Andrew Weil Quotes

#1. I find that low protein diets often contribute to improvement in patients with immune system problems ... In fact, it would be hard to become deficient in protein in our country even if you tried.

Andrew Weil

#2. Imagine that each time you inhale, that the universe is breathing into you, and as you exhale it is breathing out of you.

Andrew Weil

#3. The essence of health is inner balance.

Andrew Weil

#4. In Europe, when tobacco was first introduced, it was immediately banned. In Turkey, if you got caught with tobacco, you had your nose slit. China and Russia imposed the death penalty for possession of tobacco.

Andrew Weil

#5. Even low-calorie diets and vigorous exercise fail to work in the long term for at least some people.

Andrew Weil

#6. One of the most obvious ways dogs can improve our physical and mental health is via daily walks.

Andrew Weil

#7. Dreaming is a phenomenon of purely individual consciousness, and consequently impossible to thoroughly deconstruct by a community of researchers. But dreaming matters.

Andrew Weil

#8. We're all affected by music. It has the power to inspire, uplift us, change our moods, and even alter consciousness.

Andrew Weil

#9. Most American diets, even bad ones, provide more than enough calcium for bone health, especially for men.

Andrew Weil

#10. It is unrealistic to want to be happy all the time.

Andrew Weil

#11. Improper breathing is a common cause of ill health. If I had to limit my advice on healthier living to just one tip, it would be simply to learn how to breathe correctly. There is no single more powerful -or more simple- daily practice to further your health and well being than breathwork.

Andrew Weil

#12. Most disease is lifestyle related and preventable

Andrew Weil

#13. Learning to focus attention and concentration is very useful; meditation can help you do that.

Andrew Weil

#14. Giving gifts to others is a fundamental activity, as old as humanity itself. Yet in the modern, complex world, the particulars of gift-giving can be extraordinarily challenging.

Andrew Weil

#15. You can't afford to get sick, and you can't depend on the present health care system to keep you well. It's up to you to protect and maintain your body's innate capacity for health and healing by making the right choices in how you live.

Andrew Weil

#16. Get people back into the kitchen and combat the trend toward processed food and fast food.

Andrew Weil

#17. If the only way you could read an email was to run a mile first, the urge would quickly die. Human beings constantly do subconscious effort/reward calculations. Tapping a screen is the easiest of physical tasks.

Andrew Weil

#18. A beautiful bouquet or a long-lasting flowering plant is a traditional gift for women, but I have recommended that both men and women keep fresh flowers in the home for their beauty, fragrance, and the lift they give our spirits.

Andrew Weil

#19. I don't think you can live without stress; I think the human life is stressful, and it probably always has been, although the forms of stress may change from culture to culture, and from time to time.

Andrew Weil

#20. In my experience, the more people have, the less likely they are to be contented. Indeed, there is abundant evidence that depression is a 'disease of affluence', a disorder of modern life in the industrialized world.

Andrew Weil

#21. There's a great deal of scientific evidence that social connectedness is a very strong protector of emotional well-being, and I think there's no question that social isolation has greatly increased in our culture in, say, the past 50 years, past 100 years.

Andrew Weil

#22. I believe that it may be normal, healthy, and even productive to experience mild to moderate depression from time to time as part of the variable emotional spectrum, either as an appropriate response to situations or as a way of turning inward and mentally chewing over problems to find solutions.

Andrew Weil

#23. Conscious breath control is a useful tool for achieving a relaxed, clear state of mind.

Andrew Weil

#24. We need to accept the seemingly obvious fact that a toxic environment can make people sick and that no amount of medical intervention can protect us. The health care community must become a powerful political lobby for environmental policy and legislation.

Andrew Weil

#25. In my view, prescribing antidepressant drugs is too often a quick and easy substitute for developing treatment plans that address the totality of health concerns and lifestyle factors that have an impact on wellness, including emotional wellness.

Andrew Weil

#26. I'm still not comfortable recommending that people eat saturated fat with abandon, but it's clear to me that sugar, flour and oxidized seed oils create inflammatory effects in the body that almost certainly bear most of the responsibility for elevating heart disease risk.

