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These Foods & Habits BOOST BRAIN HEALTH & End Inflammation! | Andrew Weil & Lewis Howes

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Dr. Andrew WeilguestLewis Howeshost

May 17, 20211h 29mWatch on YouTube

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Transcript

90 min read · 18,298 words

0:00 – 7:15
From Botany to Founding Integrative Medicine
1. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  We're in such a mess in this country with regard to food and nutrition. It's hard to know where to start. [laughs] Where I would start-
2. LHLewis Howes
  I think you gotta have a dream
3. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  The School of Greatness.
4. LHLewis Howes
  Really? [laughs]
5. SPSpeaker
  Yeah.
6. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Please welcome Lewis Howes.
7. LHLewis Howes
  So you've been doing integrative nutrition and, and I guess integrative functional medicine for a long-
8. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Not functional medicine. Anyway-
9. LHLewis Howes
  Not functional. Functional more-
10. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  That's different. Yeah
11. LHLewis Howes
  ... functional is actual medicine like pills, right? Fun- functional-
12. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah, functional is a lot of biochemistry and stuff
13. LHLewis Howes
  ... integrative medicine is-
14. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  It's the whole, it's the whole picture, you know?
15. LHLewis Howes
  Everything else
16. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  ... mind, body, spiritual-
17. LHLewis Howes
  Connection. Gotcha
18. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  ... all, all of that
19. LHLewis Howes
  ... okay. Um, and you got into this in the '70s.
20. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yes. Well, uh, I studied botany as an undergraduate-
21. LHLewis Howes
  Wow
22. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  ... and, uh, got really interested in ethnobotany and, uh, native plants. I did a lot of traveling in South America looking at the, uh, medicinal plants, psychoactive plants. Then I went to medical school, um, got very disillusioned with what I had learned, uh-
23. LHLewis Howes
  At medical school?
24. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah. I mean, I, I learned nothing about health or healing. Uh, you know, and I... the methods that I was taught, I saw do too much harm. So when I finished my clinical training, this was 1968, 69, I just decided I didn't wanna learn any more of that. I, I ... That was ... I wanted to learn how to keep people well.
25. LHLewis Howes
  Mm.
26. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  And, you know, I didn't know how to do that. So I found ways to travel around the world, look at healing practices in other cultures. Um, gradually put together my own system that I first called natural and preventive medicine, then I came to call integrative medicine. And-
27. LHLewis Howes
  Wow
28. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  ... then, uh, my car broke down in Tucson, Arizona [laughs] and, uh, I ended up living in this remote canyon and I started writing about, you know, what I'd seen and, uh-
29. LHLewis Howes
  In Tucson?
30. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  In outside of Tucson.
7:15 – 9:00
Why the US Healthcare System Is Failing
1. LHLewis Howes
  It seems like there's been a movement, especially over the last five years, that I've seen many doctors leaving the, I guess, whatever you call the functional practice-
2. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yep
3. LHLewis Howes
  ... you know, the traditional practice-
4. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yep
5. LHLewis Howes
  ... then functional medicine-
6. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yep
7. LHLewis Howes
  ... leaving their practices 'cause they're realizing it's not working. You know, just-
8. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  It's not working, and they're really unhappy. You know, when I was-
9. LHLewis Howes
  They're unhappy
10. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  ... in medical school, medicine looked like a very desirable profession. Uh, one of the, one of the things it promised was autonomy. You could be your own boss.
11. LHLewis Howes
  Mm-hmm.
12. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Well, that's all gone out the window. You know, you, you have to work for somebody these days. You have to work for a corporation-
13. LHLewis Howes
  Right
14. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  ... that tells you how to do it. And, and-
15. LHLewis Howes
  And what, and what pills to use and, yeah
16. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  ... yes, you have no autonomy anymore. And the, all the satisfaction of a doctor-patient relationship has disappeared. You know, if you've got eight minutes to see a patient, it's unlikely that you can form that kind of therapeutic relationship. Yes, and as you say, a lot of it's not working. And the, uh... You know, I could go on at great length about this, but the, the-
17. LHLewis Howes
  Yeah
18. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  ... our so-called healthcare system is a total mess.
