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Andrew Weil | |
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 Weil in 2015 | |
| Born | Andrew Thomas Weil (1942-06-08)June 8, 1942 (age 83) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Alma mater | Harvard University |
| Occupation(s) | Medical Doctor, author |
Andrew Thomas Weil (/waɪl/, born June 8, 1942) is an Americancelebrity doctor who advocatesintegrative medicine.[1][2][3]
Weil was born inPhiladelphia, on June 8, 1942,[4] the only child of parents who operated amillinery store,[4] in a family that wasReform Jewish.[5] He graduated from high school in 1959, and was awarded a scholarship from theAmerican Association for the United Nations,[4] giving him the opportunity to go abroad for a year, during which he lived with families inIndia,Thailand, andGreece.[6] From this experience, he became convinced that American culture and science was insular and unaware of non-American practices. He began hearing thatmescaline enhanced creativity and produced visionary experiences, and finding little information on the subject, he readThe Doors of Perception byAldous Huxley.[when?][7]: 24f
In 1960, Weil enteredHarvard University, where he majored inbiology with a concentration inethnobotany.[4] At Harvard, he developed curiosity aboutpsychoactive drugs. He met Harvard psychologistsTimothy Leary andRichard Alpert, and separately engaged in organized experimentation with mescaline.[8] Weil wrote forHarvard Crimson.[7]: 86 [9] One published account of the period describes a falling out of Weil from the group that included the faculty—among whom the experimentation with drugs was contentious, and with regard to undergraduates, proscribed;[10][11] the falling out involved an exposé on drug-use and supply that Weil wrote for theCrimson.[8] Weil wrote of faculty experimentation with drugs in a series ofCrimson pieces:[12]
and that this reporting included the claim that "undergraduates had indeed been able to obtain access to psilocybin from members" of the Harvard faculty research team that was involved in such research.[12] As late as 1973, Weil's name appears in conjunction with an editorial regarding the 1963 firing of Alpert, which stated the view that it would be "unfortunate if the firing of Richard Alpert led to the suppression of legitimate research into the effects of hallucinogenic compounds," distancing himself and theCrimson from the "shoddiness of their work as scientists ... less [the result] of incompetence than of a conscious rejection of scientific ways of looking at things."[16]
Weil's undergraduate thesis was titled "The Use of Nutmeg as a Psychotropic Agent,"[8] specifically, on thenarcotic properties ofnutmeg,[17] chair of the Department of Social Relations, and a former director of Harvard's Center for Research in Personality.[11] In 1964, he graduatedcum laude with aB.A. in biology.[4]
Weil enteredHarvard Medical School, "not with the intention of becoming a physician but rather simply to obtain a medical education."[4] He received a medical degree in 1968,[18][19][20] although "the Harvard faculty ... threatened to withhold it because of a controversial marijuana study Weil had helped conduct" in his final year.[4] Weil moved toSan Francisco and completed a one-year medical internship atMount Zion Hospital in 1968–69.[18][19][21] While there, he volunteered at theHaight-Ashbury Free Clinic.[22] Weil went on to complete one year of a two-year program at NIH, resigning due to "official opposition to his work with marijuana."[21]
Following his internship, Weil took a position with theNational Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) that lasted approximately one year, to pursue his interests in research on marijuana and other drugs;[18][19] during this time he may have received formal institutional permission to acquire marijuana for the research.[7]: 145f
Weil is reported to have experienced opposition to this line of inquiry at the NIMH, to have departed to his rural northern Virginia home (1971-1972), and to have begun his practices of vegetarianism, yoga, and meditation, and work on writingThe Natural Mind (1972).[18][19] At the same time, Weil began an affiliation with the Harvard Botanical Museum that would span from 1971 to 1984, where his work included duties as a research associate investigating "the properties of medicinal and psychoactive plants."[18][19] His interests led him to explore the healing systems of indigenous people, and with this aim, Weil traveled throughout South America and other parts of the world, "collecting information about medicinal plants and healing," from 1971 to 1975, as a fellow for theInstitute of Current World Affairs.[18][19][23]
In 1994, Weil founded the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine at theUniversity of Arizona College of Medicine inTucson, Arizona.[24][25]
Andrew Weil is the founder ofTrue Food Kitchen, a restaurant chain serving meals on the premise that food should make one feel better. There are currently 44 restaurants in the chain.
