Mushrooms as Medicine? Supplement Makers Promise Major Health Benefits

Robin Miller practiced internal medicine in traditional settings for a decade, but got frustrated by the short amount of time she spent with patients and the poor tools at her disposal. She says it felt as if most doctors were treating symptoms and not root problems. “So I stopped the regular practice,” she says, “and decided to do integrative medicine.”

Miller did a two-year fellowship in 2000 with alternative medicine guru Andrew Weil at his namesake center at the University of Arizona. Weil has written more than a dozen books on the subjects of healthy living, and mycology (the study of fungi) is a passion: Since 2005 he’s teamed up with Origins cosmetics, which sells a Dr. Andrew Weil for Origins Mega-Mushroom skin-care collection.