founder of the Intermountain Health & Fitness Institute at LDS Hospital, is among 14 health-care pioneers nationwide who are the first inductees into the National Wellness Revolution Hall of Fame. The recent induction ceremony was held in Las Vegas and attended by more than 5,000 of the nation's health and wellness professionals.
The Hall of Fame is reserved for individuals who have made significant contributions to wellness. "Members of the Hall of Fame have helped tens of millions of people lead happier, healthier and longer lives. Their contributions and accomplishments serve as an inspiration to future generations," says wellness author Paul Zane Pilzer, who emceed the event.
Yanowitz recognized the importance of wellness and preventive medicine more than 30 years ago. A few years later, he and colleagues founded the Intermountain Health & Fitness Institute at LDS Hospital, which assesses and manages health and lifestyle risk factors for chronic disease, with an emphasis on preventing heart disease.
He first encountered preventive medicine in 1971 at the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine in San Antonio, Texas. His patients were very healthy, but had to see him to maintain their flying qualifications.
It was there he saw the very earliest stages of heart disease, long before he normally would have encountered the patients in a hospital setting. He saw the connection between diet, exercise and disease.
After serving in the Air Force, he became a cardiologist at LDS Hospital and an instructor at the University of Utah School of Medicine.
Today, at age 67, although never athletic as a child or in college, Yanowitz has completed four marathons, runs 10 to 15 miles each week, mountain bikes, road bikes, hikes, skis and snowshoes. He has written 80 articles, conducted and published 18 major research projects and written a book about coronary heart-disease prevention. He was the first chairperson of the Utah Governor's Council on Physical Fitness.