Spotlight: Diana Hermann

“Diana, Do good.” – Vinnie

That yearbook inscription, signed in haste by a sixth grade friend, probably meant nothing to Vinnie, but to Diana Hermann it’s been the measuring stick for her life.

“I bet that kid has no idea about the profound impact he had on my life.” Hermann smiles, thinking of 12-year-old Vinnie and the entirely accidental intention he helped to create.

Diana Hermann is a licensed acupuncturist and herbalist with passion for life and for helping others. She’s a right-brained, former engineer, and a driven entrepreneur – in some ways the antithesis of a typical healer. But it’s that passion, that drive to do something worthwhile that brought her to Traditional Chinese Medicine and gave her the courage to abandon her planned career as a civil engineer.

How did that drastic course change come about? Kung Fu. Of course.

“I was training in Kung Fu for fun,” she remembers. “Part of the premise of Kung Fu is not just knowing how to hurt someone, but also how to heal them. Before getting beat up, the instructors would give us dit da jow, an herbal linament.” It helped. A lot. Seeing the difference in her inflammation compared to the guy in class who refused the remedy, made a huge impression on Hermann.

“Remarkable stuff!” she nods.

At the same time, Hermann started seeing an acupuncturist. “I was a stressed out engineer, so we started working on how I handled stress. I was so blown away by how much healthier and happier I was ... by how much better my life was, that I changed careers.”

So, Hermann left her job and her home and went to grad school for a master’s degree in acupuncture and Oriental medicine from the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine. She followed that with continued training at the Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine (NUTCM) in Nanjing, People’s Republic of China, where she completed internships in both internal medicine (Chinese herbal medicine) and in acupuncture at the affiliated hospitals of NUTCM.

Hermann launched her first solo acupuncture business in Fort Collins in 2002, Acupuncture of the Rockies. Her clinical practice specializes in sports injuries, but certainly isn’t limited to that. Her daily patient load covers the gamut from sinus troubles to arthritis, urinary tract infections to repetitive stress injuries. While establishing this business, Hermann was itching to get started on the second part of her plan – literally itching.

“I hate to itch!” she says on her website. In 2008, Hermann developed an alarming rash from body surfing in contaminated waters. A passing hurricane had caused the Florida coastal waters where she swam to teem with churned up bacteria and sewage. So, red and crazed, Hermann turned to the best remedies she knew of, herbs.

Later, rash free and armed with a renewed determination to help others find more natural skin solutions, Hermann created Zi Zai Dermatology. Zi Zai, meaning freedom from limitations, focuses on providing topical, herb-based ointments for people with skin problems.

She explains how a second business was born both from necessity and her experiences as an intern. “[While in China], I was thoroughly impressed with the efficacy of Chinese herbal medicine in treating skin problems.”

“In China, they can treat skin conditions far better than we can simply because they incorporate herbs into their medical treatments. Pharmacological and herbal-based solutions are integrated. If pharmaceuticals are better, the doctor prescribes them, but most of time herbs do just as well. If you can avoid using heavy duty pharmaceuticals [like corticosteroids], then you have them in your arsenal later. If 15 minutes in the sun is what you need, they’ll tell you that too – even if they make no money from that advice. It’s about what is best for the patient there.”

She continues: “In Traditional Chinese Medicine, our goal is to bring the body into greater balance. Well-balanced skin should not need much help to stay healthy. To heal one thing and destroy the kidney, that isn’t good medicine."

“I don’t think the general consumer is aware of herbal medicines, nor do they have access to them. A lot of times, [these treatments] are shrouded behind the ‘ancient Chinese secret’ myth. I want to bridge that educational gap. This is the people’s medicine. It comes from the planet; they should have access to it,” she says.

An unlikely naturopath, Hermann’s right-brained organization and analytical approach serve her well as both an acupuncturist and an herbalist. “I get the human body. The mechanics make a lot of sense to me,” she says. She’s also the perfect spokesperson to present what is sometimes a foreign-sounding mystical experience to an uninitiated audience.

For example, the concept of Qi (the flow of energy in the body) can seem illogical at first blush, but not to Hermann. “Energy exists in this world. To me Qi is just another form of energy – one that we don’t yet have a scientific way to measure.”

She explains that Traditional Chinese Medicine evolved using the scientific method. Hypothesizing and testing over thousands of years of observation, practitioners learned to channel Qi. “The term throws people off,” she says and then easily dismisses the gap in translation. “There is a lot in the world we don’t fully understand yet. I can’t see air molecules, but I can sure turn on a fan and cool you off.”

Hermann fully admits that the terminology from this ancient tradition is a hurdle for Americans. “If I say, ‘This herb treats fire toxins,’ people go, ‘What the hell does that mean?’ So, on my website, I use descriptions of the symptoms instead. That’s more understandable for people.”

Ultimately, what Hermann most loves about Traditional Chinese Medicine, and the reason she is such a passionate advocate for it, is efficacy. Simply put, it works.

Hermann’s journey has involved self-sacrifice and bravery. It wasn’t easy to leave her planned life as an engineer, but her drive to “do good” for her patients keeps her moving forward. Vinnie would be proud.

Corey Radman is a freelance writer living in Fort Collins. Her passion for story threads its way through all her work, which has been published at Style Magazine, Northern Colorado Medical & Wellness, Get Born Magazine, The Mom Egg and in the 2010 Write for Charity Anthology. She can be contacted via her website at www.fortcollinswriter.com.