Weil is credited with popularizing the 4-7-8 breathing technique.[26][27][28][29]
Evidence-based medicine is a stated central component of the higher-order "system of systems" Weil envisionsintegrative medicine to be.[30] It is clear that in both scholarly/academic and popular settings, Weil's statements suggest practices fromalternative therapies as being something to add to conventional medical treatment plans.[30][31] However, Weil is also on record speaking disparagingly of conventional, evidence-based medicine, both in academic and popular contexts. For instance, he is quoted as having said to a group commencing after a month-long training program in integrative medicine at the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine that "thatevidence-based medicine, at its worst, 'is exactly analogous to religious fundamentalism'" (though the source leaves unclear whether any specific aspect of evidence-based medicine was given).[32]
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Weil acknowledges many experiences and individuals that have influenced his philosophical and spiritual ideas, and the techniques he considers valid in his approach tomedicine. Weil has been open about his own history of experimental andrecreational drug use, including experiences withnarcotics andmind-altering substances.[33] Among the individuals who strongly influenced his personal and professional life is the lateosteopathRobert C. Fulford, who specialized incranial manipulation.[34][35] Weil has further stated that he respects the work of psychologistMartin Seligman, who pioneered the field ofpositive psychology and now directs the Positive Psychology Center at theUniversity of Pennsylvania. Weil has also professed admiration for the work of Stephen Ilardi, professor of psychology at theUniversity of Kansas, and author ofThe Depression Cure.[36]
Weil is widely recognized as having a seminal role in establishing the field ofintegrative medicine, where this field is defined as:
a higher-order system of systems of care that emphasizes wellness and healing of the entire person (bio-psycho-socio-spiritual dimensions) as primary goals, drawing on both conventional and CAM [complementary and alternative medicine] approaches in the context of a supportive and effective physician-patient relationship.[30]
He says that patients are urged to take theWestern medicine prescribed by their physicians, and—in whatPublishers Weekly describes as a message "becoming a signature formula"— "bend the 'biomedical model' [conventional, evidence-based medicine] to incorporate alternative therapies, including supplements like omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin D, and herbal remedies; [and] meditation and other 'spiritual' strategies."[31] Propernutrition,exercise, andstress reduction are also emphasized by Weil.[31] In particular, he is a proponent of diets that are rich in organic fruits, organic vegetables, and fish, and is a vocal critic of foods and diets rich inpartially hydrogenated oils.[37] In an interview onLarry King Live, Weil focused on a view that sugar, starch, refined carbohydrates, and trans-fats are more dangerous to the human body thansaturated fats.
Regarding treatment strategies, their side effects, and their efficacy, Weil advocates for the use of whole plants as a less problematic approach in comparison to synthetic pharmaceuticals. In addition, Weil is an advocate of incorporating specificmedicinal mushrooms into one's diet.[38]
Weil has expressed opposition to thewar on drugs,[39] and takes a measured, nuanced approach to the use of recreational drugs.[40]
While Weil's early books and publications primarily exploredaltered states of consciousness,[citation needed] he has since expanded the scope of his work to encompass healthy lifestyles and health care in general.[citation needed] In the last ten years, Weil has focused much of his work on the health concerns of older people.[citation needed] In his bookHealthy Aging, Weil looks at the process of growing older from a physical, social, and cross-cultural perspective,[citation needed] and in his bookWhy our Health Matters is focused onhealth care reform.[citation needed]
Of his books, several have appeared on various bestseller lists, both as hardbacks and as paperbacks (many appearing so in the 1990s[41]), some of them beingSpontaneous Healing (1995; on theNew York Times list),[42][better source needed][better source needed]Eight Weeks to Optimum Health (1997; on thePublishers Weekly andNew York Times lists),[42][43][better source needed]Eating Well for Optimum Health (2000;Publishers Weekly,New York Times),[42][43][better source needed]The Healthy Kitchen (2002, with chef Rosie Daley;New York Times),[42][better source needed]Healthy Aging (2005;New York Times),[42][better source needed] andSpontaneous Happiness (2011;New York Times).[42][better source needed]
