Did you know that EmpowHER’s Medical Advisory Board is filled with the best women’s health experts in the country? From the former President of the American Society of Breast Surgeons, the founder of Yale’s Menopause Program, to our 38th generation doctor of Chinese medicine, Dr. Maoshing Ni who is with us right now. Hi, Dr. Mao.
Dr. Maoshing Ni:
Hi, Todd.
Todd:
Now Dr. Mao, you have been developing a strong relationship with our audience here at EmpowHer for quite some time, and I wanted to take a few moments, well, really to talk about you and your background and the tragedy that led you to practice Chinese medicine. Can you tell me about that life-changing accident when you were a young boy that inspired your life work in wellness?
Dr. Maoshing Ni:
Yes, an event that happened when I was a child, I was living in Asia at the time before I immigrated to the United States, and my brother and I were playing on the rooftop of our three-storey house, and I fell. So I fell from three-story, and this was, to say the least, a life-changing event because there I was in the coma for about a month. And, you know, I can only imagine now that I am a parent with three kids, I can only imagine what my parents went through, you know, just watching me in this state of unconsciousness for a month.
And so it’s unthinkable, I mean, the pain and the agony that they must have gone through, but with tremendous strength and love and the magic really of Chinese medicine, I was able to slowly recover once I woke from my coma, and rehabilitate myself to full health. And really, I owe my inspiration to really join this profession to make this a lifetime mission due to that one experience because I really experienced for firsthand the power of healing that is completely nature-based. And at the same time, it also demanded as much from you, the patient, as it did from the doctor, that that was my father who was also a doctor and my family going back many generations.
So, that personal experience really cemented for me my mission in life, which is to really bring knowledge to people on ways in which you can heal yourself; you can participate in your own self-healing process.
Todd:
So this really gave you kind of the backbone of the power that lies within and the power that the practitioner has and how the two of you can work together.
Dr. Maoshing Ni:
It’s a healing partnership, and it must be that. Patient bring to the table a sense of responsibility, taking charge, and at the same time, allowing themselves to be guided by the physician.
Todd:
Yes, so fascinating. Now Dr. Mao, I mentioned this earlier, you are a 38th generation doctor of Chinese medicine. For most of us in the West, we can’t even comprehend maybe three generations of doctors in our lineage. Explain that. What is that like?
Dr. Maoshing Ni:
Well, there’s a lot of pressure. You know, growing up, you kind of get this sense that well, you don’t want to be the one that breaks the lineage, but I think generations and lineages are more common outside of the U.S. because, than the U.S. Of course, if you look at Europe, people can actually trace the lineage back maybe 10-12 generations because, you know, people lived in one village in England, let’s say, or France, and many generations have been there unless they were displaced by war.
And in China certainly the Chinese culture, it’s such that people didn’t move much. I mean, the entire clan with thousands of family-related people could live in one village, one city, and so ours was no exception. So that is how we were able to perpetuate in medical tradition for so many generations, but, you know, it comes with responsibility. I mean here we are; we have learned from our father and the knowledge that was passed on from my ancestors, and so you feel a sense of responsibility to perpetuate this and to pass it on.
Todd:
Dr. Mao, you and your brother, Dr. Daoshing Ni, you have a practice of Chinese medicine in the Los Angeles area and also the Chinese Medicine University. What type of patients do you typically see, Dr. Mao?
Dr. Maoshing Ni:
Well, at the Dao of Wellness in Santa Monica, we see many varieties of conditions in patients. We have a large women’s health practice. We treat conditions ranging from the dysmenorrhea, PMS, to endometriosis, and infertility and to menopause, helping women navigate and manage and transition through change, so, and really aspects, but also too, I mean obviously people come to us for a lot of unusual conditions that typically don’t respond to Western medicine.
Autoimmune disease, for example, everything from lupus to rheumatoid arthritis to the common cold, which of course is immune-related, but it’s really huge variety–pain, oncology, integrated oncology--but it’s the way of looking at this.
What we try to do is we treat many conditions. We work collaboratively with many specialists. At the end of the day, I think what we bring to the table is we empower patients to know that there are many things they can do to help facilitate this human process. We provide natural ways, such as herbs and acupuncture to stimulate their self- healing and nutrition. We counsel on their diet.
We teach them mind-body integration techniques like meditation, Tai Chi and Qigong, and we listen to them. We are empathetic. We understand that they are struggling and being challenged by whatever it is that they suffer from.
Ultimately though, I think we give patients hope and confidence that they will get over whatever the problems they have, and I think that’s what makes us unique. I mean, it’s we promote wellness as well as helping people get better.
Todd:
I was just going to say, you know, when you said you listen to patients, it seems like a foreign concept to most, but I remember being a patient at your university at the clinic there at Yo San University, and that was the first time in my life I ever had a doctor sit there and ask me questions and listen to me for a good 30 minutes to find out what was going on. What is it intuitively about the body that helps a person heal when they start talking and expressing?
Dr. Maoshing Ni:
Well, I think, first of all, when you are the patient and you are sitting across from someone who is here to help you, you want to make sure that that person understands you, understands not just your symptoms or what you are suffering with, but at the same time understand you as an individual because so much of healing comes from you being acknowledged.
So emotionally, if you are not acknowledged or if the doctor or the healer belittles what it is that you have that you are suffering from, it really takes away your power–takes away your power to heal and to help yourself, and so having that empathy and having someone listen, and this is a very critical skill that I think doctors today are too rushed. They, I am sure they mean well, and I am sure their intentions are there and they have been trained to do so, but there’s too little time, and the whole practice of medicine today is dictated by insurance companies. And, so it’s not so much I think what really ought to happen, which is listen, be empathetic, try to relate, understand and connect with your patients on that level, and then, as much as possible ask the patient what they can do and what they are willing to change to help themselves get better.
And I always say this to my students at Yo San University. This is a school of Chinese medicine that my family founded 20 years ago in Los Angeles, and this is what I tell my students, okay? Disease is a symptom of life out of balance, and so when someone comes to you with a condition, a pain or a real big health challenge, whatever might be, it is the body crying out, all right? And it is the soul alerting to you that they are not happy, and they are not, and so this is something to really awaken in the patients so that they become aware of that. You know, disease is a way that your soul, that your body communicates to you to let you know that your life is not balanced or you are not happy or whatever it might be, that you need to look at. And so, ultimately as healers, we not only take away their pain and relieve patients’ suffering, but we also help patients heal their lives. So we become facilitators and that’s really what gets me excited and wake up every day to come to work.
Todd:
Sure, well, he is Dr. Maoshing Ni. His newest book, “Second Spring”, it’s Dr. Mao’s hundreds of natural secrets for women to revitalize and rejuvenate at any age. Now if you want to hear more about Dr. Mao, there’s got to be, what do you think Mao, probably 20 interview clips and a bunch of audio and also a great interview with Dr. Mao about his book, “Second Spring”, on this website. Dr. Mao, thank you so much for helping us empower women.
Dr. Maoshing Ni:
My pleasure.