Good Neighbor Podcast: Port Saint Lucie

E302: From Western Medicine to Holistic Healing: Dr. Stuart Shipe's Journey with Traditional Chinese Medicine and Women's Health

• Benjamin John & Dr. Stuart Shipe • Episode 302

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What makes Dr. Stuart Shipe with Women's Traditional Chinese Healing a good neighbor?  

Ever wondered how the ancient art of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) might revolutionize your approach to health and wellness? Join us as we uncover this intriguing realm with Dr. Stuart Shipe, a former Western medicine practitioner whose career took a transformative turn upon discovering the power of acupuncture. Dr. Shipe shares captivating tales from his journey, revealing how experiences in Beijing and Shanghai reshaped his medical philosophy. At his Treasure Coast clinic, he harmonizes acupuncture, herbal medicine, and Chinese mind-body exercises like Tai Chi and Qigong to foster holistic healing. His insights challenge common misconceptions, convincing even the skeptics to reconsider the potential of these minimally intrusive treatments.

Our discussion also navigates the nuanced landscape of women's health, an area where Dr. Shipe’s practice, Women's Traditional Chinese Healing, shines by adopting TCM's preventative, holistic strategies. By focusing on individualized care and the interconnectedness of mind, body, and spirit, Dr. Shipe illustrates an empowering alternative to the reactive tendencies of Western medicine. We delve into the vital role women play in family wellness, emphasizing the necessity of self-care and the metaphor of securing your own oxygen mask first. Concluding on a local note, Dr. Shipe extends a warm invitation to visit his Port St. Lucie office, sharing stories and experiences that embody the vibrant tapestry of TCM's past and present.

To learn more about Women's Traditional Chinese Healing go to:
https://www.traditionalchinesehealing.com/


Women's Traditional Chinese Healing
772-398-4550

Speaker 1:

This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Benjamin John.

Speaker 2:

Welcome back to the Good Neighbor Podcast. Thanks for coming back. Hey, have you ever thought about getting some traditional Chinese healing? Well, today I got the pleasure of having a conversation with Dr Stuart Scheip, who actually specializes in that. How are you doing today? Very good, thank you very much. Good, yeah, you bet. Well, I'm excited. So I don't know much about traditional Chinese healing, so I particularly am excited to learn more about that and to hear what you're going to share with the local community here.

Speaker 3:

So tell us a little bit about your company local community here, so tell us a little bit about your company. Wow, I'm very humbled actually to be part of a premier natural medical clinic here on the Treasure Coast. We offer integrated approach to patient care that really promotes healing and wellness, and we do use the ancient arts of traditional Chinese medicine to do that, and that includes things like acupuncture, herbal medicine, nutritional consultations To the Chinese. Nutrition is always a foundation of all healing. We use Chinese mind body exercise You've probably seen some people doing Tai Chi or there's another movement called Qigong which is very, very ancient in bringing back balance. We use Chinese massage therapy called Tui Na, and we also use modern advances in today's technology for the best in natural healthcare.

Speaker 2:

Okay, this is actually really cool. I'm interested how you got into the business, like did you go to China to learn this stuff? Or like, how did you get involved with this?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, kind of a very how do I say that? Interesting way that I got involved. I've been in medicine since I was a kid, since a teenager, working at a drugstore in Chicago, illinois, but my journey into natural medicine really occurred about 30 years ago. I was a consultant pharmacist in nursing homes for over 20 years and, unfortunately, despite my efforts, you know, making recommendations I pretty much seen the outcasts of Western medicine, folks that were taking multiple drugs, no improvement in their health, robbing them of their life force, of their health. And I've always loved medicine, herbal medicine.

Speaker 3:

I applied to pharmacy school to study pharmacognosy, which is the study of plants, and that after 20 years of seeing these individuals continually degenerate in long-term care, I thought there's got to be a better way to help than this. So, other than using surgery, therapy and drugs. Fortunately, a friend of mine had recommended that I visit this Taiwanese physician in his medical office in Florida here to observe a different philosophy of health. He told me that I was like oh, what am I getting myself into? You know they turn me into a Buddhist or a Taoist, or you know, I have no idea. Like you, I had no idea what I was getting into, but but he was gracious enough to allow me to observe him in his office and I shadowed him for one day.

Speaker 3:

So the very first patient that walked in was an elderly woman using a cane because of severe back pain that was excruciating. Obviously, I could see it on her face. After he applied acupuncture, he left. Well, 20 minutes later I followed him back into the room. He removed the needles from her and I stayed behind, trying to be like a gentleman, helping her off the table and making sure she was okay. And upon rising he had already left the room. Upon rising, she started to cry and I thought to myself holy cow, like did he hurt her? Like is this? Like I don't know what's going on here? And she actually looked at me and she goes son, I haven't been out of pain in 15 years.

Speaker 2:

And I was like wow.