Published collections of answers to questions received on his DrWeil.com website:
As of 2015, Weil was serving as series editor of an academic imprint from Oxford University Press called theWeil Integrative Medicine Library, volumes for clinicians in more than 10 medical specialties, including oncology, cardiology, rheumatology, pediatrics, and psychology.[45] Weil co-edited the first volume,Integrative Oncology, withDonald Abrams, which appeared in 2009.[24] Academic and scholarly reviews of the series and individual volumes were lacking as of 2015—in almost all cases, the publisher's "Reviews and Awards" tabs lack society or other published reviews (apart fromDoody's).[46] A cancer society review of the second edition of the series'Integrative Oncology volume, the first volume to have been published, describes the field as "an exciting new discipline" and the book as offering "best-practice methods to prevent cancer and support those affected by it on all levels: body, mind, and spirit" and as being comprehensive, and offering "meticulous, well-written chapters on proven and yet-to-be-proven methods for enhancing cancer care with integrative oncology."[47]
Weil was a regular contributor toHigh Times magazine from 1975 to 1983.[48] More recently, Weil has written the forewords to a variety of books, includingPaul Stamets'sPsilocybin Mushrooms of the World[49] andLewis Mehl-Madrona'sCoyote Medicine.[50] In the 21st century, Weil has occasionally written articles forTime magazine.[51]
Medical professionals in particular have criticized Weil for promoting treatment claims andalternative medicine practices described as unverified or inefficacious, or for otherwise rejecting aspects ofevidence-based medicine. Weil's rejection of some aspects ofevidence-based medicine and his promotion ofalternative medicine practices that are not verifiably efficacious were criticized in a 1998New Republic piece byArnold S. Relman, emeritus editor-in-chief ofThe New England Journal of Medicine and emeritus professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.[52] The lateBarry Beyerstein ofSimon Fraser University, writing in the journalAcademic Medicine in 2001, criticized Weil and various aspects of complementary and alternative medicine, asserting that it held a "magical world-view"; he continued, saying,
On advocating emotional criteria for truth over criteria based on empirical data and logic, New Age medical gurus such as Andrew Weil ... have convinced many that "anything goes" ... By denigrating science, these detractors have enlarged the potential following for magical and pseudoscientific health products.[53]
In 2003,Steven Knope, author ofThe Body/Mind Connection (2000),[full citation needed] a physician trained atWeill Cornell Medical College, and former Chair of the Department of Medicine in the Tucson, Arizona, Carondelet system, criticized Weil in a televised discussion for what he considered irresponsible advocacy of untested treatments.[54]Simon Singh, a recognized British science writer, andEdzard Ernst, a former Professor of Complementary Medicine at the University of Exeter, echoed Beyerstein's criticism in their 2008 bookTrick or Treatment, saying that although Weil correctly promotes exercise and smoke-free lifestyles "much of his advice is nonsense."[55]
Hans Baer of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at theUniversity of Arkansas, writing in 2003, has argued that Weil's approach represents a general limitation of the holistic health/New Age movement, in its "tendenc[y] to downplay the role of social, structural, and environmental factors in the etiology of disease" in the United States, and in doing so, represents a failure to "suggest substantive remedies for improving access to health care," generally, for the "millions of people who lack any type of health insurance"; at the same time, Baer notes (with negative connotations) that Weil instead contributes "to a long tradition of entrepreneurialism in the U.S. medical system."[18][19]: 20, 29, 119, 130ff
Beginning in 2006, as the result of his commercial ventures, Weil—as David Gumpert has described—has placed himself in the "awkward position of ... having to defend himself against charges of inappropriately exploiting hismedical-celebrity status."[3] Commenting on a cover article in a recent 2006 edition of theCenter for Science in the Public Interest's "highly respected"Nutrition Action Healthletter,[2] Gumpert called attention to:
