By Teresa Griswold
His bearded face has graced the cover of Time magazine twice. Many of his ten books on health have topped the New York Times Best Seller's list, including his most recent, "Healthy Aging." In 2005, he was named one of Time magazine's most 100 influential people in the world. All for good reason.
"He gave people like me the confidence and fortitude to know that we can do this..."
Harvard-educated Dr. Andrew Weil is a medical visionary who pioneered the model of integrative medicine ‹ which makes use of both conventional and complementary medicine practices to treat the body, mind and spirit. It is becoming the medicine of the future. Dr. Mark Menolascino of Jackson's Integrative Medicine Healing Arts Center shares Weil's passion for integrative medicine and embodies the philosophy and practice. "He gave people like me the confidence and fortitude to know that we can do this," said. Menolascino, "to be that conduit between two types of medicine that benefits our patients most."
Weil will deliver the keynote address at the Teton Wellness Festival this Saturday night at Snow King, emphasizing the pursuit of worthwhile lifestyle goals to achieve optimal health.
With an endearing sense of presence and inherent playfulness, Weil spoke with Planet Jackson Hole about his career, goals, and what makes him happy.
Planet Jackson Hole: You've devoted the past 30 years to developing, practicing and teaching others about the principals of integrative medicine. What and who were your biggest influences that brought you to this path and career?
Dr. Andrew Weil: I would have to say some of it is my own inner teacher, because I think I came into the world this way. And as far back as I can remember, I was interested in plants, which was something I got from my mother and that she got from her mother. That eventually led me to be a botany major at Harvard, which started me on a career of interest in medicinal plants. ... I also was, again as long as I can remember, fascinated by the mind and consciousness and how the mind affects the body. ... I got interested in alternative medicine when I was still in college and began reading about it. ...
One of my mentors was Richard Schultes, who was the director of the Harvard Botanical Museum, and he pointed me to South America and got me interested in ethnobotany, studying other cultures. Another person who was very influential was an old osteopathic physician named Robert Fulford. I wrote about him in "Spontaneous Healing," and he practiced in Tucson and
was just a master of using his hands to promote healing. He worked mostly with kids and was a very powerful influence on me and showing me that there are other ways of curing illness and approaching treatment. Other than those two, I think that a lot of it was finding my own path and experiencing other cultures, putting this system together for myself.
PJH: There is a debate between alternative and mainstream medicine going on. In what ways have you reached a point of agreement with your opponents?
AW: I don't advocate alternative medicine. I think integrative medicine is clearly the way of the future. It's not about rejecting standard medicine or embracing alternative therapies uncritically. It's a new model that really looks at the whole person and looks at lifestyle and places great importance on the doctor-patient relationship, and then is willing to look outside the box to find treatments that are effective. So I think that the term "integrative medicine" is really acceptable in academic discourse. ... I hope that eventually that this will replace the terms "alternative medicine" and "complementary medicine." As I said, I am just very convinced that this is the way of the future. I think economic necessity is going to move things in this direction.
PJH: Is it that one of the reasons why people are so interested in healthy living?
AW: I think it's a major reason why institutions and physicians are now interested in it. I think the general public has been interested in this for a long time because they know what they want, and they want more natural treatments, less invasive treatments, treatments that don't cause as much harm. ... I think it's the economic motivation that is now moving institutions in this direction.
PJH: Do you think that some of your audience is grasping at immortality more than striving for healthy living in later years?
AW: I've made it very clear in my last book, in "Healthy Aging," that's not what I'm advocating. You know the first chapter in the book is called "Immortality," and it's about all the things that are wrong with that concept. I've been saying very clearly over the past year that anti-aging, age reversal are not worthwhile goals, that we should instead be concentrating on staying healthy as we get older.
PJH: On Saturday, you're going to deliver the keynote address at the Teton Wellness Festival here in Jackson, and the topic is "Healthy Aging: How to Enjoy Good Health at any Age." What things will you advocate people do?
