Yi-Po Anthony Wu, MD, M.P.H.
Medical Director and founder of PCMC

• Western medical training at National Taiwan University, Worcester City Hospital, University of Massachusetts Medical Center
• Masters degree in Public Health, University of Hawaii
• Diplomate, American Board of Internal Medicine
• Acupuncture training in Taiwan and at New York University
• Director of Pacific Pain Clinic 1988-93
• Director of Pacific Complementary Medicine Center since 1999
  

I have always dreamed of bringing Eastern and Western medicine together. With my wife’s support, my late father’s encouragement, the backing of a devoted team and patients who have enriched my life and inspired me more than they will ever know, I have come closer to establishing a home base for the philosophy of providing care for a person’s whole being.

Twenty years have flashed by, and the health care system has changed dramatically. With some adjustments, I am happy I have been able to remain in solo practice - in one location - providing continuity of care and remaining stable in this storm of change.

When I was asked recently what made me stick to this practice, I decided to write an article about the thinking behind the treatment. You will find it at the end of this newsletter. Also in this newsletter, many friends have expressed their thoughts at this juncture. They remind me how much I have been nurtured over the years by your well-wishes and kind thoughts. Your enthusiastic embrace of your role in this teamwork of healing is a cornerstone of PCMC’s continued success.

Dr. Loh, Michael Shi, Yoshiko Kage and Dorel Rotar help me balance PCMC. Their differences in background have strengthened PCMC and allowed us to broaden our scope. Four senior staff, Esther Chan, Elizabeth Cordero, Benni Serna and Connie Tracy, have served my practice for more than half a century combined. Their invaluable contributions behind-the-scenes have allowed this practice to prosper, and I would be lost without them.

This letter is an inadequate thank you to everyone who has contributed to my practice over the last 20 years. I am grateful for the opportunity to have served you as well as I could.

 In Peace & Health,

          Yi-Po Anthony Wu, MD

Growing and Learning with Dr. Wu

-Teresa M. Chen, Ph.D.

Were it not for the strands of grey to remind us that twenty years have gone by, the foggy evening we came to Stockton would seem like only yesterday. The past two decades have been filled with serendipity and challenges, but they have gone by quickly, most of all, because we were having a good time.

It strikes me often that Dr. Wu is a restless person. He is always on a quest for new challenges. He questions dogma and authority, constantly seeking better ways to improve patients’ health and redefining the role of a good doctor along the way.

In order to keep up with his active mind, I have had to keep learning and growing. First of all, I had to understand why Dr. Wu was not satisfied with the scalpel and pharmaceutical drugs. Then, I had to learn about alternative treatment methods, such as biofeedback and stress reduction, as well as traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). When he decided to go back to his roots and combine the best of Eastern and Western medicine, I went along for the journey.

From 1988 to 1993, we studied and literally journeyed to Shanghai, Beijing, Taipei and Taichung to listen to the professors. Pacific Complementary Medicine Center was born in 1994, and the timing couldn’t have been more auspicious. Bill Moyers, David Eisenberg, Dean Ornish and Andrew Weil were at the same time introducing complementary/integrative medicine to the U.S. medical landscape. The public was ready.

After Diane Barth and Bruce Spence, two savvy reporters for The Record, wrote about PCMC and its integration of western internal medicine and traditional Chinese acupuncture and herbs, something else miraculously happened. A nurse practitioner from San Joaquin County Hospital, Eva Robinson, called and told us that Dr. Wu was the doctor she had been waiting for since she visited Lincoln Hospital in the Bronx, N.Y. several years back. She told us about the use of ear acupuncture for the treatment of addiction. PCMC has since broadened its scope of service to treat alcohol and drug addiction and addiction-related diseases. At first, we were afraid that we would spread ourselves too thin. As it turned out, through acupuncture treatment for chemical dependency, we gained valuable insight into chronic problems and the interaction of mind, body and spirit in health and healing.

I am grateful to have been mentored by David Eisen of the National Acupuncture Detoxification Association, and for the opportunity to organize four conferences on the subject of acupuncture treatment for chemical dependency in Stockton.

While acupuncture provides a viable and powerful drug-free alternative for the treatment of pain, addiction and other chronic problems, healing cannot be complete without the conscious participation of patients, especially in areas of life-style change and mind-set. This motivated us to keep adding missing holistic healing pieces, including herbal therapy, nutrition supplements, Tai Chi and Qi Gong, and health education.

For twenty years, Dr. Wu has conducted free health seminars for his patients. The hard work has paid off; PCMC boasts an enlightened patient population who play an active role in their own physical and mental well-being. Our patients also have much to teach us.