TheForbes article noted, in particular,drugstore.com's 2005 lawsuit against DrWeil.com for Weil's having "failed to perform any of his marketing obligations," noting that in a 2004Larry King Live interview, Weil failed to promote this business partner, despite the program offering "reasonable opportunity for Weil to use efforts to promote drugstore.com."[3] Moreover, theCSPI's newsletter noted that their investigations into the vitamin and supplement recommendation service led them to conclude that the algorithms behind the recommendations were, by default, set to recommend purchases: regardless of how the online inquiries of the personalized service were answered, "we couldn't get the Advisor to stop recommending that we buy supplements."[2][3] The CSPI article concludes, "Beware of doctors who sell what they recommend."[2][3]
In 2006, theCenter for Science in the Public Interest also commented on aTime magazine piece by Weil rebutting a recentJAMA report on the failure of fish oil supplements to significantly reduce risk of serious heart arrhythmias,[56] where he emphasized the benefits offish oil supplements without a disclaimer that he had a direct commercial interest in the sale of these supplements.[57]
Another specific criticism has been leveled with regard to the message of hisHealthy Aging (2005), which argues that aging should be accepted as a natural stage in life,[citation needed] while these skin care products were being sold atMacy's with the advertising claim of the products' "optimiz[ing] skin's defense against aging"—alongside a large picture of Weil.[58]
Weil has also been accused by others in the alternative health movement of being involved in the "dishonest practice of spreadingfear, uncertainty, and doubt about competitors' products, while pretending to be [an] objective 3rd [party]."[59][better source needed]
Weil's 1983Chocolate to Morphine roused the ire of Florida senatorPaula Hawkins, "who demanded that the book, a veritable encyclopaedia of various drugs and their effects on humans, be removed from schools and libraries."[4][60]
In 2009, the USFood and Drug Administration sent a warning letter to Weil's Weil Lifestyle LLC, regarding "Unapproved / Uncleared / Unauthorized Products Related to the H1N1 Flu Virus" in particular, a "Notice of Potential Illegal Marketing of Products to Prevent, Treat or Cure the H1N1 VirusH1N1 [influenza] Virus."[61][better source needed]
Weil appeared on the cover ofTime magazine in 1997 and again in 2005, andTime named him one of the 25 most influential Americans in 1997 and one of the 100 most influential people in the world in 2005.[62] He was inducted into theAcademy of Achievement in 1998.[17][63] His "Ask Dr. Weil" website was chosen byForbes'Best of the Web Directory in 2009 for having offered "straightforward tips and advice on achieving wellness through natural means and educating the public on alternative therapies."[64] The Integrative Healthcare Symposium (IHS) awarded Weil as the recipient of its 2022 Leadership Award.[65]
Weil blogs for theHuffington Post[66] and has been a frequent guest onLarry King Live onCNN,[67]Oprah,[68] andThe Today Show.[69] Weil appeared in the 2012 documentary on the need for a "rescue" of American healthcare,Escape Fire.[70][71]He also appeared in the 2019 documentaryFantastic Fungi.[72]
Subtitle: From the Bottle.
Faculty Members Regret Lack of Details, But See No Issue of Academic Freedom.
'Roles' & 'Games' In William James.
{{cite book}}:|journal= ignored (help){{cite book}}:|work= ignored (help){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: others (link)Subtitle: Alternative therapies are increasingly mainstream. That means headaches for scientists—and no cure in sight.
Subtitle: : How to discover and enhance your body's natural ability to maintain and heal itself.
Subtitle: In fiction, selling what sells; in nonfiction, small became beautiful.
Unapproved/Uncleared/Unauthorized Products Related to the H1N1 Flu Virus; and Notice of Potential Illegal Marketing of Products to Prevent, Treat or Cure the H1N1 Virus.[non-primary source needed][non-primary source needed]
Subtitle: Filmmakers Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke not only deftly make the case that the system is ill but also effectively argue for a dramatic change in thinking.
Subtitle: Alternative therapies are increasingly mainstream. That means headaches for scientists—and no cure in sight.
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