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Andrew WeilFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Andrew Thomas Weil (Born June 8, 1942) is an American author and physician, best known for establishing and popularizing the field of integrative medicine. Weil is the author of several best-selling books and operates a website and monthly newsletter promoting general health and healthy aging. He is the founder and Program Director of the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine (formerly the Program in Integrative Medicine), which he started in 1994 at the University of Arizona.[1] He founded Weil Lifestyle LLC.
IntroductionAndrew Weil was born June 8, 1942 in Philadelphia, PA to parents of German and Ukrainian descent. His parents owned a millinery store.[2] He attended both college and medical school at Harvard University. As an undergraduate, Weil majored in botany and wrote his thesis on the narcotic properties of nutmeg,[3] and also served as an editor of the Harvard Crimson and the Harvard Lampoon.[4] After medical school, Weil did not seek residency. He completed a medical internship at Mt. Zion Hospital in San Francisco and subsequently worked for a year with the National Institute of Mental Health. From 1971-1974, he traveled throughout South America as a fellow for the Institute of Current World Affairs.[5] He published his first book, The Natural Mind, in 1972. Weil has since written or co-written nine books, and was a regular contributor to High Times magazine from 1975 to 1983.[6] His 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 latest book, Why our Health Matters, is focused on health care reform. Medical philosophyWeil's general view is that mainstream and alternative medicine are complementary approaches that should be utilized in conjunction with one another. Specifically, he maintains that mainstream medicine is well-suited to crisis intervention, whereas alternative medicine is best utilized for prevention and health maintenance. He promotes integrative medicine as a combination of both approaches. Nutrition, exercise, and stress reduction are emphasized in almost all of Weil's health works. Weil has acknowledged the influence of many individuals, philosophical and spiritual ideas, and techniques on his approach to alternative 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.[7][8] 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 has also written about the healing properties of medicinal mushrooms and Psilocybin mushrooms in several of his books. Honors
Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine (AzCIM)Main article: Arizona Center for 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 2008, more than 450 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. In April 2008, the Arizona Board of Regents recognized the Program as a Center of Excellence and renamed it the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine. Since the founding of the University of Arizona program, academic instruction in integrative medicine has grown rapidly. There are now 42 academic medical centers that offer integrative medicine programs, including the Mayo Clinic, Harvard Medical School and Georgetown, Duke and Columbia Universities. Books and PublicationsWeil's writings span over thirty years and include the following ten books:
He has written forewords for books by Paul Stamets, Lewis Mehl-Madrona, Tolly Burkan, and Wade Davis, among others. In addition to his website and daily blog, Weil occasionally writes articles for Time Magazine and Huffington Post.[12] [13] He also maintains a Twitter feed [14]. Diet advocacyWeil is a proponent of a diet rich in organic fruits and vegetables and regular consumption of fish. He is also an outspoken critic of partially hydrogenated oils. In an interview on Larry King Live, Weil claimed that sugar, starch, refined carbohydrates, and trans-fat are more dangerous to the human body than saturated fat. Weil is also an advocate for certain medicinal mushrooms in a daily diet.[5] Timothy Leary and HarvardIn Fall 1960 Weil was an 18-year-old Harvard freshman. He was already interested in doing research on mind-altering drugs. He learned of the Harvard Psilocybin Project that was being run by two Harvard professors: Dr. Timothy Leary and Dr. Richard Alpert (later known as Ram Dass). Weil interviewed with Leary and Alpert to become part of their project, but was turned away because he was an undergraduate. Leary and Alpert had agreed with Harvard to not use undergraduates in their project. After this, Weil and other undergraduates managed to procure mescaline, and they did their own experiments with it. Weil later stopped taking the drugs (at that time).[15] In May 1963 Weil was an editor of The Harvard Crimson. Leary and Alpert were continuing their activities amidst various controversies, including a criminal investigation of the project by Massachusetts authorities. The Harvard administration wanted to remove Alpert, and Weil was helping them to gather evidence against him. At this time Weil wrote an exposé article on Leary and Alpert for the Crimson.[16] After the article was published, Alpert was fired for giving psychedlics to an undergraduate. Leary, who was already in Mexico when the article was published, was fired for "leaving Cambridge and his classes without permission."[17][18] Weil also wrote a negative article on the Harvard drug scandal for the November 1963 issue of Look magazine. About five years years later Weil came to regret his actions with these articles. He reconciled differences with Leary, and attempted to do the same with Alpert.[19] ControversySome have criticized Dr. 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 Dr. Arnold S. Relman in his 1998 article "A Trip to Stonesville: Some Notes on Andrew Weil". In a debate between Dr. Weil and Dr. Steven Knope of Tucson, Arizona, televised on public television affiliate KUAT-TV, Knope is critical of Weil for what he considers irresponsible advocacy of untested treatments by Weil.[20] References
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Categories: 1942 births | Living people | American health and wellness writers | American medical writers | American physicians | Harvard Medical School alumni | People in alternative medicine | Psychedelic drug advocates | Psychedelic researchers | University of Arizona faculty | American people of Ukrainian descent | American scientists of German descent | American writers of German descent | Harvard Lampoon members |
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