Dr. Weil: What Is Integrative Medicine?

Here’s a transcript from Dr. Andy Weil’s interview with Larry King. Harvard didn’t teach me more than 30 minutes of nutrition either, even though I graduated years after Dr. Weil. I would also add to the good Dr. Weil’s comments that integrative medicine features the 4 P’s: it’s personalized, predictive, preventive and participatory. What does integrative medicine mean to you? Please tell me in the comments section!

KING: Define integrative medicine.

WEIL: Integrative medicine, I think, is the medicine of the future. This is the thoughtful combination of alternative and conventional medicine, but in a system…

KING: It doesn’t deny conventional.

WEIL: Absolutely not and that really emphasizes healing, puts the emphasis on health and healing, on the doctor-patient relationship, on looking at people as whole persons, not just physical bodies.

You know, this is to me sensible, common sense medicine. It’s what people want. And gradually there is a movement in this direction. We now have a consortium of academic health centers for integrative medicine that now 16 medical schools — leading medical schools.

KING: You’re a Harvard graduate.

WEIL: I am.

KING: Did you — in medicine, right?

WEIL: Yes.

KING: Did you get much attention on nutrition?

WEIL: The total education I got was 30 minutes, which were grudgingly allowed to a dietitian in one hospital.

KING: How did you discover this?

WEIL: You know, I really did this on my own. It was when I got out of my clinical training, I was interested in the subject. I became aware of the gaps in my education. I learned myself. I began reading; I began working with people who were knowledgeable.