‘It was August 1, a time when New York children are generally wearing shorts and short-sleeved shirts. My first patient was 18 months old and dressed more appropriately for late fall. When we took off his clothes I saw why. He was covered head-to-toe with oozing, staph-infected lesions, which he promptly began to scratch. That explained the overdressing — it was the only deterrent to scratching … I had expected quick resolution using oral medication-teas — based on my experience in China. I wasn’t prepared for this level of severity.’ Dr Xiu-Min Li

Thus began Dr Li’s journey into the treatment of eczema in the United States, which afflicts some 15-20% of children and 10% of adults. This book represents years of collaboration with patients, parents, pediatricians, allergists and dermatologists to treat disorders that resist standard intervention, and in some cases are caused by conventional treatment in the form of topical corticosteroids. Chronic use of steroids by patients desperate for relief from itching, oozing and scaling, and subsequent withdrawal can result in severe physical and psychological symptoms.

‘It wasn’t just the extent of the disease. It was also the toll it took on family quality of life. Kids were crying. Mothers were crying. They were all sleeping badly. Most of these families also had bad food allergies, but food allergy is a silent disease. People worry about it, but with eczema they suffer every day.’ Dr Li

This is a book of scholarship. Dr Li, explores the literature of traditional Chinese medicine, which has a long history of describing and treating skin disorders, to find therapies that might benefit current patients. It is a book of science as Dr Li and her team use state-of-the-art technology to explore the mechanisms of disease, the therapeutic effects of the herbs, and ways to make them more effective. But it is also a book of compassion as patients and their families recount their experience of illness and the road back, after working with Dr Li’s private practice.

Dr Li has dual professorships in Pathology, Microbiology & Immunology, and Otolaryngology at New York Medical College. Dr Li and her team have long devoted to themselves to developing novel therapies for food allergy, asthma, eczema, Eosinophilic Esophagitis, and Crohn’s disease, among other inflammatory conditions.