My path to Chinese Medicine

I was always going to be a dentist.

It was my dream career from the age of 11. The summer before my 12th birthday, my father, a dentist, needed someone to fill in for his dental assistant for a few weeks. He taught me how to mix amalgams, develop x-rays in a small darkroom, sterilize equipment, and do suction. It was a fun job! Eventually, word got out that I was available to sub for assistants during the summer holidays (it was the 80s, so dental assisting was not as regulated as it is now). For the next several years, my summers were spent in dental offices. I even worked for an "old school" stand-up dentist.

After high school, I went to the University of Western Ontario and majored in biology. Then, much to my father's chagrin, I was not accepted into the dentistry program at his alma mater, McGill. So I took the year off to travel and ended up working most of the year at a macrobiotic restaurant in Bermuda, the first of its kind. It was there that I learned about the benefits of a healthy diet. Every day, I ate miso soup and platefuls of vegetables, and drank fresh apple ginger juices. I felt remarkably different and internally "clean". My mind felt sharper and my moods were better. Maybe there really was something to this "eating well" thing! 

An astounding recovery

A few years earlier, my Uncle Frank had been diagnosed with an inoperable astrocytoma brain tumour. He was told that they would try chemo and radiation to shrink it, but that he should get his affairs in order (translation: you've got six months to a year to live). He followed the prescribed course of treatment, but he also went on a macrobiotic diet and changed his lifestyle completely. He moved to Gabriola Island, where he ate small meals of broth, vegetables, lean protein, and green tea. And he played his flute.

His oncologists were shocked to find the size of the tumour decreased significantly. "Wow! Our treatment really worked!" they must have thought. They didn’t realize all the other things that he had done to enhance his body's healing ability. Diet and lifestyle had played an enormous role. My Uncle Frank went on to live over 20 years longer.

Across the pond

Meanwhile, I was waitlisted at dental schools at Columbia, Penn and UConn. I had also visited and was accepted to some schools in the UK—University of London, Newcastle, and Cardiff. When I was awarded Bermuda's Nichol Postgraduate Scholarship, I needed to make a decision. Although my top choice was Penn, their dental school could not give me an answer in time, so I decided to attend the University of Cardiff.

Cardiff is a lovely small city where I was able to mountain bike from castle to castle! The program was challenging and I had some excellent professors there. First year dentistry does not have much to do with the mouth—we endured a full year of cadaver anatomy, physiology, microbiology, and pharmacology. On weekends, I explored the UK on the train and even joined the medical school women's rugby team and got roughed up a bit during practices and the occasional game against other universities in the UK and France.

Halfway through that first year, I received a letter from my old roommate. She was living and working in Washington D.C. and would soon be moving to New Mexico to study Chinese medicine. I wrote back, half-joking, "you're going to study what?! Acupuncture? Isn't that quackery?!" As it turned out, I was on my way to visit my grandparents in Maryland in a few weeks and we planned to connect while I was there. 

A turning point

Immediately upon my arrival in the States, I came down with a horrible virus. My immune system had been low since starting dental school. I think that working in cadaver labs with poor ventilation and no masks (in those days) was the primary cause. In addition to that, I'd gone from a clean diet to that of a UK university student. I felt terrible, showing up at my friend's house with a 104 degree fever… What a wonderful guest! She kindly fed me miso soup with extra green onion and did acupuncture on me, then covered me with heavy blankets until I broke a sweat. In a matter of hours, I was feeling much better.

I was amazed, to say the least!

She told me how, after being in a car accident, acupuncture had been an integral part of her recovery. Then she gave me a book to read on the plane: Spontaneous Healing by Dr. Andrew Weil.

I was not an avid reader back then, but I read the entire book on the 7-hour flight back to England. I remember getting off the plane and looking at myself in the restroom mirror. My eyes were gleaming with excitement and were the clearest I had ever seen them. They were saying "This is it. This is the beginning."

A new paradigm

The first step in this new direction was figuring out how I would transition from "real" medicine, based in science, to alternative medicine, based in the empirical method. There were many moving parts: finding an accredited school, holding onto my scholarship, retaining any credibility I had built up thus far (!), telling my father… It was all quite overwhelming, but somehow I knew that things would fall into place.

It was 1996, the year us common folk got access to the internet. I began researching alternative medicine paradigms online and searching for accredited universities. Having no idea what I was looking for, it took quite some time to understand all of the various areas of study—naturopathy, homeopathy, Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic, and herbalism. The simplicity of Chinese medicine really spoke to me, not to mention its ancient roots.

