Andrew Weil Interview (page: 6 / 6) Integrative Medicine	Print Interview

There is some reason for concern that while there are alternative modalities that are well known and well tested, there are some that are on the market that have not been so well tested.

Andrew Weil: All the systems of medicine that I've looked at are rich mixtures of wisdom and foolishness. That's true of conventional medicine as well, by the way. There is a rather astonishing percentage of procedures used in conventional medicine that have never been rigorously tested. What we need to do is sort through all of this and to separate what's useful and what's true from what's not. I don't think there's any system of medicine that has all the answers. I am a scientist, I'm very much in favor of scientific method. I'm in favor of testing, and determining first what's harmful and eliminating that and warning people about that, and then trying to demonstrate the efficacy and cost efficacy of various approaches.

Would you be in favor of serious testing of health food and so on?

Andrew Weil: Of course. But the reason we don't have good research in this area has a lot to do with how we're training our physicians. For example, research in mind/body medicine is not great. The reason it's not great is that the people who do medical research have come out of an educational system that has not made them realize the importance of mind/body interactions and the practical usefulness of knowing about them. So I keep coming back to the fact that unless we train a new generation of physicians, we're going to be stuck with all these problems.

Do you get the sense that there is a new generation out there?

Andrew Weil: Yes. I think the demand for this kind of training is becoming overwhelming. We are really at the beginning of a genuine revolution and transformation of medicine. It's also important to realize that this is consumer-driven at the moment, but institutions are finally responding to it. It's happening all over the world, in different stages. It is not a fad, this is a genuine socio-cultural trend, with very deep historical and intellectual roots.

If it's consumer-driven, could that lead to some possible complications?

Andrew Weil: If it remains only consumer-driven, that's a problem. Unless there is a well thought out institutional response, I think it's a problem. Here's one example. If you're a hospital facing bankruptcy, as many are, or if you are a managed care facility in an intensely competitive market, the economic incentives to cater to the consumer demand for alternative medicine are so overwhelming that you would be scrambling to provide services. But where are you going to get physicians to provide those services, since our medical schools are not graduating them?

One of my fears is that all this is happening too fast. A lot of programs are going to get set up, and we'll see holistic clinics and alternative medicine programs that really aren't well thought out. I think that would be bad for the development of the movement that I'd like to see.

Are there new frontiers that you're interested in?

Andrew Weil: Well,

Get the Flash Player to see this video. Based on the way that my career has gone, I would not rule out the possibility that five years from now I'll be doing something completely different. For the moment it is very exciting to be involved in this wave of possibility of changing medicine and bringing it back into balance with nature, of expanding scientific horizons and paradigms to take account of observations and phenomena that have been seen as being beyond the pale.

[ Key to Success ] Passion

Are there any things that you regret doing, or regret not having done yet?

Andrew Weil: I don't think it's useful to have regrets, frankly. I've done what I've done. I think that that was the right thing for me to do and here I am. I think I've made relatively good use of my talents and interests, and I will continue to try to do that.

When you took over the program at NIMH, was that just a bad fit?

Andrew Weil: Bad fit. This was 1969-'70. It was during a very difficult political year for the whole country. I was in a very sensitive area having to do with drug research. It was really not where I belonged and I was happy to be out of there.

You have a relatively new book. This gets you into the pop culture area. Is that an insulting way to put it?

Andrew Weil: I see myself working on two fronts simultaneously. One is within the profession, towards professional development training, and the other is with consumers. I feel comfortable in both of those worlds. However, I think maintaining a balance between them is delicate. There are a lot of physicians out there who are very popular with consumers, who have no credibility with the profession. I think I've been able to walk in both worlds, and I will continue to try to do that. I feel that both of those worlds are necessary, because without the consumer movement none of this would be happening.

Get the Flash Player to see this video. It is consumer demand which is forcing change within the medical profession right now. And to have that go in a responsible direction is important. And I think that my voice is very much listened to as a source of information that's seen as being trustworthy, neutral. I'm not selling people things. I'm only selling information to the public. And I try to make that the best quality information that I can find.

[ Key to Success ] Integrity

So I feel comfortable operating in both of those worlds. Just on a practical level, the Eight Weeks book was also written in response to demand, to people asking me to put all the practical information I had in one place. A lot of this is preventive, and I think that people who follow this kind of program, which is relatively easy to follow, are dramatically reducing their risks of a lot of the diseases that now consume a lot of the time of physicians, and a lot of our health care dollars.

Do people expect you to follow your own advice?

Andrew Weil: Yes, and I think that's a reasonable expectation. The kind of lifestyle information that I've put in Eight Weeks, that's my lifestyle. That's consistent with all of my earlier work. I've always drawn on my own experience, so I have experimented a lot with what works for me. I've tested that out on other people, and I've put that into the books.

Do you ever feel that it's okay to sneak something...

Andrew Weil: Absolutely. All things in moderation, including moderation. One of the challenges for me is that, having become a public personality as a result of books and television programs, and the fact also that I'm fairly recognizable, I have to be aware that whatever I'm doing, people are watching. If I'm in an airport eating a frozen yogurt, a lot of people are going to come and over and say, "Well, I guess it's all right to eat frozen yogurt."

Thank you for talking with us. It's been a great pleasure.

You're welcome.

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