Andrew Weil - Natural Health, Natural Medicine: The Complete Guide to Wellness and Self-Care for Optimum Health

Copyright 1995, 1998, 2004 by Andrew Weil, M.D.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to or to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 3 Park Avenue, 19th Floor, New York, New York 10016.

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The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Weil, Andrew.
Natural health, natural medicine : the complete guide to wellness and self-care for optimum health / Andrew Weil.Rev. ed.
p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-618-47903-1

1. Health. 2. Nutrition. 3. Naturopathy. 4. Medicine, Popular.
1. Title.

RA 776. W 417 2004
613dc22 2004057683

e ISBN 978-0-547-52767-3
v7.0321

THIS BOOK IS NOT INTENDED TO BE A TOTAL REPLACEMENT FOR STANDARD (ALLOPATHIC) MEDICINE, WHICH HAS ITS PLACE IN THE DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF DISEASE. ANY UNUSUAL, PERSISTENT, OR SEVERE SYMPTOMS SHOULD BE EVALUATED BY A PHYSICIAN. THE NATURAL TREATMENTS SUGGESTED HERE, ALTHOUGH GENERALLY SAFER THAN PHARMACEUTICAL DRUGS, CAN AFFECT DIFFERENT PEOPLE DIFFERENTLY, OCCASIONALLY PRODUCING ADVERSE REACTIONS. IF A CONDITION FAILS TO RESPOND TO THESE TREATMENTS, YOU SHOULD CONSULT A PHYSICIAN TO SEE ABOUT ANOTHER COURSE OF ACTION. THE AUTHORS AND PUBLISHER DISCLAIM RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY ADVERSE EFFECTS RESULTING DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY FROM INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS BOOK.

I N THE YEARS since this book first appeared, countless readers have told me that it has become their bible, kept at hand and referred to constantly. The Bible is supposed to contain revealed, unchanging truth, but ideas about health and treatment are in constant flux, and what appears to be self-evident today is often questioned tomorrow or even rejected as false. This normal evolution of medical conceptions commonly puts people off, especially since the rate of change has accelerated in the present information age. First they tell us olive oil is no good, then they say its good. Probably next year it will be no good again. When I had my first baby, the pediatricians said that the way to reduce the risk of crib death was never to let the baby sleep on his back. Now they say always put babies to sleep on their backs.

I wrote Natural Health, Natural Medicine to cut through the confusion and provide a basic collection of strategies and methods to maintain optimum health and treat common ailments. In order to keep this book current and consistent with the latest research findings, I find it necessary to revise it at regular intervals. This new edition is completely revised and updated, with new treatments for more conditions. All the information is consistent with the best scientific evidence currently available. But please remember that it, too, will need to be updated with the passage of time. Please consult my website (www.drweil.com) to keep informed about research developments as well as to learn about treatments and conditions not covered in these pages.

I recognize that people are still confused about natural therapies. In fact, one complaint I hear frequently is that the experience of walking into a health food store today is totally bewildering. What is one to make of all those products, all those claims and counterclaims? Even if you just want to buy some vitamin C, the task is not simple. Do you want buffered C, Ester-C, C with bioflavonoids? This book can help you become an informed consumer of health products and a wary shopper.

At the same time, I am gratified to see how much of the material in Natural Health, Natural Medicine remains timely and accurate, supported now by even more evidence. And I am delighted that more and more physicians are beginning to seek instruction in subjects they did not learn in medical school and becoming knowledgeable about the natural therapies that are now so popular with patients. The Program in Integrative Medicine that I direct at the University of Arizona is now in its tenth year (www.integrativemedicine.arizona.edu) and has graduated over 120 physicians, the beginning of a new generation of practitioners who understand the importance of natural healing and the need for thoughtful combinations of conventional and alternative medicine. More practitioners of this kind will be available in the near future, especially since medical schools are finally moving in the right direction. A Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine now has twenty-five member schools, a fifth of the nations medical schools (www.imconsortium.org).

In the meantime, the responsibility for achieving and maintaining optimum health remains with you. You are the one who has to get the best information about designing a healthy lifestyle and then implement it. You need to know how to treat common ailments with safe, natural methods on your own and not get involved with professional health care unless there is a clear need to do so. I wrote this book to help you. I have made a great effort to keep it up-to-date. And I will be pleased if this new edition helps more people take greater responsibility for their own well-being.

Vail, Arizona
February 2004

T HIS BOOK is a complete guide to preventive health maintenance; it also includes suggestions for treating many common ailments on your own with methods that are safe, natural, effective, and not as expensive as standard medical treatments. If you are unfamiliar with the concept of preventive maintenance, I can summarize it for you in a few words: timely and appropriate investment of energy in your well-being will save a great deal of trouble, pain, and money down the road. Many people understand the value of preventive maintenance in caring for their cars. They get regular oil changes and tune-ups, and they pay attention when a warning light comes on. It is strange that more of us do not apply the same concept to our bodies, which are infinitely more valuable.

The most common reason for neglecting preventive maintenance used to be lack of information. Today it is often too much information, especially from the Internet and the media, much of it contradictory and a good deal of it wrong. I have always felt that the main work of doctors should be to educate, to give people the trustworthy information they need to keep themselves healthy most of the time. Prevention of disease should be primary, treatment secondary. One of my main motivations in writing this book is to help you avoid the need for treatment.

In addition to teaching medical students, residents, physicians, and other health professionals, I have for some years practiced natural and preventive medicine in Tucson, Arizona, always encouraging well people to come in for preventive health checks and advice about diet, exercise, and stress reduction. I am in a rapidly growing minority of physicians who practice this way and am busily training others to do so.

Mainstream medicine continues to be the same as it has been, but more so: more expensive, more reliant on technology, more focused on the physical body to the exclusion of mind and spirit. One trend of recent years has been the appearance of health maintenance organizations (HMOs) that offer prepaid medical care. As corporations interested in making a profit, HMOs want their staff doctors to see as many patients as possible during their time on duty, with the result that doctors have less time than ever to spend with patients. They cannot take detailed histories or get to know the people they treat. For their part, patients seem to feel that since they have paid in advance for care, they might as well take full advantage of it. They come in for every headache, sore throat, twinge, and pain, giving up more and more responsibility for their own well-being. It is discouraging to see in HMOs thick medical charts on men and women in their twenties and thirties. Most of these patients have no sense of their own health and their own power to affect it for good or ill. They also do not know how much better off they would be if they took care of common ailments on their own.