Andrew Weil

This article is about the integrative medicine proponent. For the two similarly named mathematicians, see Andrew Wiles, or André Weil.

Andrew Thomas Weil (born June 8, 1942) is a teacher and writer on holistic health. He is founder, professor, and director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona. He received both his medical degree and his undergraduate degree in biology from Harvard University and established the field of integrative medicine which aims to combine alternative and conventional medicine. Weil says that patients should take the Western medicine prescribed by the doctor, and then incorporate alternative therapies such as omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, and herbal remedies, meditation and other “spiritual” strategies. Some have criticized Weil for rejecting aspects of evidence-based medicine and promoting unverified beliefs.

Weil appeared on the cover of Time Magazine in 1997 and again in 2005. He has written many books and a total of 10 million copies have been sold. These books include Spontaneous Healing, 8 Weeks to Optimum Health, Eating Well for Optimum Health, The Healthy Kitchen, Healthy Aging, and Why Our Health Matters. He has been a frequent guest on the Larry King Live, Oprah, and the Today Show.

Early life

Weil was born in Philadelphia, where his parents operated a millinery store. Weil received both his medical degree and his undergraduate AB degree in biology (botany) from Harvard University. He wrote his botany thesis on the narcotic properties of nutmeg, and also served as an editor of the Harvard Crimson and the Harvard Lampoon.

From 1971 to 1974, Weil traveled throughout South America as a fellow for the Institute of Current World Affairs. Weil published his first book, The Natural Mind, in 1972. Weil has since written or co-written nine books. Weil was a regular contributor to High Times magazine from 1975 to 1983. Weil has been quite open about his own experimental and recreational use of drugs including narcotics and mind-altering substances.

In 1994, Weil founded the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona Health Sciences Center, where he is director. He is also a Clinical Professor of Medicine and Professor of Public Health and the Lovell-Jones Professor of Integrative Rheumatology.

Weil appeared on the cover of Time Magazine in 1997 and again in 2005. Time Magazine also named him one of the 25 most influential Americans in 1997 and one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2005. Weil was honored by the New York Open Center [1] in 2004 as having made "extraordinary contributions to public awareness of integrative and complementary medicine." Forbes on-line magazine wrote: "Dr. Weil, a graduate of Harvard Medical School, is one of the most widely known and respected alternative medicine gurus. For five years, he has offered straightforward tips and advice on achieving wellness through natural means and educating the public on alternative therapies" and listed his web site in their Best of the Web Directory in the "Alternative Medicine" category, listing it as one of the three "Best of the Web" picks in that category.

Weil has been a frequent guest on Larry King Live, Oprah, Doctor Oz and the Today Show.

Philosophy on health

Weil has acknowledged the influence of many individuals, philosophical and spiritual ideas, and techniques on his approach to medicine. Among the individuals who strongly influenced Weil's professional and personal life is the late osteopath Robert C. Fulford, who specialized in cranial manipulation. Weil has said he respects the work of psychologist Martin Seligman, originator of the field of positive psychology and director of the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania. Weil also respects the work of Stephen Ilardi, professor of psychology at the University of Kansas, and author of The Depression Cure.

Weil's general view is that mainstream and alternative medicine are complementary approaches that should be utilized in conjunction with one another (what he terms integrative medicine). Weil says that patients should take the Western medicine prescribed by their doctor, and then extend the biomedical model to incorporate alternative therapies such as omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, and herbal remedies, meditation and other “spiritual” strategies. Nutrition, exercise and stress reduction are emphasized by Weil. Weil is a proponent of a diet rich in organic fruits and vegetables and regular consumption of fish. He is also a critic of partially hydrogenated oils. In an interview on Larry King Live, Weil claimed that sugar, starch, refined carbohydrates, and trans-fats are more dangerous to the human body than saturated fats. Weil has previously expressed opposition to the war on drugs, citing the benefits of many banned plants. He promotes the medical use of whole-plants as a less problematic approach to treatment than synthetic pharmaceuticals. Weil is also an advocate for certain medicinal mushrooms in a daily diet.

Weil makes an appearance in the 2009 PBS documentary The Botany of Desire where he explains that humans have always sought altered consciousness and that doing so is a normal human behavior.

