Hui Yan Cai, MD (China), PhD, LAc
Professor, Clinical Sciences
Before she
came to the United States in 1986, Dr. Hui Yan Cai was an attending
physician at a large hospital in China. Integrative medicine has a
long history in China. At Dr. Cai's hospital, it was quite routine
for doctors to combine western medical care with acupuncture and
herbs.
"In China, when I performed C-section deliveries in the
obstetric ward, we would use acupuncture and injections of herbal
medicine as the only anesthetic. This worked very well for both the
mother and baby. It was especially helpful when the fetus had
heartbeat irregularities, making the use of pharmaceuticals more
risky," Dr. Cai recalls.
Dr. Cai also combined surgery with oriental medicine in treating
women with cervical cancer. "We would perform a radical
hysterectomy, but also give the patient acupuncture before, during
and after the surgery along with herbal injections. The patients
receiving acupuncture and herbal injections combined with a small
amount of chemotherapy had much higher five-year survival rates
compared to patients who only had surgery and chemotherapy," Dr.
Cai said.
In regard to cancer patients, Dr. Cai notes that acupuncture and
herbal medicine can often reduce the devastating side effects of
chemotherapy. With cancer patients, Dr. Cai always uses tongue
diagnosis in conjunction with biopsy, MRI and CT scans to get a
more accurate picture. Part of her job in the hospital in China was
to oversee Pap smear procedures. "We always used Pap smear in
combination with assessing the vein color of the underside of the
tongue to give us information we needed to pick out the most
'at-risk' patients," she says.
"In oriental medicine, we use tongue analysis to make diagnosis
of both current conditions and the patient's risk for future health
trouble," she explains. "By assessing the condition and color of
various locations on the tongue, we can often determine patients
who are at a higher risk for heart problems and certain cancers. If
I see certain tongue patterns, I can recommend that the patient see
a cardiologist or have a cancer screening and possibly intercept a
serious health problem before a western doctor would normally
detect it."
Dr. Cai sees many patients with fertility issues. "Hormone
problems such as irregular menstrual periods, infertility, uterine
bleeding, etc. respond very well to acupuncture," she said. "I also
treat many in vitro fertilization (IVF) patients seeking to
increase their chance of conceiving and sustaining a pregnancy to
term."
Even though she practices only oriental medicine in the United
States, Dr. Cai insists that her patients bring their complete
medical records to her office before she will treat them.
"Increasingly, patients are coming to me along with their MD. It is
good news that doctors in the United States are becoming more and
more open-minded about oriental medicine."
In addition to earning her MD in China, Dr. Cai completed two
fellowships in biomedicine, including one focusing on hormone
receptor research. She also completed her PhD in Traditional
Chinese Medicine in 2004. Dr. Cai now travels to other oriental
medical colleges in the United States to give seminars on women's
health and cancer treatment.