Speaker 3:

I was like I don't know what just happened in here and I have no idea how that happened, but I was like that's miraculous to me. So the rest of the day was just like a miracle day. I seen people coming in, seizure disorders and other pain syndromes and cancers and stuff I couldn't explain from a Western model as a pharmacist. I didn't know what was going on. From a Western point of view it made no sense whatsoever. But from that day on I knew that there was no going back, that this was what I would consider a better way to help, and I had. He had a small school and I enrolled that next day as a student and I pursued a degree in traditional Chinese medicine. That led me all the way to doing my residencies and in Beijing, shanghai, and I ultimately got my doctorate in traditional Chinese medicine.

Speaker 2:

Wow, that is an interesting, unique story. You weren't kidding, and, um, as a person who, who really has an appreciation for natural healing methods, um, I just think that's actually a beautiful story. To hear that woman's journey to that so really cool. Uh, what are some? I'm so interested to know this, like what are some? Because in every industry there are myths and misconceptions. What is a myth or misconception that you have ran into in your industry?

Speaker 3:

Oh my gosh, there's so, so many. Because no one you know. If you say gastroenterology or dermatology or cardiology, everyone pretty much knows what that is, because we've grown up indoctrinated with Western medical philosophy and principles for our whole lives. But when you say Chinese medicine, nobody really kind of knows what that is and they're like no, I don't want to get stuck with needles. And you know, I've seen that you know, like pinhead and these crazy stuff on the internet. You know where you got needles all over the body. That's probably the biggestcture. Well, we can hit the first one.

Speaker 3:

Acupuncture needles are solid, filiform, stainless surgical steel and they're like wires almost. They're very thin as a cat's whisker and the misconception is that they're very painful and actually the vast majority of acupuncture insertion is almost painless. You don't even feel it when you bring sometimes that energy the Chinese have called it qi to the needle. Sometimes you might feel a little bit of warmth or a little bit of pressure or a little tingling in the area, but for the most part it's nothing like getting speared by a beveled Western hypodermic needle that actually cuts the skin. Acupuncture needles just separate the skin. They don't cut anything and when you take them out there's no bleeding. There's not like a hypodermic that's going in. So that's a big misconception. And there's a lot of other therapies other than acupuncture. If people are really needle phobic, I just usually say would you allow me at least to just do one. And when I put, I said turn your head and let me know when it's in, and they're like okay, I'm still waiting, I'm still waiting. I was like, oh, it's been in for 30 seconds already. So they have no concept of that. So that's a huge misconception. The other thing is a lot of individuals say I heard that you got to see a Chinese doctor forever and I was like well, actually that's not too much of a misconception in ancient China that is correct. A Chinese doctor, my name, lao Shuo, means teacher and I'm supposed to be teaching you how to maintain wellness, lifestyle, nutrition, exercise, so that you can keep your body in top shape. So you never need me on a on a relief care basis. You know to constantly be treating some sort of problem Like Western medicine. I can't believe people say, well, I told them, how long do you have to be on that anti hypertensive medication for blood pressure? And they're like well, I guess forever. I was like well, that's a pretty long therapy, don't you think? All right, yeah, so it's a whole different philosophy.

Speaker 3:

Traditional Chinese medicine about treating wellness, not treating sickness. It's not a reactive care, it's a preventative care. And yes, we do have to get through, we have to muddle through all of that disease state to get what we want, which I really want to be like a Maytag repairman, where you know you're just kind of sitting around waiting for the machine to break down which it never does but that's because you're doing a good job right with the patient and you're spending the time too that's needed with the patient to talk about relationships and their lifestyle and their hopes and their visions and what they're going to do and what they're not going to do. That's the beauty that traditional Chinese medicine is very individualized. It takes care of the person, not the disease state.

Speaker 3:

And when you really take care of the person, you get holistic healing. You know mind, body and spirit, and that's what is really anathema to Americans is they really can't conceive of that. We go to the doctor because we have an illness or we have some kind of problem. They give us drugs and we go back into our normal lifestyle. But in Chinese medicine the Chinese already know that you have to use nutrition and exercise to stay healthy. They only see a Chinese doctor when they can no longer take care of the problem by themselves. That's what's so unique about it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean you said a lot there and there's a lot to it. It sounds like I really have an appreciation for the proactive healthcare concept that traditional Chinese healing embodies. So I definitely align with that and I'm super fascinated. So I know, I know the company's called Women's Traditional Chinese Healing who. So I guess this might answer the question who are your target customers and how do you attract them?

Speaker 3:

So my doctorate was in women's health and when I started practicing in the late 1990s I seen anyone that could breathe because I was on fire. I wanted to make sure that this medicine got to as many people as possible and I was on a healing journey with as many of them as I could possibly be, and up and about until I would say about five years, six years ago maybe. My doctorate is in women's health. That's where I had a specialty, and so I just decided with another physician when they came into the practice she was from California and seen mostly female patients. I was like why don't we focus on just treating what we love best treating women's health? And she agreed. So we pretty much changed up the practice and focused on that. I thought 50% of my population, my patient population, were males and I had. I said, well, we're going to lose 50% of the practice if we just focus on women. But we did and my practice exploded. Why? Because women love to have a practice that focuses specifically on women's disorders. We treat women's health very, very well.

