Yang Jingduan - Facing east : ancient health and beauty secrets for the modern age

I want to dedicate this book to my father, who envisioned what this

world would need today and prepared me for that. And to my patients

and colleagues, who constantly prove to me that the ancient wisdom of

the East is being rediscovered and appreciated by modern medicine too.

Contents

I ve always had many passions. Enhancing the lives of women and empowering them in some way have been a big part of my endeavors. My love of fashion design is one of my most obvious passions. But I am also deeply devoted to finding natural, plant-based solutions and products to meet the needs of my clients in the areas of health, wellness, and beauty. Ive been committed to this latter pursuit since 2002 when I established the WELLNESS CAF in my flagship store on West Fifty-Sixth Street in New York City, though my wellness journey began long before then.

I credit my earliest health and beauty training to my mother, who I later realized was way ahead of her times. She was a very unconventional woman whose daily life was built around understanding the best practices for maintaining a strong mind and body. She was already juicing, looking closely at the ingredients on labels, taking vitamins, finding a million miracle uses for olive oil, and exercising the Jack LaLanne way. While other mothers were on what I call the I Love Lucy diet, consisting of a canned fruit cocktail, a scoop of cottage cheese, and a slice of melba toast, my mothers view was not traditional. Her kitchen looked like a food-test laboratory. There were pots of green herbs all over the place. The windows had shelves with different plants she nurtured and used in our daily meals. She experimented with a wide variety of combinations. The Mediterranean diet was part of our Lebanese heritage, and that added another healthy factor. I never once thought of her ways as being different until I realized other moms were not the same. However, over time, this lifestyle simply became a part of who I am.

My mother was unorthodox in other ways too. I remember her telling me when I was just eleven years old that I should learn how to take care of myself as a woman so I could be free to marry the man I love rather than the man who could best take care of me. I had no idea then how brilliant this statement was. Life has been a quest to learn to care for myself ever since, not just financially, but physically, emotionally, and spiritually too, which is a lot of what beautyand this bookis about. My mother really set me off on a decades-long adventure to find ways to extend and improve the quality of life. Along the way there have been countless discoveries that really do work, many of which I am eager to share with other people, especially women. While women are vulnerable at times, they are also very powerful in the influence they exert over others. They have sway with their friends, their communities, and especially their familiestheir husband, children, and often their aging parents as well. Because women can change the world exponentially, it is important for me to try to connect to as many of them as possible with as much information about things we can do to be healthier human beings.

We all know the biggest luxury in life is health. And it just so happens that if you are healthy you are also attractive. The two go hand-in-hand. Beauty is not going to endure any other way. We all look our best when we are in good condition. Our skin glows, our hair shines, our face is brighter, even our eyes sparkle more.

For many of us, there is no better incentive to be healthy than to have the best possible quality of life and to spend more time with our loved ones... and, of course, to look good too.

Ive been in fashion for nearly my whole life. Feeling and looking ones best is an integral part of that culture. So finding people who have knowledge to share about achieving health and beauty is something I have been doing and will do for the rest of my life.

I receive and read at least ten different wellness newsletters every week, so I am aware of how rapidly the medical communitys understanding of health and well-being is shifting. Things we once thought were reliable and dependable are in question, and things we thought wed never do are all of a sudden looking like safe and appealing alternatives. In the midst of all this change, acupuncture and other age-old practices seem to make all the sense in the world. They have withstood the test of time. Various cultures would not have relied on these practices for centuries if they didnt believe they were effective. People simply dont continue to do things that dont work. Timeless style is my approach to fashion, so my search for the best acupuncturist I could find grew from this reasoning.

My interest intensified in 2010 while I was visiting Beijing on business. When my friends in China told me I could enjoy all the benefits of a face-lift naturally through acupuncture, vanity kicked in and I began an extensive search for a qualified doctor who could give me an acupuncture face-lift. I contacted people who were in the know, and there was one name that kept coming upDr. Jingduan Yang. Dr. Yang is an international expert in acupuncture and classical forms of Chinese medicine, as well as a specialist in integrative medicine, psychiatry, and human behavior. Although his offices were some distance awayin South Jersey and PhiladelphiaI made the commitment to drive two hours to the New Jersey location and back every Thursday to meet with him. The first meeting was eye opening. He explained to me that before I could have an acupuncture face-lift, I needed to know more about acupuncture and that he would decide when I was ready. Immediately I knew I was with someone I could learn from. I asked if I could tape our meetings, and he agreed.

I instantly respected Dr. Yang for his caution. I loved and appreciated his authenticity and sincerity. He was determined to make me feel both informed and safe before proceeding in a world where I had no prior knowledge. I had been to an acupuncturist two or three times in my life before meeting him and sadly the experiences were less than satisfying, which is why I was so adamant about finding someone reliable and well recommended. So it wasnt until Dr. Yang felt I was absolutely ready that we began my treatment. He wanted me to truly comprehend what acupuncture was about, what would happen in the weeks and months ahead, and how I would ultimately be affected by the experience. To be fully renewed on the outside, you must first be renewed on the inside, organ by organ, system by system, function by function. I had a million questions for him and I loved listening to every one of his answers. There is something very comforting about talking with knowledgeable people. Its like reading a great bookone you dont want to end anytime soon.

Naturally, I learned a tremendous amount in those months. I even had opportunities to tour Thomas Jefferson Hospital in Philadelphia, where the integrative medicine department is situated next to the oncology department. So much valuable collaborative research on our immune system and its effect on our cells, particularly cancer cells, is being done there. Because Dr. Yang knew my mother had Parkinsons before she died, he also showed me what he was doing to help treat patients with that disease. It was remarkable how he was able to help reduce their tremors week after week. It was profound to listen to one patient who had progressed from having a weak, shaky, Katharine Hepburntype tremble to having a vibrant and robust voice once again. The benefits of the integrative medicine Dr. Yang and others are practicing at the teaching hospital are amazing. The key to helping prevent and fight serious disease is keeping our immune system intact. Its about maintaining the balance of our bodys own healing energies. This is also the key to achieving the healthy glow I was looking for.