19. LHLewis Howes
  Right.
20. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  You know, we are, we spend more per capita than any other country in the world on, on healthcare, you know, by a long shot. Uh, if you look at a bar graph of NATO nations' per capita expenditures on health, we're off the chart. And at the same time, we have worse health outcomes than any developed country. The, the World Health Organization rates us 38th, on a par with Serbia, and that's any way you look at it. It's infant mortality, longevity, rates of chronic disease.
21. LHLewis Howes
  Yeah.
22. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Something is... What's wrong with this picture? You know, and the, a problem is we've got these epidemics of lifestyle-related diseases that conventional medicine doesn't work for, as you say.
23. LHLewis Howes
  Mm-hmm.
24. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  And we're trying to deal with that all in the same way, mostly by giving med- you know, medications.
9:00 – 15:51
The Mind as the Root of Pain and Illness
1. LHLewis Howes
  A pill, right. What's the, in your experience... It's been 50 years now you've been working on this?
2. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah.
3. LHLewis Howes
  50, roughly 50 years.
4. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah.
5. LHLewis Howes
  What's been the common theme for the root of most pain that people have?
6. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Well, I have to-
7. LHLewis Howes
  Is it lifestyle? Is it food? Is it relationships? Is it lack of sleep?
8. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  I have to say that in, in my clinical experience, uh, more often than not, I find the root causes of problems to be in, not in the physical body but more in the mental, emotional-
9. LHLewis Howes
  Mm
10. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  ... or spiritual component.
11. LHLewis Howes
  The holding onto anger, resentment-
12. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Or whatever
13. LHLewis Howes
  ... fear.
14. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  I mean, it's often unconscious stuff, you know, but it, but it's, it's, unless you work in that area, if you just deal with the physical body, it doesn't solve it.
15. LHLewis Howes
  It's superficial.
16. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah.
17. LHLewis Howes
  Superficial, really.
18. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  I mean, if you just look at, look at pain, are you familiar with John Sarno's work that-
19. LHLewis Howes
  No
20. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  ... he wrote, uh... He was, he's passed about a couple years ago. He was a rehab medicine specialist in New York a- and a healer, and he has, uh, one book called Healing Back Pain, another called Mind Over Back Pain.
21. LHLewis Howes
  Mm.
22. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  And he taught that almost all back pain is of psychological origin. That's not to say it's not real, but he... No, the, the problem is it's, it's, um, spasms of small muscles that cut off blood supply, and it becomes a vicious cycle in which the contraction of muscles further, you know, cuts off blood supply, but the origin of this problem is in the mental compartment. And, uh, he, he used to require that people, uh, who came to him go to two evening lectures he gave in a, in one week. A great many people who did that, their pain disappeared forever.
23. LHLewis Howes
  What was it, the thing they realized-
24. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  It's, it's just-
25. LHLewis Howes
  ... about letting go?
26. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  ... hearing this message from this guy, that it was not in their back.
27. LHLewis Howes
  Right.
28. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Uh, anyway, I, I s- and, and you know, the, this goes along with the fact that you can look at X-rays and scans of people's backs, and they look so horrible you can't believe that this person could move, and they have no symptoms. And you can look at other ones that look terrific-
29. LHLewis Howes
  Right
30. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  ... and the people are crippled by pain.
15:51 – 28:27
The Body's Healing Capacity, Belief and Placebo
1. LHLewis Howes
  What's been the biggest challenge you've faced in your body, the biggest pain you've had to overcome, and what was the practice you used to overcome it?
2. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  You know, I had, um, you know, I'll tell you, I, there, I've had, can give you many examples, but one was, this must be about 12 years ago. I had had, um, uh, meniscus pain in my right knee, and I'm not sure it was from, I can't relate it to any specific injury. But, you know, I'd been very active, and, you know, would, I'd have episodes where it would go, got bad. I came to California on a business trip, and suddenly in the space of a few hours, the pain got so bad I couldn't walk. And I actually had to get in a wheelchair [laughs] to get back home to Tucson. And I saw, uh, you know, it subsided a bit. I went to see s- an orthopedist who X-rayed my knees. He said there was no cartilage left, started talking about knee replacement. I had a, a, a, a friend and colleague in New York who's a very good body worker, um, that I'd seen and been great. And I went to see him, and he said, "You know, this is all a matter of balance and weight, and weight bearing," and he did some work on me. Vanished.
