PR.com (Allison Kugel): You are an advocate and a teacher of what you call “Integrative Medicine” at The University of Arizona. What struck me is that it seems very much akin to what everybody has always called Holistic Medicine.

Dr. Andrew Weil: That term, Holistic Medicine, became popular in the 1970s and the main crux of it was “whole person” medicine. That is, to insist that patients are not just physical bodies, that they are also mental/emotional beings and spiritual entities, and community members. And I think that element, “whole person medicine,” is one piece of Integrative Medicine. But I think Integrative Medicine has a much larger vision than Holistic Medicine. Also, the term Holistic Medicine has never been accepted in mainstream medicine.

PR.com: Right, so Integrative Medicine is also an image facelift…

Dr. Andrew Weil: [Holistic] was always thought of as granola, hippie medicine. Integrative Medicine is now fully accepted in academic mainstream medicine. We define Integrative Medicine as first, being healing oriented. That is, it really emphasizes the body’s natural healing potential. Second, is the whole person concept which is the old Holistic Medicine idea. Third, it includes lifestyle medicine and all aspects of how people live as [being] relevant to health. Fourth, it places great emphasis on the practitioner/patient relationship as being central to the healing process. And last, that it is willing to use all methods that are approved, worth using and are not harmful. That’s the complementary alternative medicine piece.

PR.com: With doctors in particular, it’s not a secret to them that our healthcare is a mess. Many times they’ll gripe about it to their patients, which I’ve experienced. Why is it that physicians haven’t organized and revolted against the current system? Why are they lying down and allowing insurance companies and pharmaceutical companies to run the show?

Dr. Andrew Weil: I think that doctors are incredibly unsophisticated politically. They have been very ineffective or absent from the political process. Chiropractors have been much more involved in that they’ve trained people and gotten people elected to [office], for example.

PR.com: Because they had to be…

Dr. Andrew Weil: They had to be, right. The AMA (American Medical Association) has been an incredibly ineffective political organization. It has lost almost every battle it has engaged in. So I think it’s important for doctors to become politically savvy and politically involved, but at the moment I think they feel as powerless as patients to change anything.

click to read interview  with Dr. Andrew Weil