Xiu-Min Li - Traditional Chinese Medicine, Western Science, and the Fight Against Allergic Disease

Published by

World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.

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USA office: 27 Warren Street, Suite 401-402, Hackensack, NJ 07601

UK office: 57 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London WC2H 9HE

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Li, Xiumin, author. | Ehrlich, Henry, 1949 , author.

Title: Traditional Chinese medicine, western science, and the fight against allergic disease /
by Xiu-Min Li and Henry Ehrlich.

Description: New Jersey : World Scientific, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2015046837| ISBN 9789814733687 (hardcover : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9789814733694 (pbk. : alk. paper)

Subjects: | MESH: Hypersensitivity--therapy | Autoimmune Diseases--therapy |
Medicine, Chinese Traditional

Classification: LCC RC584 | NLM WD 300 | DDC 616.97--dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015046837

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Copyright 2016 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.

All rights reserved. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system now known or to be invented, without written permission from the publisher.

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Printed in Singapore

Dr. Renata J.M. Engler

Dr. Xiu-Min Li

Dr. Xiu-Min Li

Xiu-Min Li, MD, is a Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology, at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr. Li obtained her MD degree at the Henan School of Chinese Medicine (Zhengzhou) in 1983 and a Masters degree in Clinical Pediatric Immunology from the Graduate School of the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences (Beijing). She was a Visiting Scientist at Stanford and postdoctoral fellow in Clinical Immunology at Johns Hopkins where she was appointed Instructor in 1997. Dr. Li joined the Division of Pediatric Allergy and Immunology at Mount Sinai when it was established in 1997. She has chaired prominent committees about the use of alternative medicines for allergic diseases in the US and internationally and was recently named Director for the new Center for Integrative Medicine for Allergies and Wellness at Mount Sinai, to bring together research and treatment on a larger scale.

Henry Ehrlich is the editor of asthmaallergieschildren.com, co-author of Asthma Allergies Children: A Parents Guide, and other works of non-fiction. His most recent book was Food Allergies: Traditional Chinese Medicine, Western Science, and the Search for a Cure the first book about the work of Dr. Xiu-Min Li, lauded as A masterful job of distilling a lot of complex material into verbiage that can be understood by the non-scientist, albeit a sharp non-scientist, and accomplished in an entertaining style, by Dr. Arnold I. Levinson, Emeritus Professor of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine at The University of Pennsylvania. It was published by Third Avenue Books.

Dr. Li thanks her colleagues and co-researchers: Hugh Sampson, MD; Kamal Srivastava, PhD; Nan Yang, PhD; Changda Liu, PhD; Ying Song, MD; Julie Wang, MD; Stacie M. Jones, MD; Jacqueline A. Pongracic, MD; Sally Noone, RN; Jaime Ross, RN; Julia A. Wisniewski, MD; Miae Oh, MD; Madhan Masilamani, PhD; Scott Sicherer, MD; Sylvan Wallenstein, PhD; Brian Schofield, JD; Sharon Hamlin; Anna Nowak-Wgrzyn, MD; Amanda Cox, MD.

She would also like to thank those who have supported her research: NIH/NCCAM Grants; FARE [Food Allergy Research and Education]; Chris Burch Fund, Alternative Medicine Clinic and Research for Asthma and Obesity; Sean Parker Foundation, ASHMI compounds for asthma and high bioavailablity IgE inhibitory compounds; The Winston Wolkoff Fund for Integrative Medicine for Allergies and Wellness (many families contributed to this fund); Lisa Yu, the Drako family, and the Rizzoto family for their kind support; also contributors to the biomarker study and to Crowdrise for hosting it. For practice assistance: Song Park; Jenny Xiao; Ming Qi Natural Heath Care Center; Comprehensive Allergy and Asthma Care; Asthma and Allergy Associates of Murray Hill.

Both authors would also like to express gratitude to Denise Zaitoon for her incisive interview with Dr. Li in her blog Healing Hacker, Susan Weissman, Selena Bluntzer, and Paul Ehrlich, MD for their support and assistance at many points during the writing of this book.

Except for those sections signed by Dr. Xiu-Min Li and Dr. Renata Engler and the appendix, all chapters were written by me and narrated where appropriate in the first person for coherence (I hope). The crux of these chapters is to introduce Dr. Lis published papers and put the work in context. These are all footnoted. For detailed citation of certain facts, please look up the original papers referenced.

One chapter consists of a lengthy account of a single patients experience with a new disease that defied mainstream treatment, but which was controlled by Dr. Li by applying the tools and principles of traditional Chinese medicine to an individual case.

Henry Ehrlich

Dr. Renata J.M. Engler

On the journey through life, ones being is touched by many people and blessed occasionally by the magic that resonates with and enhances ones own journey. Dr. Xiu-Min Li is such a gift for me. Her spirit, determination and commitment to healing in a world abundant with disease, pain and suffering reflect the best in the human family and inspire her patients, her colleagues and friends. We had the particular pleasure to collaborate on a chapter about Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) for the textbook chapter in Middletons Allergy Principles and Practice (8th Edition, 2014). I am deeply grateful for Dr. Lis encouragement of my efforts to contribute guidelines for traditional medicine practitioners to incorporate CAM modalities into a patient-care plan, respecting patient perspectives and needs while ensuring optimization of safety as well as efficacy (Complementary and alternative medicine for the allergist-immunologist: Where do I start? Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology 2009; 123(2):309316, 316.e.1316.e.3). It is with humble gratitude that I call Dr. Li both friend and colleague. So it is both an honor and a pleasure to write this foreword to a book about her lifes work.

Like Dr. Xiu-Min Li, I am an immigrant to the shores of the United States of America, and like her, I was raised in a family that understood that healing and health maintenance often required the use of all resources and wisdom, crossing through traditional Western allopathic medicine into other traditions and fonts of knowledge. As a physician trained in internal medicine and pediatric and adult allergy-immunology as well as science-based approaches, I served as a military physician for 38 years (retiring in 2013) and now continue to work in clinical research relevant to gaps in cardiovascular disease risk assessment and reduction, incorporating cardio-immunology and the drivers of systemic inflammation into protocol development at Walter Reed Bethesda. As I move into the last quarter of my life, I am eager to be a part of medicine that is focusing on disease before it is overtly expressed with a catastrophic illness or death, and healing care that embraces Dr. Leroy Hoods four Ps of holistic 21st century medicine: predictive, preventive, personalized and participatory. (P4 Medicine Institute, http://www.p4mi.org/) Dr. Lis science and practice are the embodiment of these values.