3. LHLewis Howes
  Really?
4. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Vanished.
5. LHLewis Howes
  You could walk fine after that?
6. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah, and never had a problem again.
7. LHLewis Howes
  So maybe you were leaning on one side too much-
8. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Who knows?
9. LHLewis Howes
  ... or your hips or-
10. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  I don't, it, something. Something. But if I had, uh-
11. LHLewis Howes
  So the, one doctor's saying you have no-
12. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah
13. LHLewis Howes
  ... cartilage.
14. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Right.
15. LHLewis Howes
  You gotta, you have surgery-
16. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Right
17. LHLewis Howes
  ... otherwise you're never gonna be able to walk, and-
18. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  And maybe that's true. Maybe I don't have cartilage, but the, but, you know, you can live with that and not have pain.
19. LHLewis Howes
  Right. You look like you're in pretty, you look like you're jacked.
20. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah, I'm not, not bad.
21. LHLewis Howes
  You're pretty, you're pretty in shape, man.
22. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Not bad.
23. LHLewis Howes
  What do you, what do you attribute to staying so young physically?
24. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Again, I think it's really mental, you know, like hanging out with people that, uh, make you feel alive.
25. LHLewis Howes
  Yeah.
26. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  I mean, I'm, you know, I'm, I'm reasonably active. I swim, uh, every day. I have two big dogs that take me for walks. Uh, but I think it's like, I don't know, I think it's an attitude and, uh, you know, doing things that I'm, I'm engaged with and that I, you know, turn me on and-
27. LHLewis Howes
  Have you had any surgeries?
28. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  No. I had my tonsils out when I was really little.
29. LHLewis Howes
  Yeah.
30. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  And, uh, no, nothing major.
28:27 – 38:18
Longevity, Okinawa and Compression of Morbidity
1. LHLewis Howes
  if you could choose how old you wanna live till-
2. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Hmm
3. LHLewis Howes
  ... what age would you love to live till?
4. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Well, till it's, till it's, you know, not fun anymore. [laughs]
5. LHLewis Howes
  Yeah. What would that, well, what would that be?
6. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  I don't know. It might be mid-80s, 90. I don't know. I don't know that I wanna live much longer than that.
7. LHLewis Howes
  Really?
8. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Really.
9. LHLewis Howes
  Wow.
10. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah. I mean, when I look around me, I mean, there are, there are some exceptional individuals. You know, I have one friend-
11. LHLewis Howes
  Who seem super sharp and healthy.
12. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah, but who knows? I mean, I, you know, who knows? We don't know. Uh, at some point, you know, you see people, uh, when bodies begin to break down and it's not fun anymore.
13. LHLewis Howes
  Right.
14. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  And another problem is that, you know, when people live too long, all your contemporaries are gone. You know, you don't have-
15. LHLewis Howes
  So you lose all your friends.
16. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Right. You lose all your friends. And another one I quoted, I wrote a book on healthy aging, and I quoted a woman who was in her, she was 102, something like that, and she said that, "You know, look at the way the world is now, look at the way it's going, and look at what it's gonna be."
17. LHLewis Howes
  It's completely different. Yeah.
18. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  You know? Yeah. "I don't know that I wanna see it."
19. LHLewis Howes
  Wow.
20. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  You know? So there's, there's, it's not as simple as just wanting to live a certain number of years. You know, y- y- you wanna live without relative, without pain.
21. LHLewis Howes
  Right.
22. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  You wanna be having fun and connected with things and, you know, you don't wanna live when the world gets [laughs] increasingly terrible. Which it could.
23. LHLewis Howes
  For, for people that do wanna live over-
24. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  [laughs]
25. LHLewis Howes
  ... o- [laughs] over 100-
26. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah
27. LHLewis Howes
  ... let's say for people that aspire, uh, to live over 100 healthy- sharp mind
28. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Right
29. LHLewis Howes
  You know, memory, can see, everything can move functionally. What would you say would be three to five keys to that?
30. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Okay, so you know, with some years ago, the MacArthur Foundation did a, a study of what they called successful aging, and they interviewed fairly large number of people who were identified as being successful agers to see what they had in common. The two factors that stood out above everything else were maintenance of physical activity throughout life, and that doesn't mean, you know, running marathons or working out with trainers. It's just being physically active. And the second was maintaining social and intellectual connectivity.
38:18 – 42:37
Five Foods and Daily Non-Negotiables
1. LHLewis Howes
  What would be the, uh, the five foods that if you could only have these five foods-
2. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  [laughs]
3. LHLewis Howes
  ... to support the overall quality of your, your mind, your body, your, your health, your longevity, what would those five foods be for you?
4. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  That's tricky. I would say, uh-
5. LHLewis Howes
  For you personally.
6. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Okay. Maybe salmon.
7. LHLewis Howes
  Okay.
8. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Uh, bro-
9. LHLewis Howes
  Why, why salmon?
10. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  'Cause it's a good source of omega-3 fatty acids, and I like it.
11. LHLewis Howes
  Yeah. [laughs]
12. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Broccoli.
13. LHLewis Howes
  Uh-huh.
14. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Uh, 'cause it's a cruciferous vegetable that has lots of protective compounds in it. Uh, berries, uh, which I think are, you know, really good fruits that are low in glycemic load-
15. LHLewis Howes
  Yeah
16. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  ... and have a lot of protective compounds in them. Uh, I would say green tea. Really my prefer-
17. LHLewis Howes
  Over jasmine tea?
18. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah. [laughs] My pref- and my preferred form is matcha.
19. LHLewis Howes
  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
20. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  The, the matcha, which we'll talk about.
21. LHLewis Howes
  [clears throat] And why green tea over jasmine tea like the Okinawa community?
22. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Um, I, I think that there've been more studies on green tea and its antioxidant, uh, and its association with healthy longevity.
23. LHLewis Howes
  And the fifth?
24. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  And the fifth one, maybe dark chocolate.
25. LHLewis Howes
  [blows air] [laughs] Yeah.
26. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  At least 70% cocoa.
27. LHLewis Howes
  Yeah. Okay.
28. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  And maybe olive oil. That would be a toss-up.
29. LHLewis Howes
  Yeah, olive oil is ... Why is olive oil being talked about so much? Dr. sh- uh, Steven Gundry obsesses-
30. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah
42:37 – 46:47
Relationships, Stress, Sleep and Sleep Medications
1. LHLewis Howes
  How long you been married?
2. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Well, this is my second marriage, and I've been married for two years.
3. LHLewis Howes
  Okay. And when we go, when you go through, um, challenging times in relationships, you don't have to get into details here-
4. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah
5. LHLewis Howes
  ... but when you've been through challenging times, whether it be a family member-
6. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah
7. LHLewis Howes
  ... partner, friends, colleagues, how much does that impact your health?
8. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Enormous.
9. LHLewis Howes
  Really?
10. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah. Enormous. I mean, I-
11. LHLewis Howes
  Is it, is it the conflict itself or the unresolved conflict?
12. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  That's a hard question. I guess it's the unresolved conflict that's more damaging, but I, you know, I'm very sensitive to that, and it, it really affects my sleep, my digestion.
13. LHLewis Howes
  Really?
14. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah.
15. LHLewis Howes
  When you realize that you start to resolve the conflict in your life, what happens to your health? Do you, do you notice it physically in your stomach, digestion and-
16. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah, yeah
17. LHLewis Howes
  Really?
18. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  And sleep especially. Yeah.
19. LHLewis Howes
  And how important is sleep for longevity?
20. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Very important. [laughs]
21. LHLewis Howes
  [laughs]
22. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah, I think there's a, there's a, the per- percentage of people that don't either get enough sleep or good quality sleep is very high in this country, and there's enormous consumption of, of medications, both prescribed and over the counter, for sleep, and they're all horrible.
23. LHLewis Howes
  Really?
24. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  They... None of them reproduce natural sleep. They suppress dreaming. They're addictive, interfere with cognitive function.
25. LHLewis Howes
  What happens when we take an over-the-counter pill or prescription pill in general? When we take a substance, a chemical substance-
26. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah
27. LHLewis Howes
  ... no matter what it's treating for, the stomach or pain or-
28. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Well, you know, the body is, our bodies are very good at dealing with all sorts of stuff, and, uh, you know, we, we can handle things like that. But in one of the things-
29. LHLewis Howes
  Over the counter or-
30. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Well, it doesn't matter
46:47 – 52:26
Device Addiction, Remarriage and Brain Foods
1. LHLewis Howes
  So if someone's been... I mean, it seems like it's, especially with social media culture, comparison culture on social media-
2. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah
3. LHLewis Howes
  ... the addictiveness, now, I, I agree, everyone has the ability to just put the phone down.
4. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Right.
5. LHLewis Howes
  Right?
6. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah.
7. LHLewis Howes
  And just stop.
8. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Not so easy, though. [laughs]
9. LHLewis Howes
  Everyone has the ability-
10. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah
11. LHLewis Howes
  ... to say, "I'm turning my phone off-
12. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah
13. LHLewis Howes
  ... and I'm gonna go do something else." But with, um, this culture of not enough instant gratification, comparing to all these other people who look better or whatever, and me needing to fulfill something that I'm not doing, what would you say to the younger generation that has all of these things coming in, uh, to their mind, all this attention to how they're not enough? What would you say if they're in ex- extreme depression, feeling moody? I don't know if that's all teenagers in general, but if they're having that, how can they start to find more peace?
14. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Geez, I think you wanna limit your time on devices in general-
15. LHLewis Howes
  Yeah
16. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  ... you know, and realize how addictive and seductive it is and to just set some kind of limits to it because it's, it really affects brain function, and I don't think we know the full extent of that at the moment.
17. LHLewis Howes
  Yeah.
18. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  That's a big problem.
19. LHLewis Howes
  Are you, do you use devices a lot?
20. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  I do, but I'm pretty, I'm better than most people that I see.
21. LHLewis Howes
  Yeah. [laughs]
22. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  You know, and usually at some point in the day, which is, you know, maybe middle of the day-
23. LHLewis Howes
  Yeah
24. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  ... I, I'm, I'm out of there, you know, and I try not to look at email or, or any of that stuff anymore.
25. LHLewis Howes
  Yeah, and you're out in nature. You're connecting with family-
26. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah
27. LHLewis Howes
  ... and-
28. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Right
29. LHLewis Howes
  ... and speaking of family, how long were you married, the first marriage?
30. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Seven years
52:26 – 59:25
Tea vs. Coffee and the Benefits of Tea
1. LHLewis Howes
  tell me s- tell me, talk to me about teas, 'cause I'm interested in teas-
2. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Sure
3. LHLewis Howes
  ... and the power of teas. And what is the purpose of tea, and why do people drink it so much in general?
4. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Okay. First of all, tea all comes from one plant. Uh, it's Camellia sinensis, the tea plant.
5. LHLewis Howes
  Oh.
6. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  A lot of things we, people call teas are herbal infusions, you know, that aren't made from the tea plant. So chamomile tea is not tea.
7. LHLewis Howes
  It's not tea.
8. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Rooibos tea is not tea.
9. LHLewis Howes
  What is it? It's just herbs put together.
10. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  It's an herbal infusion, you know? But when... But if you're talking strictly about tea, it's all from this one species of plant.
11. LHLewis Howes
  And where does this species grow? It can grow anywhere?
12. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Well, it's n- yeah, it's native to China and India. Uh-
13. LHLewis Howes
  Mm
14. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  ... but it can... I he- hear people are cultivating tea in Oregon now. Uh, I haven't tried any of it yet. Uh-
15. LHLewis Howes
  Interesting
16. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  ... anyway, so it can grow over a wide, you know, in, in, in... It can't take frost, but it can grow in, you know, a lot of it.
17. LHLewis Howes
  Mm-hmm.
18. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  A lot of different areas.
19. LHLewis Howes
  Okay.
20. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  But then there are many varieties of tea, depending on how the tea is grown, how it's treated, whether it's steamed, dried, roasted, toasted, uh, how long it's oxidized.
21. LHLewis Howes
  Mm.
22. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  And you've got, like, everything from white tea, which is very delicate, green tea, oolong tea, black tea. Um, and, uh, you know, there's all sorts of different preferences. When I was growing up, tea was what old people and sick people drank.
23. LHLewis Howes
  Right, right, or iced tea at a golf course.
24. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Or iced tea with a lot of sugar in it.
25. LHLewis Howes
  Yeah, yeah.
26. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Right. And the, uh, the only tea that we had available, you know, was tea in bags, and, and that's, the common stuff is literally the sweepings of, from the floor of tea estates.
27. LHLewis Howes
  Mm.
28. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  So it's been only relatively recently that people in this country have become aware of good tea. Uh, and-
29. LHLewis Howes
  What are the benefits of tea? Why, why drink tea?
30. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Well, it's agreeable. [laughs] Throughout, for centuries, people have found it to be agreeable. It's a stimulant. It's got caffeine. Uh-
59:25 – 1:04:27
Matcha: Weil's Story and How It's Made
1. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Okay. When I was 17, uh, I was on an, a student exchange program.
2. LHLewis Howes
  Was-
3. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  This was 1959
4. LHLewis Howes
  ... Rotary?
5. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  No. Actually, it was an experimental school called The International School of America. [laughs]
6. LHLewis Howes
  [laughs] Your whole life just sounds woo-woo-
7. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah, yeah
8. LHLewis Howes
  ... and out there, which I love.
9. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  This was great. I got to travel around the world for, uh, nine months and live with native families-
10. LHLewis Howes
  Yeah
11. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  ... in different countries.
12. LHLewis Howes
  You didn't speak the language.
13. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Changed my, changed my life. But anyway-
14. LHLewis Howes
  Well, it's, for a quick story there-
15. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah
16. LHLewis Howes
  ... before you tell it, my dad, we had seven exchange students live with us when I was a kid.
17. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah.
18. LHLewis Howes
  So it's like we didn't have the money to travel.
19. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Right.
20. LHLewis Howes
  But it's like-
21. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  But you brought it to you.
22. LHLewis Howes
  We brought it to me, so we had people from all over the world teaching us their culture and the foods and the languages.
23. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  There's no substitute for that.
24. LHLewis Howes
  Amazing.
25. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  N- no substitute for that-
26. LHLewis Howes
  It was amazing
27. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  ... for knowing about other, other cultures.
28. LHLewis Howes
  Yeah. Anyway.
29. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Anyway, so I lived with, uh, with Japanese families outside of Tokyo and Kobe, and the Japanese family outside of Tokyo, uh, there was supposed to be a s- a student studying English, but there was no language.
30. LHLewis Howes
  No one spoke English.
1:04:27 – 1:06:52
Evening Routine and Weil Center Legacy
1. LHLewis Howes
  What's your nighttime ritual?
2. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  My nighttime ritual, I eat early. Um, I-
3. LHLewis Howes
  What's that, 5:00, 7:00?
4. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  I like 4:00 to 5:00, I would say.
5. LHLewis Howes
  That's your dinner?
6. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah. I like to cook, so e- even if I'm by myself, you know, I usually cook for myself.
7. LHLewis Howes
  Wow.
8. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Simple stuff, but I, you know, I like simple, delicious things. So, um, and I like cooking for other people. And then after dinner, um, I like to often read, um, watch movies, depending on the weather of course. I mean, if it's, uh, f- f- in BC and it's light till 10:00, I'm, you know, outdoors and-
9. LHLewis Howes
  Right, right. You're living the dream. You've done so many dif- different interesting things. What's the thing you're most proud of that you've created in the world?
10. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  You know, I, I, I, there is now a center at the University of Arizona College of Medicine named the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine.
11. LHLewis Howes
  That's pretty cool.
12. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yes.
13. LHLewis Howes
  That's pretty cool.
14. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  And, uh, we're the world leader in education in this field.
15. LHLewis Howes
  Wow.
16. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  You know, as I said, we've graduated, uh, over 2,000 physicians from our trainings. We train medical students. We train, we have our, our curriculum in 80 residency programs. We train other health professionals. We train, uh, you know, chiropractors, dentists, nurses, uh, in integrative medicine. And, you know, as I've always said one day we'll be able to drop the word integrative. It'll just be good medicine, and that's coming.
17. LHLewis Howes
  And integrative is, is that the exclusion of medi- like, traditional medicine?
18. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  No, it builds on conventional medicine.
19. LHLewis Howes
  So you still can prescribe-
20. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Absolutely
21. LHLewis Howes
  ... traditional medicine.
22. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah, you know, we, we, if, I've always said if I'm in a serious car accident, I don't wanna first go to a-
23. LHLewis Howes
  Need some morphine. Yeah
24. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  ... to a Christian Science practitioner-
25. LHLewis Howes
  [laughs] Right, right
26. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  ... or a chiropractor or shaman. You know, I wanna go to a trauma center-
27. LHLewis Howes
  [laughs]
28. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  ... and get put back together. But then I'd use other methods I know to speed up healing.
29. LHLewis Howes
  Right.
30. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  So, uh, I think the... Frankly, I could s- one of the things I can see happening, I, I think that, um, a lot of, uh, smaller and community hospitals aren't gonna be there in the future. I think nobody's gonna be able to afford, you know, that stuff, and that what we call conventional medicine, allopathic medicine, that may become a specialty for dealing with trauma, for critical illness.
1:06:52 – 1:15:37
Obesity, Sugar and the Anti-Inflammatory Diet
1. LHLewis Howes
  You've seen the obesity go up in America-
2. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah
3. LHLewis Howes
  ... since the last 50 years.
4. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah.
5. LHLewis Howes
  It probably wasn't two-thirds back then. It was probably a one-third maybe or not even. I don't know what it was back then. But it's two-thirds now.
6. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Well, I remember watching, you know, a few years ago I watched the whole, uh, Ken Burns, uh, documentary on World War II.
7. LHLewis Howes
  Okay.
8. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  It was on PBS. And there were many crowd scenes, both military and civilian, thousands of people. You don't see a single fat person in those crowds.
9. LHLewis Howes
  Is that because they didn't have the money to buy food? Is it because they were-
10. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  No, it's not
11. LHLewis Howes
  ... you know.
12. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  And you know, it's, the other interesting thing is if you look what people were eating in those days, they didn't know a lot of what we know now. So-
13. LHLewis Howes
  They weren't processing food as much, too, right?
14. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  So yeah. So I mean, but people ate, you know, they were eating potato, meat and potatoes and-
15. LHLewis Howes
  Rice and, yeah
16. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  ... pies and-
17. LHLewis Howes
  Glover. Yeah
18. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  ... but it was real food made from scratch. You know, they were not eating m- manufactured food. They weren't eating fast food.
19. LHLewis Howes
  No, there was no fast food then.
20. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Right. But there's an enormous change in how people looked. You know, I, I read, I r- there was a book that came out a few years ago that was trying to argue that the obesity epidemic was an artifact of statistics, the way we were measuring people. Bullshit. [laughs]
21. LHLewis Howes
  Yeah. [laughs]
22. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  You just look at this, you know?
23. LHLewis Howes
  Yeah.
24. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  It's like unbelievable how, how people have changed.
25. LHLewis Howes
  Everyone was fit or looked thinner-
26. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Right
27. LHLewis Howes
  ... back then.
28. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Right.
29. LHLewis Howes
  Right? And now everyone looks-
30. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah
1:15:37 – 1:21:19
Plant-Based Eating, and Inflammation's Link to Depression
1. LHLewis Howes
  So this consists of the anti-inflammatory diet.
2. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  So-
3. LHLewis Howes
  How long do you go on that for to-
4. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  I think it's a, it's the way you live
5. LHLewis Howes
  You live that way.
6. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah. You know, and, and in terms, I think it's also good to reduce animal foods in the diet.
