The How

I spent a lot of time in my twenties in search of my purpose. My curiosity and spiritual hunger led me to the Far East. I traveled a long time through China, southeast Asia, and India, studying yoga and its underlying philosophies.

Divine Farmer was born on a boat to Shanghai, but I didn’t know it at the time. What I did know was that something deeply meaningful found me: Chinese medicine.

I fell extremely ill on that boat with 104 fever and talking in tongues. One man noticed how sick I was and came to offer a mysterious handful of what looked like seeds. With few alternatives, I decided to take them. He applied cold compresses to my forehead that smelled like strange, fresh herbs and stuck tiny acupuncture needles in my hands and around my elbows.

Within a few hours my fever broke; and by the end of the next day I was completely fine. I spent that day talking to him about Chinese medicine and his dream of making it more known in the West, which soon became my dream too.

The Why

I have great respect for Western medicine and never think of Eastern or Western as being better than the other. They each serve their purpose. It’s the collaborative fusion of both disciplines where I see the future of medicine. My devotion to help my patients utilize natural remedies continuously drives me to explore new discoveries from both East and West, whether within current translations of ancient texts or through scientific research into medicinal herbs and what they do.

This devotion led to my interest in the ancient herb, Hemp, from which modern science derives CBD. I spent years working closely with oncology nurses at Cedar Sinai hospital to guide patients through cancer treatments using Chinese herbs in conjunction with CBD.

CBD can bring fast relief of symptoms while Chinese herbal remedies, though as fast, work on a deeper, constitutional level to help heal the underlying causes. Seeing these two natural elements work together was one of the more amazing moments in my years of practice.

Prior to that, I had been working with the UCLA Woman’s clinic to ween pregnant women off anti-depressants that are unsafe during pregnancy. Both experiences gave me hands-on knowledge of the physical, mental and emotional issues of patients battling a serious illness. CBD coupled with herbs together resolved so much, but it was difficult for many patients to take oil or alcohol-based CBD, while their bodies were already nauseous from sickness, treatments and taking western medications and supplements.