Random House Canada
Health/Alternative Medicine
280 pages
plus exercises and recipes
To be published Spring 2006
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Reflections of the Moon on Water
Healing Women's
Bodies and Minds through Traditional Chinese Wisdom
Dr. Xiaolan Zhao
was working
as a Western-trained surgeon in China when she became interested
in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). She noticed that patients
who suffered from chronic illnesses often responded more
effectively to Chinese herbal remedies than to modern Western
medicine and decided to go back to school to learn more about
TCM. After completing her degree, she began to incorporate the
age-old wisdom into her day-to-day practice, and the enormous
benefit to her patients was obvious.
In the late 1980s, Xiaolan emigrated to Canada
and decided to open a TCM clinic in Toronto. Since then, her
practice has grown to over 7,000 devoted patients, all of whom
she regards as members of her “family.” With her unique
cross-cultural perspective, she has become particularly
interested in the health issues of Western women, issues that
stem from their lifestyle and cultural background, and that are
not shared by women in the East. By integrating TCM knowledge
and simple practices into their daily lives, these women can
greatly improve their health and well-being and avoid disease
down the road. Historically, Chinese medical practitioners would
receive payment only if patients remained healthy. If patients
became ill, they would be unable to work and would have no means
to pay the doctor. Thus the emphasis in TCM is on preventing
disease from happening, and any disturbances in our health, such
as headaches, irritability, cold feet, etc., are cause for
concern. These symptoms are harbingers of future health problems
and must be treated now to circumvent more serious conditions.
Small changes in exercise routines, eating habits, ways of
dealing with stress, and so on, can transform the way we feel
and improve our overall vitality.
In Reflections of
the Moon on Water, she explains the unique philosophy behind
the healing tradition, a way of thinking that is liberating and
empowering for women. Sharing stories from her own life and the
lives of her patients, Dr. Zhao shows that we have nothing to
reject about our feminine selves, and explains how we can
develop new relationships with our bodies and our emotions.
There is so much every woman can do in terms of ongoing and
preventative self-care to improve her health and vitality and
prevent illness. By making simple changes in diet, exercise
routine, sex life and the way we deal with stress and our
emotions, we can profoundly improve our health now and into the
future.
This is not a dry medical manual. Xiaolan shares
her deep understanding of TCM by telling her own story as well
as the stories of her patients. The result is a warm,
good-humoured, engagingly written book, one that is filled with
useful reflections and information. The clarity, breadth and
depth of the information collected here are unparalleled.
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Xiaolan Zhao, C.M.D |
Xiaolan Zhao: Biography
Toward the end of the Cultural Revolution, Xiaolan attended medical school in her home
town of Kunming, in Yunnan province, in south-west China. She
studied Western medicine, and after graduation in 1977, accepted
the position of abdominal surgeon at a hospital where the focus
was mostly on Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). She was soon
exposed to the various forms of TCM, particularly the use of
herbs. It was eye-opening for her to see that as many as 80
percent of the hospital’s patients suffered from chronic
illnesses and that these illnesses responded more effectively to
Chinese herbal remedies than to Western medicine. After
practising for a little over a year, she went back to medical
school and completed a degree in TCM. Subsequently, she returned
to the hospital where she had started out, combining her
training in Western medicine and TCM. She worked there eight
years before coming to Canada.
Xiaolan
initially came to Canada on a scholarship to do medical research
at Queen’s University. But after seeing the great interest that
was developing in alternative medical treatments, especially in
Traditional Chinese Medicine, decided to open her own TCM
clinic, which today, twelve years later, has over seven thousand
patients and a staff of six. Her patients are as ethnically and
demographically varied as the population of Toronto, although
the great majority are women. Consequently, she has witnessed
the challenges and difficulties that Western women experience in
their feminine cycles. Armed with the knowledge of thousands of
years of TCM, she has a strong desire to help women remedy or
prevent specific female conditions, and also to disseminate this
knowledge for the benefit of those women who are interested.
To understand Xiaolan Zhao, is to have a sense
of a woman deeply committed to healing and to holistically
easing the suffering of those in need. She views diagnostic
ability, plus the caring and warm environment she nurtures, as
equally important for providing relief from physical or
emotional distress.
The empowerment of patients is a significant
aspect of Xiaolan’s philosophy. She is passionate about helping
people listen to what their bodies have to tell them, and
understand the role that they can play in the treatment or
prevention of their illnesses.
With a deep love of her calling in life, Xiaolan
has a dream that people will learn to take care of themselves
and re-claim responsibility for their bodies and their health.
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