Andrew Weil

#27. Routines may include taking a warm bath or a relaxing walk in the evening, or practicing meditation/relaxation exercises. Psychologically, the completion of such a practice tells your mind and body that the day's work is over and you are free to relax and sleep.

Andrew Weil

#28. Happiness is a skill. It requires effort and time.

Andrew Weil

#29. True, nuts are high in fat, but most of them contain monounsaturated fat that is good for the heart. In fact, eaten in moderation, nuts can lower your risk of heart disease and heart attack.

Andrew Weil

#30. I know of no culture in the world at present or any time in the past that has not been heavily involved with one or more psychoactive substances.

Andrew Weil

#31. Alternative models are neither right nor wrong, just more or less useful in allowing us to operate in the world and discover more and better options for solving problems.

Andrew Weil

#32. For many in the modern world, carving out time for both traditional seated meditation and exercise has become close to impossible.

Andrew Weil

#33. As an undergraduate at Harvard in the 1960s, I was fascinated by my visits to psychologist B.F. Skinner's laboratory.

Andrew Weil

#34. Massage therapy has been shown to relieve depression, especially in people who have chronic fatigue syndrome; other studies also suggest benefit for other populations.

Andrew Weil

#35. Please keep in mind the distinction between healing and treatment: treatment originates from outside, whereas healing comes from within.

Andrew Weil

#36. I am not against all forms of high-tech medicine. Drugs and surgeries have a secure place in the treatment of serious health conditions. But modern American medicine treats almost every health condition as if it were an emergency.

Andrew Weil

#37. If I had to limit my advice on healthier living to just one tip, it would be simply to learn how to breathe correctly.

Andrew Weil

#38. While sleep is clearly vital to emotional well-being, what is it, exactly, about sleep that is so necessary? As it turns out, mood disorders are strongly linked to abnormal patterns of dreaming.

Andrew Weil

#39. Human beings have survived for millennia because most of us make good decisions about our health most of the time.

Andrew Weil

#40. Another aspect of the psychedelic vision for me that has been very profound, is the sense that every-thing is alive or at that at least, there is no distinction between what we call living and non-living.

Andrew Weil

#41. Any drug can be used successfully, no matter how bad it's reputation, and any drug can be abused, no matter how accepted it is. There are no good or bad rugs; there are only good and bad relationships with drugs.

Andrew Weil

#42. The more easily digestible and refined the carbohydrates, the greater the effect on our health, weight and well-being.

Andrew Weil

#43. Remember that breath walking - as with any meditation technique - should not be pursued with a grim determination to 'get it right.' The point is to cultivate openness, relaxation and awareness, which can include awareness of your undisciplined, wandering mind.

Andrew Weil

#44. Fear and greed are potent motivators. When both of these forces push in the same direction, virtually no human being can resist.

Andrew Weil

#45. As an American, you have a right to good health care that is effective, accessible, and affordable, that serves you from infancy through old age, that allows you to go to practitioners and facilities of your choosing, and that offers a broad range of therapeutic options.

Andrew Weil

#46. At the very center of our being is rhythmic movement, a cyclic expansion and contraction that is both in our body and outside it, that is both in our mind and in our body, that is both in our consciousness and not in it.

Andrew Weil

#47. The world is beset by many problems, but in my opinion, this hijacking of our brain's reward centers by electronic media is potentially one of the most destructive.

Andrew Weil

#48. Practicing regular, mindful breathing can be calming and energizing and can even help with stress-related health problems ranging from panic attacks to digestive disorders.

Andrew Weil

#49. Clearly, America's dysfunctional food culture must bear some of the blame for our excess pounds, but it's likely our walking-averse lifestyles contribute as well.

Andrew Weil

#50. I don't get money from the vitamins that I make. My after tax profits go to a foundation that supports integrative medicine.

