You can’t turn back the clock. Sorry. That's the law of the universe, says Dr. Andrew Weil. He’s eager for Americans in particular to reject the notion of "anti-aging." Be pro-health instead. Engage in all the things we can do in order to age well, Dr. Weil urges, based on a lifetime of experience as a widely known medical doctor who has popularized the idea of Integrative Medicine. The only promise on which the highly lucrative "anti-aging" industry can deliver today, he says, is that you will be distracted from what should be our real goal -- learning how to resist and delay the onset of age-related diseases.

The new reality in much of the developed world, he reports, is that the oldest-old are the fastest growing segment of society. This genuinely new human phenomenon puts the future of being old up for grabs. Let's do it well, Dr. Weil says, urging us to shape this new way of being old starting with what we already know about achieving a lifetime of physical and spiritual well-being.

Dr. Weil says he's always known that aging was not reversible, but he wasn't sure if the aging process was synonymous with the development of age-related disease. He's now quite certain -- the answer is, "No!" It is possible to age well, he's convinced. He wants for us what most of us say we want -- to live long and well and have the end come quickly. Dr. Weil says this "compression of morbidity" depends a great deal our own individual actions -- nutrition, exercise, spiritual practices, managing our attitudes, relationships and stress, and so forth -- and that our choices have a profound effect on our old age. It's never too late to start and it's never too early, he says at every opportunity, directing his attention to old and young alike.

What will it take to turn the tide away from today's damaging, dominant conceptions that somehow the worth of human life diminishes with age, that aging is a calamity and you have to do everything you can to avoid it? Dr. Weil puts high hopes on the influential Baby Boom generation, just beginning to turn 60. He thinks they can be a positive force for change in the way we all think about aging. Why? Because 'Boomers, he predicts, will hate being treated the way old people are treated today. Better to learn from the cultures where the oldest old are treated as treasures -- like a fine old wine, violin or tree -- respected for their experience and wisdom, even revered.

First, change the culture, Dr. Weil urges. Be pro-health, not anti-aging. Then, be actively engaged with life. Create ways to be connected. And be flexible, in body and in mind. It's key. Be observant about how you change and be willing to change your behavior as appropriate. Who knows? We might even spark a revival of the communal spirit that has been sorely missing in American life in past decades.

Get busy creating the kind of old age that enhances both physical and spiritual well being. Work on yourself -- it's the one thing you can change. From there, people with whom you come in contact will be influenced and whatever it is that you’ve created will spread. After all, says Dr. Weil, that is how social change works.

[This Program was recorded November 2, 2005, in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.]