Dr. Ann Wang is the founder of the Integrative Medicine Center in Ithaca, N.Y., and serves as medical consultant for Treasure of the East. She earned her medical degree in Chinese medicine from Shandong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine and a PhD in Research Advancement in Oriental Medicine from the College of Alternative Medicine Research Advancement, AGU. Dr. Wang has served as chief medical administrator at the State Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine, adjunct professor at the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, and faculty member at Cornell University. She led the development of the largest TCM database in the U.S., integrating advanced diagnostic and treatment techniques with conventional medicine. The database has been adopted by major pharmacy chains, including CVS and PharmaVite. Dr. Wang specializes in pain management, chronic illness, and women’s health and fertility.
Fertility acupuncture sometimes gets presented as a narrow protocol: a handful of reproductive points applied uniformly across patients. What this case reinforced for me: The most powerful work happens when we read the whole picture. The hormone data, the constitutional tendency, the sleep, the digestion, and the menstrual pattern, so we can treat the environment the ovaries live inside.
Mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) affects more than 15% of the U.S. population but evades most practitioners’ radar. Just five years ago, it wasn’t even on my radar, despite already having 20 years of experience as a clinician at that time. The more I dug (similar to leaky gut and post-COVID syndrome), the more I found my patients were suffering from this disorder.
The motivation behind our practice of medicine is important, impacting not just our experience but also the experiences of those we treat. It is perhaps for this reason that the aspiration to help not just some, but all beings heal, has historically been an important part of the medical tradition. To explain this, we need to consider how medicine is interwoven with other social domains.