Books and publications

Weils' early works explored altered states of consciousness, but he has since expanded his scope to encompass healthy lifestyles and health care in general. In the last ten years, Weil has focused much of his work on the health concerns of older Americans. His book, Healthy Aging, looks at growing older from a physical, social and cross-cultural perspective, and emphasizes that aging cannot be reversed, but can be accompanied by good health, "serenity, wisdom, and its own kind of power and grace". His book, Why our Health Matters, is focused on health care reform. Weil's writings span over thirty years and include the following ten books:

• The Natural Mind: An Investigation of Drugs and the Higher Consciousness (1972, rev. 2004)
• Marriage of Sun and Moon: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Consciousness (1980, rev. 2004)
• Health and Healing (1983, rev. 2004)
• From Chocolate to Morphine: Everything you need to know about mind-altering drugs with Winifred Rosen (1983, rev. 2004)
• Spontaneous Healing (1995)
• Natural Health, Natural Medicine (1995, rev. 2004)
• 8 Weeks to Optimum Health (1997, rev. 2006)
• Eating Well for Optimum Health (2000)
• Breathing: The Master Key to Self Healing, audio CD, Sounds True (2000)
• The Healthy Kitchen with Rosie Daley (2002)
• Healthy Aging (2005)
• Why Our Health Matters (September 2009)
• Spontaneous Happiness (2011)

He has written forewords for books by Paul Stamets, Lewis Mehl-Madrona, Tolly Burkan, and Wade Davis, among others.

Weil occasionally writes articles for Time Magazine and Huffington Post. He also appears in the award-winning documentary Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare.

Awards

• Inducted into the Academy of Achievement in 1998.
• Received the John P. McGovern Award in Behavioral Sciences from Smithsonian Associates in 2005.
• Honored by the Institute for Health and Healing in San Francisco as their 2006 Pioneer in Integrative Medicine.

Criticisms

Some have criticized Weil for promoting unverified beliefs. Weil's rejection of some aspects of evidence-based medicine and promotion of alternative medicine practices that are not verifiably efficacious has been criticized by noted physicians such as Arnold S. Relman, editor in chief emeritus of The New England Journal of Medicine, in his 1998 article "A Trip to Stonesville: Some Notes on Andrew Weil". Weil has also promoted food products such as fruit and nut bars by combining his personal brand with Arran Stephens' Nature's Path brand. Relman has also said, "There is no doubt that modern medicine as it is now practiced needs to improve its relations with patients, and that some of the criticisms leveled against it by people such as Weil -- and by many more within the medical establishment itself -- are valid. There also can be no doubt that a few of the "natural" medicines and healing methods now being used by practitioners of alternative medicine will prove, after testing, to be safe and effective.... In the best kind of medical practice, all proposed treatments must be tested objectively. In the end, there will only be treatments that pass that test and those that do not, those that are proven worthwhile and those that are not. Can there be any reasonable "alternative"?"

Weil has also been criticized by members of the medical and pharmaceutical establishments for the potential conflicts of interest this raises in relation to his non-profit foundation business dealings.

Barry L. Beyerstein, PhD at Simon Fraser University, criticizes aspects of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), asserting that "As a major New Age industry, CAM shares the movement's magical world-view. On advocating emotional criteria for truth over criteria based on empirical data and logic, New Age medical gurus such as Andrew Weil and Deepak Chopra have convinced many that 'anything goes,'" later stating that "By denigrating science, these detractors have enlarged the potential following for magical and pseudoscientific health product." Simon Singh echoes this criticism going as far as saying that while Weil promotes some good things like exercise and less smoking that "much of his advice is nonsense".

Dr. Steven Knope of Tucson, Arizona, criticized Weil in a debate televised on public television affiliate KUAT-TV. Knope criticized Weil for what he considered irresponsible advocacy of untested treatments.

Regarding his journalism for Time Magazine, The Center for Science in the Public Interest pointed out that in one Time magazine column by Weil, he touts the benefits of fish oil supplements. The article failed to disclose that Dr. Weil sells his own brand of fish oil supplements on his website."

In 2009, the US Food and Drug Administration sent a warning letter to a company associated with Weil (Weil Lifestyle LLC) as a package of urgent measures to protect consumers from products that, without approval or authorization by FDA, claimed to diagnose, mitigate, prevent, treat or cure H1N1 flu virus in people. Weil Lifestyle had made several implicit claims in its marketing literature that certain products could help ward off the virus.

External links

• Andrew Weil official website
• Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine, formerly the Program in Integrative Medicine, University of Arizona