Dr. Bernard Lown is a cardiologist of world renown. He is a professor of cardiology emeritus at the Harvard School of Public Health, a senior physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, and the chairman and founder of the Lown Cardiovascular Research Foundation.
Dr. Lown is a pioneer in the research on sudden cardiac death. He invented the direct-current defibrillator for resuscitating the arrested heart as well as the Cardioverter for correcting disordered heart rhythms. He also introduced the use of the drug lidocaine for the control of disturbances of the heartbeat. His innovative research established the role of psychological and behavioral factors on heart rhythms and as provocative factors of sudden death. Dr. Lown is the author or coauthor of four books relating to medicine and more than four hundred research articles published in peer- reviewed medical journals worldwide.

Prescription for Survival is the story of how committed individuals who are not in positions of political power can use their personal resources (professional expertise, personal and professional connections, networking skills, etc.) to bring about major change in the world.

Bernard Lown is a practicing physician who is a world pioneer in cardiac research and treatment. In 1981, brimming with anxiety about the nuclear confrontation with the Russians, together with a Soviet cardiologist colleague (Evgeni Chazov), he launched a joint USA-USSR medical antinuclear movement: International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW). Over the next four years Lown and Chazov recruited more than 150,000 doctors worldwide as part of this organisation and movement, held many international conferences, met with numerous world leaders, appeared on television programs broadcast throughout the USSR and the US and contributed to slowing down the nuclear arms race. In 1985 Lown and Chazov accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of IPPNW.

There is a lot of adventure, intrigue and conflict that plays out in this story as Lown tells it, vividly and with incredible candor.

In addition to being a memoir by a Nobel Prize winner, this book offers a new understanding of what was really going on in the cold war, along the lines of John Perkins' analysis in Confessions of an Economic Hit Man. Lown explicitly reveals how "much of the cold war was driven not by an ideological hassle between capitalism and communism, but rather by who will continue to control the wealth of the developing world."

On another, perhaps most profound, level, this book is an exposé of the sources, causes and consequences of militarism, which Lown identifies as a disease. Nuclear proliferation is just one symptom. It is still an active and highly contagious disease, as witnessed by events in Iran, Iraq, North Korea and all too many other places today. The most effective way to treat and cure militarism is for people outside the system to bring to bear their own unique perspectives, knowledge, expertise, connections and passions in this battle. The successful crusade of International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War is a great example of changing the system from outside.

Prologue
Chapter 1: Nuclear Realities
Chapter 2: Early Russian connections
Chapter 3: More of Russians
Chapter 4: Fears, doubts and faint beginnings
Chapter 5: A delicate pas de deux
Chapter 6: A mini Geneva convention
Chapter 7: Airlie House: opposition on the home team
Chapter 8: Airlie House to Ascot: encountering heroes
Chapter 9: Military brass came marching in
Chapter 10: We dominate Soviet TV for one hour
Chapter 11: The Catholic Church defends my left flank
Chapter 12: Pay attention to Gorbachev! But who is he?
Chapter 13: "Smuggling" out a Russian painting threatens IPPNW
Chapter 14: IPPNW grows into a world movement - 3rd Congress, Amsterdam
Chapter 15: Downing KAL 007 flight dampens peace work
Chapter 16: IPPNW a venue for Andropov's message in time of deepening crisis.
Chapter 17: A new chilling dimension to nuclear war
Chapter 18: The Richard Perle brouhaha
Chapter 19: Endless daylight in Helsinki
Chapter 20: Mothers fight back
Chapter 21: The Russians are coming
Chapter 22: Gorbachev challenges the nuclear status quo
Chapter 23: Adventure behind the Iron Curtain
Chapter 24: Nobel Prize secret betrayed
Chapter 25: From Nobel ceremonies to a long conversation with Gorbachev
Epilogue