In this interview, Dean Ornish, MD, DipABLM, FACLM, founder and president of the non-profit Preventive Medicine Research Institute, says asking patients why they want to live longer can help fill their lives with meaning.

“If you can get somebody to really tune into what really brings meaning into their life, then I find they’re much more likely to make and maintain lifestyle choices that are life enhancing than ones that are self-destructive,” said Ornish, who is also a clinical professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and the University of California, San Diego.