8 Weeks to Optimum Health

Andrew Weil, M.D., a graduate of Harvard Medical School who has become a celebrity for advocating a "balanced lifestyle" of "body, mind, and spirit," provides energetic lectures advocating an eight-week program that will lead the viewer to a healthier life. Standing before an attentive audience, Weil is an engaging lecturer, relying often on commonsense analogies while avoiding medical jargon. As the director of the Center for Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona's medical school, Weil doesn't discount traditional medicine. But he notes that our bodies can get "knocked out of balance," making them more susceptible to illness, and so a program combining exercise, diet, vitamins, and meditation can make us more resilient. As Weil puts it, "Resilience is our greatest ally, and it can be worked on." Though Weil's thought may seem somewhat ethereal at first, he presents his eight-week program very practically, beginning with tips on what to eat (and what to avoid), and proceeds to offer advice on exercise, how to handle stress, and related topics. Weil is intelligent and articulate, with a gift for delivering complicated ideas simply, and in this video he comes across as an engaging teacher. --Robert J. McNamara