Medical Luminary Andrew Weil
Photo by Tom Spitz
February 2006 | Whole Health
Embrace Your Age and Love Your (Mature) Life
Dr. Andy says chill when it comes to those wrinkles and gray hairs
By Rebecca Ephraim, R.D., C.C.N.
Who better than a 63-year-old bald man with a white beard and a little bit of heft telling us to relax about our looks. Talk about being comfortable in your own skin! But, Andrew Weil, M.D., who’s been relentless in his campaign to take mind, body, and spirit medicine mainstream, does have an attractiveness all his own. Most alluring is his confidence in sharing his wisdom.
A prolific author, who is a familiar name on the best-seller lists, Weil is now tackling the, well, the vanity of the Baby Boomers. He’s on a mission with his latest book, entitled Healthy Aging, to convince us that aging is a good thing.
“This is not an easy culture to grow old in,” he muses over tea at a downtown Vancouver hotel. “I’m trying to change that. I think it’s the right moment to do that because the demographics are on our side. The Baby Boomers start turning 60 this year and I don’t think they’re going to settle for the models of aging that have been bought into by previous generations.”
Ah, so Dr. Andy is capitalizing on strength in numbers. Maybe the 50- and 60-year-olds among us can create a new paradigm for growing old(er). Importantly, this doctor’s prescription for a long and happy life is about healthy aging, and that doesn’t mean fretting over a few wrinkles.
“What I am concerned about is people doing things to make it easier to pretend that aging is not occurring. That, I think, is not mentally healthy,” he says with the candor for which he’s become known.
“It’s hormones, it’s [cosmetic] surgery; it’s all of those that address things on a superficial level. Anti-aging is a waste of time and money and, at worse, medically dangerous. Instead, we should be focused on learning how to avoid age-related disease.”
Aging Gracefully (with the Wrinkles)
True to his mission, Weil’s emphasis on living as long and as well as possible enlists his brand of medicine that addresses the whole person — body, mind and spirit.
As for our bodies, he believes the most effective way to slow disease is to control inflammation that wreaks havoc in our cells. Inflammation, he contends, is the common root of many chronic diseases and it’s why we are experiencing epidemics of heart disease, diabetes and numerous forms of cancer.
His approach to this is an anti-inflammation diet but Weil balks at the term “diet,” since it’s not a weight-loss program or something to stay on for a limited period of time. Rather, he prefers to describe it as a nutritional component of a healthy lifestyle that can help our bodies resist and adapt to the changes that came with aging.
A cornerstone is eating more omega-3 fats (salmon, sardines, omega-3 eggs, hemp/flax seeds and walnuts), minimizing the use of omega-6 fats in vegetable oils, such as sunflower, corn, sesame, and soy. While he suggests a number of general recommendations, a major take-away message is to eat fewer refined foods, fast foods, and avoid flour while eating whole grains, beans, sweet potatoes, winter squashes and other vegetables.
Weil also suggests nutritional support from vitamins C and E, a daily multivitamin-multimineral supplement, supplemental calcium, fish oil capsules (if you’re not eating oily fish at least twice a week), Co-Q-10, grape seed extract and, for some, alpha-lipoic acid.
Interestingly, Weil has a line of supplements (Weil Nutritional Supplements) and skin-care products (Dr. Andrew Weil for Origins) but makes only passing mention of them during an hour-long interview, saying that his intention in introducing these products to the marketplace was to make available the highest quality natural ingredients he could find. A medical luminary of Weil’s stature probably doesn’t have to say much more. Besides, the after-tax proceeds of sales go to his foundation to further the study and, hence, acceptance of integrative medicine.
As for his methods to address mental health, Weil touts ways to activate the relaxation response — by working with your breath, practicing yoga, taking biofeedback training, floating in water or stroking a cat or dog that you love. This is a vital part of healthy aging as it minimizes age-related deficits in mental function.
Recognizing the spiritual component of mind, body and spirit medicine is a difficult one for some and Weil recognizes this in Healthy Aging.“If you are a materialist, if you believe that all that is real is that which can be perceived by the senses,” he writes, “then you will have trouble following what I have to say.”
He approaches the subject by posing questions that offer a connection to the core of our being and through it become connected to higher consciousness. For instance: How have I used my gift of life? What gives my life meaning?
In his book, Weil beseeches the reader to “forget about anti-aging and avoid obsession with life extension.” Instead, he asks us to recognize and appreciate the great rewards of growing older: depth and richness of experience, complexity of being, serenity, wisdom, and its own kind of power and grace.
Rebecca Ephraim is a registered dietician and certified clinical nutritionist who is learning to love her laugh lines.
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