Dr. Andrew Weil — The 4-7-8 Breath Method, How to Emerge from Depression, & More

Tim Ferriss revisits Dr. Andrew Weil for a wide-ranging conversation that opens with a recap of the 4-7-8 breathing technique Weil calls the most powerful anti-anxiety tool he's found. They explore Weil's decades of work with psychoactive and beneficial plants, including his shift away from cannabis, his advocacy for rehabilitating coca, and his early scientific work smoking toad venom with Wade Davis. Weil shares Harvard stories about Richard Evans Schultes, Timothy Leary, and Ram Dass, and reflects on the current psychedelic renaissance. The back half covers Okinawan longevity, his love of Japan since age 17, the health benefits of matcha and fermented turmeric, and managing his own lifelong dysthymia. He closes urging more research into psychedelics for physical and chronic disease rather than only mental health.

• The 4-7-8 breath: inhale quietly through the nose for 4, hold for 7, forcibly exhale through the mouth for 8, repeated for 4 cycles (up to 8 max), done twice daily; real effects come after 4-6 weeks of regular practice.
  00:02:03
• Weil hasn't used cannabis in 20-25 years; it went from fun and creativity-stimulating in his 20s-30s to just making him groggy and sedated, so he stopped.
  00:03:04
• Weil claims he was one of the first people to smoke toad venom and, with Wade Davis, wrote the first scientific paper on Bufo alvarius, the first known psychedelic drug from an animal source.
  00:14:35
• As the only Harvard Crimson writer with a science background, Weil was assigned to cover the Leary/Alpert controversy and wrote the stories that helped force them out of Harvard.
  00:24:23
• Ram Dass later told Weil in Maui that being forced out of Harvard was a blessing, because otherwise he never would have become Ram Dass.
  00:24:55
• Paul Stamets named a psilocybin species after Weil (Psilocybe weilii), confirmed as a separate species; you cannot name a species after yourself in botanical nomenclature, only honor someone else.
  00:29:39
• Weil suffered from dysthymia (mild-to-moderate depression) for much of his life and only emerged from it in his early 50s, using non-medication means he detailed in his book Spontaneous Happiness.
  00:30:10
• Weil is discouraged by the heavy focus on mental/emotional health in psychedelic research and wants far more exploration of psychedelics for physical medicine and chronic disease.
  00:51:55

• Weil was once invited by the NSA to speak about managing stress to an audience of about a thousand, telecast to remote sites worldwide, and had them all do the 4-7-8 breath.
  00:01:01
• Weil founded the Beneficial Plants Research Association in 1979 with an advisory board including Richard Evans Schultes, Albert Hofmann, and Alexander Shulgin; he now wants to resurrect it.
  00:06:48
• Kava is described as a natural sedative and likely the most important anti-anxiety natural product, with essentially no toxicity and no interaction with alcohol or other sedatives.
  00:09:55
• Weil calls prescription and OTC sleep aids dangerous: they suppress dreaming, distort sleep architecture, are addictive, and interfere with cognition.
  00:11:30
• In a Harvard lab, Weil tried yoco, an obscure South American stimulant plant said to have the highest percentage of caffeine of any known plant.
  00:19:13
• As a Harvard prankster, Weil procured White House, Mayor of New York, and Princeton president letterhead and once 'gave' the Mayor of New York an honorary degree from Princeton.
  00:21:16
• Keeping a nightly gratitude journal can improve mood for up to a month, and moods are 'contagious', living within half a mile of a happy person increases your chance of being happy.
  00:31:11
• Okinawan longevity, especially among men, has plummeted, attributed entirely to increasing consumption of American fast food.
  00:36:50
• Matcha plants are heavily shaded (70-80 percent sunlight cut) about three weeks before harvest, causing leaves to grow bigger and thinner and produce more antioxidants and L-theanine.
  00:43:03
• Listeners can use the code 'tim' at matcha.com (Matchakari) for a discount; Weil also sells powdered fermented turmeric there as an instant drink.
  00:44:36