Andrew Weil

Andrew Weil (born June 8, 1942 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is a world-famous United States physician. He is one of the leading proponents of integrative medicine. He founded Weil Lifestyle LLC.

He received both his undergraduate degree in biology (with a focus on botany) and his medical degree from Harvard University. Weil has written or co-written nine books. His early works explored his theory that altered states of consciousness come from within and can be triggered by experiences and practices other than drugs. He has since expanded his scope to encompass healthy lifestyles and health care in general. As Weil entered his 60s, he began shifting his focus to the health concerns of older Americans. His most recent 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."

He is currently employed as a professor of internal medicine at the University of Arizona in Tucson, where he is the director and founder of the Program in Integrative Medicine (PIM). Weil's general view is that patients do best utilizing both mainstream and alternative medicine. In general, he believes that mainstream medicine is well-suited to crisis intervention, and alternative medicine is best utilized for prevention and health maintenance. Nutrition, exercise, and stress reduction are emphasized in almost all of Weil's health works.

Medical philosophy

Weil is open about his past use of illegal substances, claiming, "I think I've tried about every drug in book From Chocolate to Morphine." He is equally open with his views on ending the War on Drugs, citing the benefits of many banned plants. In fact, the opening paragraph of From Chocolate to Morphine reads: "Drugs are here to stay. History teaches that it is vain to hope that drugs will ever disappear and that any effort to eliminate them from society is doomed to failure."

Weil claims that humans have an innate need to alter their consciousness, and that there is no such thing as good or bad drugs, merely that some individuals have good or bad relationships with certain substances.

As with his writings on drug usage, Weil's views on general health are informed by his botanical training. He contends that because human beings co-evolved with plants, whole-plant compounds generally assimilate less problematically than novel chemical creations. Generally, he claims that the profit represented by patentable pharmaceutical compounds has diverted attention away from low-cost, safe, simple lifestyle interventions that usually lead to better outcomes.

Weil also contends that physicians have a responsibility to be models of healthy living. His Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona incorporates structured time for meditation, exercise and socializing among its fellows.

Honors

As an internationally recognized expert on medicinal herbs, mind-body interactions, and integrative medicine, Weil appeared on the cover of Time Magazine in 1997 and 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. He received the John P. McGovern Award in Behavioral Sciences from Smithsonian Associates in 2005.

Program in Integrative Medicine

In 1994, Weil founded the Program in Integrative Medicine (PIM) at University Medical Center and the University of Arizona in Tucson. It offers residential and research fellowship programs and operates an outpatient clinic according to Weil's principles; emphasizing prevention over treatment and focusing on nutrition, botanical medicines and mind-body interventions to complement conventional synthetic drug and surgery protocols. It also operates an annual Nutrition and Health Conference and a Botanical Medicine conference. As of 2005, more than 250 physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners had completed the program. Weil says the expense associated with running PIM, reportedly $3 million annually, led him to agree to lend his name to commercial products to provide steady revenue for this and other research efforts in line with his philosophy.

Since the founding of the University of Arizona program, academic instruction in integrative medicine has grown rapidly. There are now 31 academic medical centers that offer integrative medicine programs, including the Mayo Clinic, Harvard Medical School and Georgetown, Duke and Columbia Universities.

Vitamin supplement sales controversy

Early in 2006, the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) questioned whether Weil, as he claims, has no financial interest in the sales of his personal brand of vitamin supplements. Weil claims all profits from these sales go to the Weil Foundation, which supports research in alternative medicine.

However, a front-page story in CSPI's newsletter, Nutrition Action, reported that a 2003 contract that Weil signed with drugstore.com to sell the supplements, made public when the online pharmacy sued him for failing to adequately promote them, provided that Weil himself would be paid monthly honoraria that would total $1.6 million over the five years of the contract; that 1% of the supplement sales from both Weil's own website and drugstore.com would be donated to the foundation and that his company, Weil Lifestyle, would receive commissions of up to 30% on those sales. The newsletter put the total Weil and his associated entities could earn from the deal at $16 million.

A review of the IRS Form 990s filed by the foundation found, however, that they reported no income from Weil through 2003 and 2004. CSPI tried to contact Weil himself to explain whether administrative expenses, salaries or consulting fees might explain this disparity, but he did not respond to their requests. However, on January 27, 2006, Tucson Citizen newspaper reporter Anne T. Denogean reported that "Weil and his people" were "easily reached" and had "no record of anyone from CSPI trying to contact them."

Since being founded in 2002, the Weil Foundation has given out four grants totaling just $60,000. Half of that went to Weil's own PIM at Arizona ^*. In the Tucson Citizen article, David Stoup, co-chairman of Weil Lifestyle, says expenses relating to starting the three-year-old company had absorbed most donatable profits, but that 2006 will be a turnaround year. According to his web site, www.drweil.com, Weil's 2005 after-tax profits from sales were $154,589, which he donated to the Weil Foundation in May 2006. Projections are that Weil will donate in excess of $350,000 to the Foundation based on 2006 revenue. Over the next 10 years, Weil Lifestyle has pledged $10 million to the foundation.

As to the $14 million contract, Denoghean's article notes that a lawsuit against Weil eliminated $10.1 million in payments. The article states, "Ironically, given the CSPI allegations, the basis of the drugstore.com lawsuit against Weil was that he wasn't doing a good job of shilling its products," (an irony noted in the Nutrition Action article). Weil himself has often expressed ambivalence about marketing his name, but says he agreed to do so only because it seemed the only vehicle that can guarantee a steady stream of significant funding for integrative medicine research and clinical efforts.

The CSPI report also alleged that Weil mischaracterized two studies showing that regular consumption of Vitamin E which he advocates, claims to use and sells in large quantities, does little to prevent heart disease or cancer, contrary to his claims. Likewise, it challenged the health claims Weil makes for coenzyme Q10, evening primrose oil and his "Energy Support Formula."

Works

He is the author of ten books including: The Natural Mind, Marriage of Sun and Moon: Dispatches from the Frontiers of Consciousness, Health and Healing, From Chocolate to Morphine, Spontaneous Healing, 8 Weeks to Optimum Health, Eating Well for Optimum Health,and The Healthy Kitchen. Weil's latest work, Healthy Aging, was published in October of 2005.

References

Center for Science in the Public Interest, January/February 2006; "Supplementing Their Income?: How Celebrities Turn Trust Into Cash," Nutrition Action.
Denogean, Anne; January 27, 2006; "Health guru Weil disputes claim he's cashing in on public's trust"; Tucson Citizen.
Academy of Achievement, November 3, 2005; "Biography: Andrew Weil, M.D.," Achievement.org.

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