[extropy-chat] Andrew Weil on ageing

[Lifespan Pharma Inc.]

Posted on Sun, Oct. 23, 2005, the Miami Hrald

Weil takes on anti-aging 'false prophets'


ARTHUR H. ROTSTEIN

Associated Press


VAIL, Ariz. - The best-known practitioner of integrative medicine, 
melding alternative and traditional approaches, has gone mainstream. Dr. 
Andrew Weil, whose 10th book came out Oct. 18, intends to raise the 
public consciousness about aging, and why it is and should be healthy.

In his view, advocates of anti-aging medicine, who tout regimens ranging 
from growth hormone to Botox and cosmetic surgery to stop the aging 
process, have become the 21st century equivalent of snake-oil purveyors 
- long on pitch and short on scientific substance. It's a charge that's 
been leveled at Weil for years.

Weil calls anti-aging advocates "false prophets who are putting out a 
message that aging is reversible or that we can stop it."

"I think those are very wrong ideas," he says during a recent interview 
at his Vail ranch, about 30 miles southeast of Tucson. "Aging is a 
universal natural process, and I think if you set yourself up in 
opposition to it, you're in a very wrong relationship with nature."

In his latest book, "Healthy Aging," Weil argues that there are no 
effective anti-aging medicines. Publisher Alfred A. Knopf is banking 
that Weil's streak of four straight best sellers will continue, with an 
initial printing of 650,000 copies.

Throughout his career, Weil has championed herbal remedies, acupuncture, 
osteopathy, cranial therapy, hypnotherapy and nutritional approaches to 
wellness, as well as traditional medicine.

He majored in botany as an undergrad at Harvard University, where he 
also went to medical school, graduating in 1968. He left the National 
Institutes of Mental Health after the first year of an internship to 
travel the world, pursuing his interest in plant study and herbal 
remedies. He largely supported himself through college and the 1970s as 
a freelance magazine writer.

Then his car broke down in Tucson during the warm, wet winter of 1973, 
with the desert in full bloom, and he never left. Weil continued writing 
and eventually began lecturing at what was the University of Arizona's 
then-fledgling medical school about marijuana, which he said in 
interviews at the time was a mild intoxicant. Later, he began giving 
lectures on alternative medicine. He launched a first-of-its-kind 
integrative medicine program in the College of Medicine in 1997.

"My strong conviction always had been that the main business of doctors 
should be to teach people how not to get sick," he says. "That is, there 
should be a real emphasis on prevention and lifestyle adjustment."

He also believes that pharmaceutical drugs often "caused too much harm."

His focus on alternatives has put him at odds with many mainstream 
practitioners and academics.

One persistent critic, Dr. Arnold Relman, an editor emeritus of the New 
England Journal of Medicine and professor emeritus at Harvard Medical 
School, said he's long disagreed with Weil because "he believes in 
miracles, at least he used to."

"He believed in the healing power of thought, and going back to his 
earliest career, he's taken a position that usually flies in the face of 
science, and for that reason I've disagreed with him." But Relman does 
acknowledge that Weil has advocated some sensible things about diet and 
lifestyle.

Still, Weil's advocacy of such positions as broccoli being a cancer 
treatment and reliance on anecdotal evidence from patients "can't stand 
the light of scientific examination," Relman said. If Weil's anti-aging 
stand is based on hard, scientific, objective evidence, he added, "then 
I applaud it."

Weil said he decided to write about aging because of his concern about 
the rise of anti-aging medicine and said he hopes the book will trigger 
a national dialogue.

"The most damaging perception out there is that the worth of human life 
diminishes with aging, and I've tried to make a case that aging brings 
its own rewards - that there can be an increase in the value of life, 
like fine wine," he says.

He acknowledges that skillfully done cosmetic procedures can provide 
"pleasing results" and enhance quality of life. But he takes issue if 
the reason for surgery is to deny that aging happens.

Weil's own appearance, including his trademark full white beard and a 
bald head, help to underscore his own age, 63. He remains very active, 
though a casual, almost idyllic home setting helps offset the hectic 
pace that swirls around him. He is divorced, his teenage daughter is in 
boarding school and he's "involved in a relationship."

A frequent guest on TV talk shows, he's committed to a 23-city, 
seven-week book tour, and he just appeared for the second time on the 
cover of Time magazine, which previously heralded him as one of the 
world's 100 most influential people. He works part time in the 
University of Arizona's integrative medicine program, writes a 
newsletter and a column for Prevention magazine. He offers vitamin, 
antioxidant and nutritional supplements, endorses skin care products and 
even pet foods on his Web site, http://www.drweil.com, while giving 
daily advice on healthy living.

And he's just been sued over a five-year, $14 million deal, accused of 
failing to adequately market and promote an online pharmacy company as 
the exclusive distributor of his endorsed health care products. He 
called it a contract dispute.

Weil has lived for 11 years on his 120-acre ranch. It's one of about 30 
"ranchettes," mostly 40-acre plots, carved out of the X-9 Ranch, once a 
historic cattle operation spread over 36,000 acres. Weil's property, set 
off behind a gated entrance, is the nowhere reached at the end of a 
three-mile rutted, tooth-jarring washboard dirt road.

Weil, who is partial to shorts, sandals and loose-fitting Hawaiian-style 
sports shirts, lives in a comfortable but hardly lavish setting in what 
was the X-9's main ranch house, rebuilt after a 1938 fire. "I have lots 
of friends; I have my dogs, who are wonderful companions," he says about 
Rhodesian ridgebacks Jambo and Daisy.

Large picture windows in his Mexican-tiled home look onto a patio and 
the Rincon Mountains. A spring-fed swimming pool sits on grounds dappled 
in shade by cottonwood, walnut and mesquite trees. There's also an 
outdoor garden and a large greenhouse. His various enterprises are run 
in nearby offices.

Weil believes he's aging gracefully. "I think I'm doing a pretty good 
job. I keep very active. I like my body. I'm generally not so bad. I 
enjoy coming into my own as an elder."

Some critics view him as a self-promoter and product huckster, but Weil 
says that all after-tax profits from his books and product sales go to 
his Weil Foundation to help fund his integrative medicine program.

And Weil does have his medical supporters.

Cardiologist Dr. Joseph Alpert of the University of Arizona, Weil's best 
friend from medical school, calls Weil a top leader in integrative 
medicine. "Has he brought credibility among physicians? Probably not. 
Has he brought credibility among patients? Definitely, yes. He's 
tremendously bright, an excellent communicator and a very good writer," 
Alpert said.

Twenty-six American medical schools and three in Canada have integrative 
or alternative medicine programs, and the Congress, recognizing a 
growing public interest, created the National Center for Complementary 
and Alternative Medicine in 1999.

"From what it's meant to the public, he (Weil) has been the father of 
integrative medicine," raising public awareness and interest through his 
down-to-earth, sensible writing style, said Dr. Richard Liebowitz, 
medical director of Duke University's Center for Integrative Medicine.

But while Andrew Weil pushes a diet rich in nuts and olive oil, 
multigrain breads, soybeans and fresh, organic fruits, vegetables and 
fish, he's been known to indulge a sweet or two.

On this day, it's a 20-pound peach pie sent by a friend and baked by Pam 
Rinella, who operates the mountaintop Mount Lemmon Café about 90 minutes 
from Weil's ranch.

"I haven't had any of her pies in years," he says, eying the fruity treat.

"That's a serious pie."