Physician Author, Healthy Aging & Spontaneous Healing Columnist, Time

“If there is one difference between the medicine I practice and what I see most doctors doing,” says Dr. Weil, “it is that I believe people can get better. There is enormous interest in disease and very little interest in health and healing and how to promote it. That is the root of a lot of our troubles.”

Named one of the world’s 100 most influential people by TIME magazine, Weil is the Director of the Program in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona’s College of Medicine. His program is the first effort to change medical education by including courses on alternative therapies, mind/body interactions, healing and other subjects not currently emphasized in medical education. The Program in Integrative Medicine has led several other Universities to plan similar initiatives, signaling a new day in the training of physicians.

His passion is infectious....He ‘wowed’ the crowd with his ability to relate to their problems.

Bath & Body Works

Dr. Weil promotes the middle ground between modern medicine and alternative medicine. He does not restrict his views to a single discipline but rather seeks the benefits of both forms of medical treatment.

“If I were hit by a truck,” says Weil, “I’d want to go to a modern emergency room.” But for chronic conditions such as skin problems, autoimmune disorders and gastrointestinal-tract illnesses — conditions that modern medicine seems largely helpless to remedy — Dr. Weil finds that “gentler, nature-based systems,” can shore up, and even replace modern treatments.

His ideas seem to be catching on. According to a nationwide government survey released in May 2004, 36% of U.S. adults aged 18 years and over use some form of complementary and alternative medicine. The sales of herbal medicines were estimated at five billion dollars in 1997.

Dr. Weil received his A.B. and M.D. from Harvard University. His 10 books (including The Healthy Kitchen with Rosie Daley and the international bestsellers Spontaneous Healing and 8 Weeks to Optimum Health) have sold over six million copies. He publishes a monthly newsletter, Dr. Andrew Weil’s Self Healing, and maintains a popular website, www.drweil.com, that receives an average of 1.7 million visitors per month.

Weil has been a guest on such programs as The Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, NPR’s Fresh Air, and The Today Show. He also appears in video programs featured on PBS and writes a regular column for TIME and Prevention magazine.

With innovative minds like Dr. Weil leading the way, the practice of medicine is evolving and patients are benefiting from a more diverse and comprehensive pool of medical knowledge than ever before.