I learned that Chinese medicine sees the body as a garden, whereas conventional medicine sees the body as a machine. In the Chinese medicine paradigm, balance is achieved by nourishing substances or enhancing relationships between physiological systems. Conventional medicine is able to determine whether something is not working properly and to target the faulty organ or system with medication or surgery. Of course, we need this type of medicine—it saves lives. However, what can conventional doctors do when a patient says "I feel lousy," yet their bloodwork and all other tests come back normal? Generally, not much. This is where Chinese medicine excels.

My research on accredited universities took me to Seattle, Washington. Bastyr University was the most established naturopathic college in North America at the time and had an accredited doctoral program in naturopathy as well as MSc degrees in Chinese medicine and nutrition. After speaking to the admissions office and learning that, with one year of dentistry under my belt, I would be exempt from some of the science courses, I made the decision to take on both the Chinese medicine and nutrition programs, hoping to complete them in four years.

Meanwhile, I spoke confidentially to my guidance counselor at dental school in Cardiff. She tried to convince me that I should finish my dental degree and then "go off and study these other things." But I knew that I couldn't wait to begin my studies in Chinese medicine, so I thanked her and told her I would finish the year before pursuing my new goals. She was not the only one who tried to talk me out of this "insane" idea. I confided in a few others and most of them said it was a huge risk; they thought I had worked too hard to throw it all away to study quackery.

Mom, Dad, about that dentistry thing…

I was accepted into both programs at Bastyr, finished up my requirements, and then it was time to discuss my plans with my parents. I told my mother first. It was good practice for the appeal that I was planning to present to the scholarship committee. I told her I felt that this was the way of the future: conventional and alternative medicine working together. She could see how passionate I was and she shared my excitement.

My father and I had lunch plans the next day. I was so nervous, I waited until he was on his second glass of wine to drop the big news. "So, Erin how was your first year?" He asked. "Yeah Dad, so that's what I wanted to talk to you about," I replied. "I am dropping out of dentistry and going into Chinese medicine and nutrition."

He was not as shocked as I expected him to be. He said that he knew too many dentists who hated what they did. He was one of the lucky ones who really enjoyed it. After a few jokes about quackery (it was 1997 and acupuncture was not mainstream), I apologized for not being able taking over his dental practice, as I had originally planned. He said he simply wanted his kids to be happy in their work, but that he also did not want to be paying our bills when we were 40!

The final hurdle

Now that I had the support of my parents, I needed to convince the scholarship committee that my new educational goals were just as legitimate and valuable as my original educational goals. I was nervous as I walked into the room and stood in front of eight well-respected committee members waiting for me to explain why I was changing my career path. I took a deep breath and spoke passionately about the need for a more holistic approach to medicine. As it turned out, the wife of one of the gentlemen on the scholarship committee had just gone through cancer treatment and had used acupuncture and other modalities to assist in her treatment and recovery. His wife was doing well and, as a result, he saw the value in my vision.

I was on pins and needles after the interview but, within an hour after getting home, I received a phone call telling me I would be allowed to keep the scholarship as long as my grades continued to be high enough. What a huge sigh of relief! I was thrilled and couldn’t wait to get started.

Everything was falling into place. I cancelled my dental school registration and started preparing to move to Seattle. During my flight out West, a strange thing happened… I got a toothache! Not just one but both of my wisdom teeth began to ache unbearably. What a cruel karmic joke, I thought! So the first thing I had to do after arriving in Seattle, before the usual things like setting up bank accounts, finding a place to live, or buying a car, was to find a dentist! Isn’t life funny?

Everything in its right place

Bastyr University is located in St. Edwards National State Park. The road to campus meanders quietly through the forest. When I arrived, it had just stopped raining and the sun was peeking through trees. All of the sudden, I was overcome by emotion. I had made it. If I had any doubt in my mind that I had taken the right path, this moment erased it all.

I soon learned that studying Chinese medicine was not about simply memorizing facts and learning how to diagnose correctly. Chinese medicine is a lifestyle, and a system of medicine based in Taoism. Therefore, those studying it must make a commitment to embrace change within oneself and live more in accordance with nature. The lifestyle change did not necessarily come easily for everyone in my class. In our years at Bastyr, many of us had difficulties with relationships and coming to terms with our ideals and the world around us, as we tried to find our place within a system that was sometimes incongruent with our old world view. For me, the beauty and simplicity of the Chinese medicine lifestyle has made my life far richer and deeper than I could ever have imagined.