7. LHLewis Howes
  Mm-hmm.
8. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  I don't tell people to become complete vegans or vegetarians, but it is desirable to reduce consumption of animal foods, and also not only for personal health but for planetary health.
9. LHLewis Howes
  Right.
10. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  You know, when you look, um, y- you know, I've been, uh, I, I've written or thought a lot about the, the pandemic and, you know, the, we are at tremendous risk for these, they're called zoonotic diseases, diseases that jump from animals to people-
11. LHLewis Howes
  Right
12. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  ... of which this is one.
13. LHLewis Howes
  If we're consuming it, we're more at risk is what-
14. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Right
15. LHLewis Howes
  ... got it.
16. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  But these diseases are becoming more frequent and worse, you know. AIDS is one of these and-
17. LHLewis Howes
  Mm
18. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  ... you know, all these things and, and COVID certainly. And, uh, the reasons that this is happening more and why we're at greater and greater risk, it's climate change, it's deforestation, it's too many people, it's too many people living in too dense concentrations. It's the way we raise animals-
19. LHLewis Howes
  Mm-hmm
20. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  ... and treat them. And you look at all this and you think, like, you know, which of these things can we do anything about? It's not clear. The one thing that we could do something about is reducing our dependence on animal foods.
21. LHLewis Howes
  Right, right.
22. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  That, that, that would, that would be one concrete step to, y- you know, help the environment.
23. LHLewis Howes
  And have you seen this, uh, documentary Seaspiracy?
24. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  No. [laughs]
25. LHLewis Howes
  Yeah.
26. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  I might in a minute. [laughs]
27. LHLewis Howes
  I'd love your thoughts on it, but, um, so are you, uh, do you eat just less food? I, I hear you like fish, but are you eating less meat?
28. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  I don't, I haven't eaten meat in a very long time.
29. LHLewis Howes
  Really?
30. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah.
1:21:19 – 1:29:52
Breathwork, Weil's Depression and Closing Truths
1. LHLewis Howes
  What do you think we should be thinking on a daily basis-
2. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  [laughs]
3. LHLewis Howes
  ... in terms of our thoughts? If the thought is what, you know, somewhat regulates our mindset and our mood sets throughout the day, what do you think about and what do you prescribe as thought?
4. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Well, one thing I, you know, one reason that I tell people to practice breathwork and to do some forms of meditation is that practicing putting your attention on your breath, that is a safe place to have your attention.
5. LHLewis Howes
  Yes.
6. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  It's like putting your mind in neutral. It's much better than having your attention on your thoughts because [laughs] very often it's thoughts and images in the mind which are sources of anxiety, of negative feelings, and you often can't stop them, but what you can do is try to just disconnect your attention from them, and that's, you know, breath is one way to do that.
7. LHLewis Howes
  Has there ever been a point in your life where your thoughts took over?
8. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Oh, yeah.
9. LHLewis Howes
  And your mind took over and you went spiraling?
10. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yes.
11. LHLewis Howes
  How did you overcome that?
12. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  I think one was just moving thr- moving through it, uh, trying various things. Um, you know-
13. LHLewis Howes
  Were you, were you aware of it when it was happening?
14. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Oh, yeah. Definitely.
15. LHLewis Howes
  So you're like, "Okay, this is something I've been practicing for years-
16. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Definitely
17. LHLewis Howes
  ... but I'm in this."
18. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Definitely.
19. LHLewis Howes
  So you're not immune to-
20. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Not at all
21. LHLewis Howes
  ... these challenges also.
22. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  No, not at all.
23. LHLewis Howes
  Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.
24. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  No, it's-
25. LHLewis Howes
  But, yeah
26. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  ... I know that very well. [laughs]
27. LHLewis Howes
  Really?
28. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah. It's been a while since I've gotten caught in that, but there were periods of my life when, yes, that was, that was, you know, and I, I tried all sorts of things and s- you know, didn't, a lot of things I tried didn't work. I think, uh, you know, having practiced meditation for a long time, that it was not a quick fix, but long-term I think that's been very helpful.
29. LHLewis Howes
  That helped.
30. AWDr. Andrew Weil
  Yeah.