Food Allergies: Traditional Chinese Medicine, Western Science, and the Search for a Cure

Food Allergies: Traditional Chinese Medicine, Western Science, and the Search for a Cure is the first book-length account of the work of Dr. Xiu-Min Li on her work to adapt ancient herbal medicines to cure "modern" diseases, and to prove their efficacy using the best that science has to offer. Born in China, Dr. Li was simultaneously trained in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and Western medicine in Henan and Beijing, followed by fellowships at Stanford and Johns Hopkins. Author Henry Ehrlich calls her a Rosetta stone because she can think simultaneously in both systems and recognize the potential of thousands of TCM remedies for treating diseases of the immune system that defy conventional remedies, not just food allergies but also eczema and asthma, and, potentially, autoimmune disorders. Now a full professor at Mt. Sinai in New York, her research has produced a bonanza of insight into the functioning of the immune system.

The book begins with an introduction to Dr. Li's fascinating personal story and the moment when she decided to devote herself to the problem of food allergies, as well as a comprehensive and absorbing explanation to the allergy epidemic. This is followed by detailed but readable accounts of the laboratory science that has shown convincingly in mice that food allergies can be treated, up through the current phase-2 trials in humans. The author calls it a kind of "love letter to science." The book concludes with a visionary look at the future of this therapy, from the points of view of both science and clinical medical practice.

Dr. Arnold Levinson calls Food Allergies "A masterful job of distilling a lot of complex material into verbiage that can be understood by the nonscientist, albeit a sharp nonscientist, and accomplished in an entertaining style."