Preface

Discovering Chinese Herbs

There was a time when I thought of Chinese herbal medicine as a primitive medical approach that no one with knowledge of modern medicine would consider using. Like many Americans, I had seen storefronts of Chinese apothecaries marked with indecipherable Chinese characters, where strange and even frightening-looking objects floated in jars. I imagined the doorways leading to darkened rooms where withered old men brewed up snake oil. I would venture to say that my attitude about Chinese medicine was shared by most Americans.

I did not equate Chinese herbal medicine with acupuncture, which I had used and advocated for most of my adult life. Acupuncture did not carry the same fraudulent stigma as Chinese herbal medicine. This was largely due to an event that occurred in China in 1971. While traveling with President Nixon on his first visit to China, James Reston, a New York Times journalist, had to have an emergency appendectomy. Instead of using narcotic painkillers, the Chinese doctors treated his postoperative pain with acupuncture. Reston returned to the United States and wrote a series of newspaper articles on his painless recovery. Americans took note and began searching out acupuncturists for treatment. Acupuncture proved effective; the word spread and demand increased. Since that time acupuncture has become synonymous with the legitimate part of Chinese medicine in the United States. Acupuncture has become relatively Americanized, with acupuncture clinics springing up across the country, most of them staffed by American-born and -trained acupuncturists.

In 1989, my husband and I settled in Santa Barbara, which is a mecca for alternative medicine. Over the next few years I became more educated about nontraditional medical approaches. I met a number of people who used Chinese herbs instead of over-the-counter drugs and often went to doctors of Chinese medicine when they got sick. I decided to try Chinese herbs too. I remember getting my first sacks of herbs, roots and twigs and brewing them into a tea called a decoction. The bitter-tasting medicine was remarkably effective, and after my first positive experience both my husband and I became converts to Chinese herbal medicine.

As I began researching Chinese medicine to write this book, I learned that although we in the West think of acupuncture as being primary in Chinese medicine, Chinese herbs are in fact the most essential, most important aspect of Chinese medicine. Of course, no other medical approach comes close to Western medicine when it comes to diagnostic techniques, genetic research and other highly technological areas of science. You would not go to an herbalist in an acute health crisis; you would go to the emergency room and be cared for by Western-trained physicians. But Chinese herbal medicine has been proven to be effective for many chronic conditions that have eluded Western medicine.

Virtually every layperson I talked to about writing a book on Chinese medicine was eager to learn more about Chinese herbs. I did not find that same attitude among all Western doctors I spoke with. Herbal medicine has been traditionally viewed with suspicion and even contempt by a good portion of the Western medical establishment. Many in the medical community view practitioners who use Western drugs as scientifically minded and those who use herbs as witch doctors. Thinking back to my former reaction to the sight of Chinese apothecary storefronts, I understood this resistance.

As I continued to research, I learned that the active ingredients in more than half of the currently prescribed Western medications were originally extracted from natural substances.¹ This fact alone appeared to be the bridge that could eventually unite Western and Eastern medicines. True integrative medicine, wherein our Western medical community embraced Chinese herbs and worked collaboratively with doctors of Chinese medicine, seemed long overdue.

I found the ideal Western/Chinese collaborative relationship between Glenn E. Miller, M.D., a Midwest-born and -raised physician, psychiatrist and pharmacist, and Henry Han, O.M.D., a Chinese-born and -trained Doctor of Oriental Medicine. These two doctors, who were born, raised and trained at opposite ends of the earth, had begun referring patients to each other because they found that a combination of Western and Chinese medicines was more effective than Western medicine alone or Chinese medicine alone. Dr. Miller's

1. Many of these active ingredients are now synthesized, though the original source was from plants.

family history in pharmacognosy (the branch of pharmacology that deals with drugs in their crude or natural state) and Dr. Han's family history in Western medicine gave each doctor a well-rounded perspective on what integrative medicine could be like.