Dr. Wu’s practice reflects his style and personality, his beliefs and commitment. PCMC is a dynamic place. You can’t help but grow with it.

“Dr. Wu is a Western doctor who is also able to accept ancient, 5000-year-old traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) and champion it. This is very rare since Western and Chinese medicines are two totally different medical systems.

TCM is a pragmatic medicine which, based on the accumulation of experience acquired through thousands of years of struggle between humans and disease, developed into a system of medicine. Clinically, TCM has great results, but many Western doctors who do not understand TCM often criticize it, even to the point of looking down on TCM and dismissing it.

What makes me greatly respect Dr. Wu is that he has the courage to remain open-minded, even under this general atmosphere of discrimination. He actively promotes integration by providing a space for Western medicine and TCM - including acupunture, Tui Na, Qi Gong and herbs - to coexist. Pacific Complementary Medicine Center (PCMC) is the only such healing center in California, and in its ten years of existence people have come to experience complementary medicine and have gotten healthier.

The greater good of complementary medicine, and the establishment of PCMC, is not limited to providing a wider array of choices for the patients. Just as importantly, PCMC is a key part of the effort to promote TCM in the United States. It establishes a prototype for the combination of Eastern and Western medicines, thus serving as a cultural liason for Eastern culture and philosophy, and also building a bridge between the two medical systems. Traditional Chinese medicine is expanding all over the United States, and the trend is irresistable. California is taking the lead.

At the moment, we are working on: 1) Raising the educational standard for TCM doctors in order to protect the quality of service; 2) Working on getting Medicare to pay for acupuncture services for the elderly; 3) Trying to get all insurance companies to pay for acupuncture service; and 4) Making acupuncture treatment a legal right under worker’s compensation.

In the journey of life, 20 years is not too long. But it is a significant period of time if spent meaningfully and thoughtfully. I wish Dr. Wu good health and long life so he can continue to contribute to medicine and the medical profession.”

-Dr. Brian Chee C. Loh, L.Ac, O.M.D.; Oriental Medical Doctor at PCMC since 1996; President of the American Institute of Chinese Medicine; Managing Director, American Institute of Acupuncture Orthopedics and Traumatology; Secretary General, United California Practitioners of Chinese Medicine

What keeps me going, day after day

Dr. Wu, October 2004

A physician’s education focuses on analytical and scientific knowledge of illness and on the proper choice of medicines and surgery as a cure. For acute illnesses, such as infections and injuries, we are quite in control. But for many chronic illness, for example, hypertension, diabetes or cancer, we are far from real control. This is not only because of lifestyle-related problems, but also because of the inadequacy of using only medicine or surgery for treatment. In life, we are lucky if health is the given and disease is the exception, but we should not forget to respect and listen to our bodies, before they act up.

Promoting health expands the scope of care to be comprehensive and preventive. If we can be in harmony with our environment and balance our internal conditions, health will be maintained. Take hypertension, for example. We see so many come to my office for this illness and most of the patients are on some sort of medication. In less-developed countries, such as many places in Africa, hypertension is an almost non-existent illness. Studies show again and again that the majority of hypertension cases can be controlled without medication if the patient is willing to improve his or her diet and reduce stress. Medicine is not only limited as a single-disease regimen, but also carries side effects through its synthetic chemical structure.

Similarly, a lifestyle change will not only alleviate high blood pressure but will also lower a lot of diet- and stress-related illnesses. As a recent study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association showed, eating a Mediterranean diet led to a fifty percent reduction in the chance of a heart attack. Another article showed that a simple half-hour of relaxed walking daily was enough to reduce the chance of many chronic illnesses. With the help of your lifestyle, your life can be prolonged.

Still, to relieve suffering from pain requires not only knowledge and skill, but also joy. Physicians are equipped to treat pain with many advanced medications and therapies. But relieving suffering takes more than just physical pain relief. It also takes human concern and care. We all need to be pampered a little bit, especially as society and the health system become less personal. Some suffering is ignored or treated as mental illness without getting at the heart of the problem. Connectedness and compassion between patient and physician are very important in the healing process.

As Dr. Albert Schweitzer, physician, philosopher and Nobel Prize winner for his philanthropic work in Africa, stated almost a century ago, reverence for life should be the foundation of medical practice. Physicians deeply connected to their patients feel the responsibility to treat patients as whole beings, not isolated ailments, with total health as the ultimate concern.

Many years ago, during medical school, I found I agreed with the World Health Organization’s succint outline of a physician’s duties: to cure diseases, promote health, relieve suffering and prolong life. But in order to fulfill these responsibilities I have learned, through my practice these last twenty years, that it is also necessary to be a friend. That, ultimately, has been the most rewarding part of my practice, the thing that has kept me going all these years, day after day.