AW: I think it's really paying attention to total lifestyle, so that means learning the principals of good nutrition, learning how to use dietary supplements wisely, maintaining physical activity throughout life, learning simple methods of neutralizing harmful effects of stress, paying attention to the quality of your rest and sleep, having fun. It's everything that goes into lifestyle. So, I will talk about some of the latest scientific findings in those areas, and I'll give people some practical tips that they can take away.
PJH: Have you been to Jackson Hole before?
AW: I have.
PJH: So you probably met some of our residents, and you know that there are many of us that do embrace a pretty healthful lifestyle.
AW: Right. I think it's one of the areas of the country where there's one of the healthiest lifestyles.
PJH: I know you have to take the time to restore your own sense of wellness, and I read that gardening is near the top of your list of activities.
AW: It is. I really enjoy plants. I like growing my own food. It's relaxing for me. It's definitely something that I am into.
PJH: What other things make you happy?
AW: Well, cooking also. I really like food preparation, and that for me is very relaxing and meditative. So even when I'm by myself, I prepare food for myself. I just enjoy that. Swimming is my main physical activity. It's something especially as I've gotten older that works really well for me. I like listening to music. I like traveling still.
PJH: One of the tenets of integrative medicine is that the practice is not just about health with the physical body but there's a spiritual component. I read on your Web site that you walk your meditative labyrinth.
AW: Unfortunately my meditative labyrinth was washed away in a flood ... so, I'm in the process of reconstruction and rebuilding.
PJH: You said that you learned a lesson by walking the labyrinth: it taught you to focus on the journey and that the destination will take care of itself.
AW: Yes.
PJH: Where does your journey go from here?
AW: I want to make sure that the integrative medicine movement is on a very solid footing financially and intellectually and will carry on when I step back from it. So I'm still putting a great deal of energy into that. And then the other thrust of my work is to try to give people as much information so that they can take greater charge in their own lives, and I'm interested in trying to influence public policy in terms of nutrition, nutrition for kids, insurance reimbursement. ... I'm interested in doing some more work in television, because that seems to reach more people. So I may be doing a series on healthy aging for PBS and looking at other ways of using television and radio to get these messages across to people about what constitutes a healthy lifestyle.
PJH: How do you influence change?
AW: I think it's a matter of stirring up grassroots movements from concerned parents and other citizens and lobbying for legislation and working to change policies of corporations. I think it comes down to education. I'm basically an educator, and I really believe in the value that if you give people the right information that they can understand, they'll take it and run with it.
PJH: What would you consider your best success or your primary achievement?
AW: I must say I think it's the integrative medicine program that really is, I think, beginning to make a real difference in the course of medical education and how medicine is moving, and I'm confident that in the future that's going to become more and more prominent.
PJH: How did you respond to the fact that you were named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in the world?
AW: [Laugh] It's been interesting to me to watch the changed perception of me in the culture, because I've really been writing and saying the same things about health, medicine, medical education, for 30 years at least. And when I first started to do that I think I was generally ignored. I was pretty much a lone voice. And then in the '70s, early '80s, I began to get a following in the general public, but I was completely ignored by my medical colleagues and that continued up until the beginning of the '90s. And it was only as the economic crisis in healthcare began to develop that medical authorities began to pay attention to me. So I think it's an indication of just how mainstream culture has caught up with me.
PJH: How did you persevere?
AW: [Laughs] Well, I knew I was right. I was not attached to the outcome. I just put the information out there. I knew that what I was doing was what I was supposed to be doing and was right. I've been gratified to see the shift in the culture though. I don't know that I would have predicted that things would have moved that fast.
PJH: In 20 years, what will you most likely be doing?
AW: I will still be gardening and cooking, and living in a place of natural beauty which I like. And to the extent that I am capable and have energy, I will probably continue to teach, because I can't imagine not doing that, as well as learning.
- editor@planetjh.com
