2nd Half of Interview

1. Some people come in with recommendations for general health tonics, sure. How to keep them in
balance rather than bring them back to balance. Chinese medicine is an energetic system, that
means looking at aspects of the body that are out of balance rather than looking at Western
Biomedically defined diseases. Thus, often times I throw out the western condition people have been
diagnosed with and look at the ways different body systems can be brought into harmony with herbs,
diet, lifestyle, etc.

2. It would be between California Poppy, which grows locally, for anxiety and insomnia, and Reishi
mushroom which is used for a variety of cardiovascular issues, strengthening the immune system, and
calming the mind.

3. I treat newborns through seniors on their "way out". I treat bums on the street to
millionaires. The ethnic diversity that commonly comes through my door is somewhat subject to that
of where i live. Considering the relative anglo homogeneity of Santa Cruz I get to work with folks
of mixed ethnic backgrounds. This is often fun as many people have their own herbal traditions they
are coming from so I get to share information.

4. I don't know that any insurance companies cover herbal treatments. It is my opinion that I would
like to see this but don't know of anyone crusading for this. Unfortunately when insurance dollars
get involved they often tend to dictate what types of treatments people have access to. I really
don't want indurance companies influencing how I work with herbs.

5. The swing back to using herbal medicines has already happened. It is a 6 billion dollar a year
industry, a big political issue, and a form of health care that the World Health Organization
estimates that 70% of the worlds populations uses botanicals as a primary source of medicine.
People have begun to see that the liability of using western drugs (I know, they save lots of lives
too) as well as the costs may be more complicated than it is worth. Thus many are turning to simple
natural solutions that they can grow or harvest. An interesting question for you to explore is when
herbs are commodified and heavily promoted as things everyone needs everyday, you know, pumped into
oru consumer culture, is it traditional medicine?