The Tao of Health Care

Episode 213

Our guest in studio was Dr. Maoshing Ni, doctor of Chinese medicine, healer and Taoist anti-aging expert. We discussed his new book, Secrets of Self Healing. As anyone with a pulse can tell you, the health care system in the United States is broken. Dr. Mao's new book provides a prescription for healing this crisis and offers concrete solutions for achieving optimal health. To find out more about him and his book, visit his website www.askdrmao.com

Being Healthy Is More Than Just Not Being Sick

Unfortunately, in this day and age, the majority of people in our culture define good health as the absence of symptoms of disease rather than real health and vitality. Millions of people are living in a state of chronic pain, fatigue and general malaise and, unfortunately, they assume that this is what good health looks like.

What Do You Mean "Healthy"?

Optimal health is a feeling of physical, emotional, and spiritual well being that exceeds most of these low expectations and allows you to live life the way it should be enjoyed. With vim and vigor (what the heck is vim?).

The Tao of Health and Well Being

The Tao

Tao literally means "the way". And the Tao of Wellness or Wellness medicine as Dr. Mao refers to it in his book is the path for finding a much better way than our current disease centered, market driven "health" care system. Dr. Mao offers some simple guidelines for using the wisdom of ancient China in the modern world and shows us how to utilize these ideas in our day to day lives.

7 Key Concepts of Wellness Medicine

There are seven key concepts that define this new paradigm.

1. Optimal Health - As stated above, the first thing we need to do is raise the bar and look at the real potential of being healthy. We shouldn't be accepting the current morass as status quo. We need to ask more of our physicians and ourselves and strive for a much better definition of what being healthy is.

2. Treating the Whole Person - The notion that a person is just a liver, digestive tract or any other single part of the whole needs to be revised. We are three dimensional beings moving through space. Our external and internal environments directly influence one another. Diet, excercise, lifestyle and relationships all contribute to our health. This needs to become an accepted part of care, rather than something that is simply an after thought.

3. Prevention - My favorite adage from Chinese medicine is "Treating disease after it is formed is like digging a well after you have become thirsty or building weapons after the conflict has begun." Its too late then. In ancient China, physicians were kept on retainers and were not paid when their patients got sick. Run that concept by your doctor and see how he or she reacts. That would certainly change things, wouldn't it?

4. Self Healing - We all have an innate ability to heal. Our bodies were brilliantly designed in a huge laboratory called the planet Earth and had millions of years of testing to work out many of the kinks and become the incredible organisms that they are today. We are amazingly resilient, all we really need to do is work with this innate power and take some responsibility for our health. That combination can result in some remarkably successful clinical outcomes.

5. Personalized Health Care - We are each unique individuals, our health care providers need to realize that and tailor our treatments accordingly. The one size fits all approach to health that dominates our medical system benefits the manufacturers of drugs and medical devices, but it does not serve the people that it is supposed to help. Wellness medicine offers a different approach, one that acknowledges this fact and works with each and every patient to determine the best course of action for them.

6. Healing Partnership - You should be in a partnership with your physician, not just on the receiving end of a prescription pad. Your health and well being is important and it should be a give and take between you and your health team. Just like a race car driver needs various specialists to help him win his race, you need a team of people working to help you realize your potential. This should include your doctor, your wellness physician, possibly a physical trainer, life coach or therapist. There is no better investment than the investment you make in your health. Because if you are sick, you won't be able to enjoy any of the other things you spent your hard earned cash on.

7. Integration - Integration is the future of medicine. Western doctors working hand in hand with practitioners of Chinese medicine or other doctors of integrative medicine can provide you with best in conservative medicine. Early intervention, prevention and low risk, high return modalities like acupuncture, herbal medicine, massage and diet and life style tuning are by far the best approach to keeping you looking, feeling and, actually living your best.

5 Principles of Health and Well Being

There are five areas where you can apply the seven key concepts mentioned above.

1. Diet and Nutrition: This is source of most of the diseases that plague people in our culture, it is also the solution. Its really that simple. This should be the foundation of any approach to health and well being. You are what you eat. Food sources of vitamins and minerals

Vegetable Man

2. Herbs and Supplements: These can be important tools towards achieving your goals but should never be a substitute for a nutritious and varied diet. Dr. Mao details a number of important herbs and supplements in this book and he makes a distinction between different classes of herbs. Tonics are what he calls "exceptional vegetables", they are super nutrients that can give targeted nutrition to everything from your internal organs to the mitochondria in your cells.



Medicinal herbs are those that should be used less often when you have a problem that needs to be addressed, it is best to work with a licensed herbalist or professional when using these. And lastly, potent herbs are used only in extreme or serious situations and must not be used without the supervision of an experienced physician.

3. Exercise and Acupressure: Tai chi, qi gong and taoist yoga are gentle breathing and movement exercises unique to China. These "moving meditation" techniques can be remarkably effective in boosting immune function, providing great low impact excercise and helping to integrate the mind, body and spirit.


Acupressure is the manual application of pressure on acupuncture points and can be quite effective for getting some of the results that acupuncture provides. These are easy to learn and can be done by you at home.



4. Lifestyle and Environment: These factors play a huge part in your health and well being. There are numerous studies that demonstrate quite clearly that the quality of your marriage or long term relationship has a huge impact on your health. In addition, in this day and age, both internal work or home environments and external air, soil and water quality play a major role in our health. An extreme example of this is the formaldehyde filled trailers that the unfortunate victims of Hurricane Katrina were given to live in. We have still yet to learn the lasting impact of that decision by our administration.


5. Mind and Spirit: There is a great quote in Dr. Mao's book, "Fortune and disaster do not come through gates, but man himself invites their arrival" In other words, we are the architects of our own illness and adversity. What we think and our spiritual health and well being are also important factors in our health. Its high time we start to take this area seriously as well. And its important that we take responsibility for where we are, for both the good and the bad. By taking a personal inventory we can identify what we need to improve and also what we need to keep doing.

One Thing Is Certain

You can't find any other program on the net or on your TV that provides you as much fun and knowledge as we do at Green Health Live. Even if I do say so myself.

Your Host with the Whole Wheat Toast,

Marc