As I began writing this book with Dr. Miller and Dr. Han, I met other Western medical doctors who are using Chinese medicine within their practices.Western-trained oncologist Lorne Feldman, who survived kidney cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and kidney metastasis, now practices integrative medicine—a transformation due in part to his successful personal use of Chinese herbs.

Dr. Feldman led me to two other doctors of Chinese medicine who practice integrative medicine—Maoshing Ni, Lic. Ac., D.O.M., Ph.D., known as Dr. Mao, and Daoshing Ni, Lic. Ac., D.O.M., Ph.D., known as Dr. Dao. A close-knit family, the Nis trace their lineage in the Chinese medical healing arts back to the thirteenth century. Their father, Hua-Ching Ni, is the author of fifty books on Taoism and Chinese medicine. As sons of a renowned master physician, Drs. Mao and Dao were expected to step into their father's larger-than-life shoes. Their training began early in childhood, from memorizing old medical classics such as The Yellow Emperor's Classic on Medicine, or Nei Jing, to apprenticing in their father's busy clinic. Supplemental training included martial arts, Tai Chi, meditation and the study of the Chinese spiritual classic I-Ching, also called The Book of Changes. While others went to summer camp or vacations, they attended their father's “healing camp.” It was only years later that they appreciated the wisdom of their family's tradition.

As a master of healing and spirituality, Master Ni was invited to teach Taoist philosophy and arts as well as Chinese medicine in the United States in 1975, and the family immigrated to the United States in 1976. Drs. Mao and Dao were trained in Chinese medicine in a traditional apprenticeship from father to son. Since their apprenticeship was not recognized in the early eighties in California, to obtain a license to practice they attended and obtained degrees from SAMRA University in Los Angeles. After graduating, Dr. Dao at nineteen years of age, and the following year Dr. Mao, at nineteen years of age, were the youngest people to ever practice Chinese medicine in America.

Dr. Mao returned to China to complete his postgraduate residency in Shanghai, at Zhong-Shang Hospital, a six-thousand-bed facility—the largest in the city—that served as the teaching hospital for the Shanghai Medical School (a Western-style medical school).

Dr. Dao completed his postgraduate residency in Dong Zhi Meng Hospital, in Beijing, and Xuan Wu Hospital, which is affiliated with the Beijing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine in Nanjing. In these prestigious hospitals, where doctors of Chinese medicine and Western medical doctors work side by side, Drs. Mao and Dao learned firsthand how these two medical traditions can be integrated to best serve patients' needs.

The brothers cofounded the Tao of Wellness clinic in Los Angeles, California, where Dr. Mao specializes in immunology, internal medicine and longevity and Dr. Dao specializes in general medicine, reproductive medicine and gynecology. They are highly regarded in the Western medical community and have worked hard to re-create the model of integrative healing they learned in China. They examine patients to arrive at a diagnosis according to Chinese medicine but, when appropriate, also refer patients to Western medical specialists to consult and obtain a detailed diagnosis through Western technologies to make sure they have all the information to create the best treatment protocol. Drs. Mao and Dao also cofounded the Yo San University, which offers educational training in Chinese medicine and actively promotes the integration of Chinese and Western medicines.

You may have heard about the integration of Chinese and Western medicines, or have read about doctors like Dr. Miller, Dr. Han, Dr. Mao and Dr. Dao, who practice integrated medicine. You may be curious about Chinese medicine, but your Western doctor may not be receptive. You may also have some feelings of doubt, thinking about the mysterious-looking apothecaries and the strange floating objects. This book is filled with real-life stories of people who struggled with chronic, degenerative and even terminal illnesses but found help with Chinese herbs. Many of these people were as skeptical about Chinese herbs as I had once been—as perhaps you are today.

Learning about and using Chinese herbs will change your life and your health for the better. Once you enter the door that formerly appeared strange and foreign, you will find yourself in the highly fascinating world of Chinese medicine, where you can heal and find a better quality of life by integrating your mind, body and spirit.

Nancy Deville
Santa Barbara, California