Andrew Weil

#51. If you have difficulty sleeping or are not getting enough sleep or sleep of good quality, you need to learn the basics of sleep hygiene, make appropriate changes, and possibly consult a sleep expert.

Andrew Weil

#52. I am a particular fan of integrative exercise - that is, exercise that occurs in the course of doing some productive activity such as gardening, bicycling to work, doing home improvement projects and so on.

Andrew Weil

#53. Healing is making whole, restoring a state of perfection and balance that has been lost.

Andrew Weil

#54. I do not claim to have attained optimum emotional well-being. Actually, I think that may be a lifetime goal. For me it's an ongoing process that requires awareness, knowledge, and practice. I do know what good emotional health feels like, and that motivates me to keep at the practice.

Andrew Weil

#55. Limit or eliminate late-night computer and television viewing. A computer or TV screen may seem much dimmer than a light bulb, but these screens often fill your field of vision, mimicking the effects of a room filled with light.

Andrew Weil

#56. Anyone who knows me will attest that at any time during the day, you are most likely to find me picking tayberries, 'deadheading' peppermint, or succession-planting shallots. There is almost nothing, really, that I would rather do.

Andrew Weil

#57. I've always been called "controversial." I think if I were not controversial I wouldn't be doing my job.

Andrew Weil

#58. The choice is ours: we can keep on craving what we don't have, and so perpetuate our unhappiness, or we can adjust our attitude toward what we do have so that our expectations conform to our experience.

Andrew Weil

#59. The more people have, the less content they seem to be. In America, the cultural expectation that we're to be happy all the time and our children are to be happy all the time is toxic, and I think that really gets in the way of emotional well-being.

Andrew Weil

#60. As a physician, I recommend nutritious hemp seeds and oil to anyone interested in maintaining a healthy diet. Everyone will benefit when American farmers can grow this amazing crop once again.

Andrew Weil

#61. Dietary fat, whether saturated or not, is not a cause of obesity, heart disease or any other chronic disease of civilization.

Andrew Weil

#62. It is more important to eat some carbohydrates at breakfast, because the brain needs fuel right away, and carbohydrate is the best source.

Andrew Weil

#63. It's rare - too rare, I have to say - for botanists to become doctors.

Andrew Weil

#64. The usual justification for eating extra meals is that it keeps the metabolism 'revved up' so that weight loss is easier. There is, however, very little hard evidence that supports this idea, and a fair amount that disputes it.

Andrew Weil

#65. My passion for gardening may strike some as selfish, or merely an act of resignation in the face of overwhelming problems that beset the world. It is neither. I have found that each garden is just what Voltaire proposed in Candide: a microcosm of a just and beautiful society.

Andrew Weil

#66. What part of ourselves needs to evaporate in order to concentrate our essence? What do we have to let go?

Andrew Weil

#67. We have known for many years that we need vitamin D to facilitate calcium absorption and promote bone mineralization.

Andrew Weil

#68. Another very common use, in all cultures, of psychoactive substances is to give people transcendent experiences. To allow them to transcend their human and ego boundaries to feel greater contact with the supernatural, or with the spiritual, or with the divine, however they phrase it in their terms.

Andrew Weil

#69. If we can make the correct diagnosis, the healing can begin. If we can't, both our personal health and our economy are doomed.

Andrew Weil

#70. Carbohydrate density is simple to calculate
just divide the quantity of carbohydrate in food by the weight of the food. The more carbs packed into a given gram of food, the higher its carbohydrate density.

Andrew Weil

#71. Pay attention to your body. The point is everybody is different. You have to figure out what works for you.

Andrew Weil

#72. Meditation while walking has a long, noble history in ancient spiritual disciplines.

Andrew Weil

#73. The bottom line is that the human body is complex and subtle, and oversimplifying - as common sense sometimes impels us to do - can be hazardous to your health.

Andrew Weil

#74. My personal opinion is that the neutral position on the mood spectrum - what I called emotional sea level - is not
happiness but rather contentment and the calm acceptance that is the goal of many kinds of spiritual practice.

Andrew Weil

#75. Insurance companies, whether private or government owned, must be compelled to pay for health-promoting measures. In turn, this will encourage physicians to offer such treatments in earnest.

Andrew Weil

#76. The ways that my dogs can make me - and my visitors - happy constantly amazes me.

Andrew Weil

#77. I'm not against high-tech medicine. It has a secure place in the diagnosis and treatment of serious disease.

Andrew Weil

#78. I fully support a national health care program for the U.S.

Andrew Weil

#79. Citizens must pressure the American Hospital Association, the American Public Health Association, the Centers for Disease Control and other relevant governmental agencies to make greening our hospitals and medical centers a top priority so that they themselves don't create even more illness.

Andrew Weil

#80. More than one skillful physician has said that if one asks the right questions, the patient will make the diagnosis for you in his or her own words.

Andrew Weil

#81. By keeping my hand in that, it's the way I keep learning. The main way you learn in medicine is by practicing and working with patients.

Andrew Weil

#82. Treatment originates outside you; healing comes from within.

Andrew Weil

#83. Excess exercise tends to be counterbalanced by excess hunger, exemplified by the phrase 'working up an appetite.' A few people with extraordinary willpower can resist such hunger day after day, but for the vast majority, weight loss through exercise is a flawed option.

Andrew Weil

#84. In my view, the best gift is one that benefits both the receiver and the planet.

Andrew Weil

#85. The World Health Organization has recognized acupuncture as effective in treating mild to moderate depression.

Andrew Weil

#86. Fitting a walk into a busy life can be challenging, so I suggest walking rather driving to work or to run errands as often as you can - in other words, think of walking as alternative transportation.

Andrew Weil

#87. Imagine a world in which medicine was oriented toward healing rather than disease, where doctors believed in the natural healing capacity of human beings and emphasized prevention above treatment. In such a world, doctors and patients would be partners working toward the same ends.

Andrew Weil

#88. The notion that a human being should be constantly happy is a uniquely modern, uniquely American, uniquely destructive idea.

Andrew Weil

#89. Just the attempt to learn a [new] language is like running different software through the brain.

Andrew Weil

#90. In the world at large, people are rewarded or punished in ways that are often utterly random. In the garden, cause and effect, labor and reward, are re-coupled. Gardening makes sense in a senseless world. By extension, then, the more gardens in the world, the more justice, the more sense is created.

Andrew Weil

#91. I think instead [of happiness] we should be working for contentment ... an inner sense of fulfillment that's relatively independent of external circumstances.

Andrew Weil

#92. Drugs don't have spiritual potential, human beings have spiritual potential. And it may be that we need techniques to move us in that direction, and the use of psychoactive drugs clearly is one path that has helped many people.

Andrew Weil

#93. Human beings and plants have co-evolved for millions of years, so it makes perfect sense that our complex bodies would be adapted to absorb needed, beneficial compounds from complex plants and ignore the rest.

Andrew Weil

#94. Short naps are good. Given modern workplace demands, this is not possible for many people - but if you have the option, try napping for ten to twenty minutes in the afternoon, preferably lying down in a darkened room.

Andrew Weil

#95. Whenever I write about mental health and integrative therapies, I am accused of being prejudiced against pharmaceuticals. So let me be clear - integrative medicine is the judicious application of both conventional and evidence-based natural therapies.

Andrew Weil

#96. Low levels of vitamin D in the population as a whole suggest that most people need to take a vitamin D supplement. This may be especially true for seniors, as the ability to synthesize vitamin D in the skin declines with age.

Andrew Weil

#97. American businesses are struggling to pay outrageous, exploitive insurance bills for their employees, hampering our ability to compete globally.

Andrew Weil

#98. Health is wholeness and balance, an inner resilience that allows you to meet the demands of living without being overwhelmed.

Andrew Weil

#99. The best way to detoxify is to stop putting toxic things into the body and depend upon it's own mechanisms.

Andrew Weil

#100. Many exercise forms - aerobic, yoga, weights, walking and more - have been shown to benefit mood.

Andrew Weil