Speaker 3:

And not saying that, I left my guys, my guys all were grandfathered in and about six months later I had no guys in my practice. For some reason there's a different philosophy, I think, between a lot of ladies and a lot of men, and the ladies, I think, really are very focused on wellness, not only for themselves but for their family. So just recently, asking that question is who's a target marketer? Who are my target customers? My ladies have pleaded with me please help my husband, please help my child, my male child. I was like all right, so was like we're going to carve out kind of a special care program for for the guys related to my ladies that are in the practice, and so we're bringing back in guys back into the practice for sure, and it's working out okay to begin with, so we'll see how that that all filters out. So that was that's kind of my, my, my difference. I think women are a little bit more aware of their health and and definitely are very naturally pulled or gravitated toward natural medicine.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think you're right, you're onto something and I'm happy to know that there's a spot for me if I, you know, refer my wife and she's like, yeah, let's go check it out. Yeah, I'm kind of interested too, yeah.

Speaker 3:

Well, isn't that about what it really should be? About family health, right, yeah, the whole family. I, even when I went to I, was in pharmacy school. Like I said, when I transitioned, before I even got in natural medicine man, in pharmacy school, I used to live off of Pepsi and and Snickers bars, you know, to get my energy. We didn't have 200 of these energy drinks. You know 200 different types of those. At that point, you know back in the 80s.

Speaker 3:

But you know, when I looked at the family model, women really most of the time kind of control the health. They make the appointments for their husbands, their kids. They kind of control the family's health and I was like they are the ones that usually go down first, unfortunately. You know, they're so concerned about taking care of their family, taking care of their husband. Oh, please help him, please help them. And I was like you know what? You know we've ever been in a plane and you're flying along and then all of a sudden they drop the oxygen bags. What do they tell you? Who should put on the oxygen bag first, the child or the mother? And everybody says, oh, put it on the child Actually. No, it actually should go on the mother. So we kind of take that same concept and say, if the whole family's health is going down, who should we probably take care of first is the one that holds the whole family's health up, and that's the lady of the house. I like that approach, that's really cool.

Speaker 2:

And that's the lady of the house, the way I like. Yeah, I like that approach. That's really cool and you made a lot of good points there, all right. So, yeah, what outside of work? I'm curious to know what you like to do for fun.

Speaker 3:

I'm an active cyclist and I ride a touring motorcycle routinely with my life group from church and I exercise at a gym routinely. My two small dogs walk me a few times a day. I stay very, very active. I feel it's a lot of a necessity that the physician model their lifestyle, their nutritional habits, their exercise habits for the patients that they were. The patient should really demand that of a physician. It's like, if you want me to get well, you better be a good example for me, right? And so I've always said that that the physician should always model what they want for their patients first. Physicians should provide their their not being hypocrites. You know, do what you expect your patients to do, so you know literally what they have to go through.

Speaker 2:

I like that. That's fascinating. All right, I'm going to switch gears a little bit here and ask you a personal question. Can you describe a hardship or a life challenge that you had to overcome and that made you stronger?

Speaker 3:

Wow, I'd say the biggest one was when I was about oh my gosh 20, 21 years old. My mom and dad dropped me off in Fargo, north Dakota, with all my belongings in the back of a pickup truck to begin pharmacy school at North Dakota State University and I had the first quarter of school paid. My mom and my dad were definitely not rich and really were struggling. I had the first quarter of school paid and the first three months of rent paid. That was it. I had only my motorcycle and no money. So I see my patients, I know what hardship is and I work very, very hard with them in planning their care. So it's both affordable and efficacious. Because I've been there, I've been down in the rocks bouncing at a redneck country and Western pickup bar at two o'clock in the morning roughing basketball anything I could do to make a dollar to get me through school Wow.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's powerful. Well, this has been a really. We dropped a lot of value in a very short period of time. So what should the listeners? What's one thing they should remember about traditional women's, traditional Chinese healing.

Speaker 3:

I would wish that they don't give up hope for healing, because a lot of people don't know what traditional Chinese medicine is. Hopefully you got a little bit more of an explanation today. I just want you to keep your minds open to another way to heal, you know, to eliminate disease without the use of drugs, therapy or surgery. This medicine has been around for thousands of years and it really supports the body's ability to heal itself. We've really been brainwashed to think that we need to take drugs, therapy and surgery in order to heal, but actually that power of healing is already instilled in each one of us. It's just my wishes that don't give up hope.

Speaker 2:

That's a beautiful message. I like that, and how can our listeners learn more about women's traditional Chinese healing?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, we, just you can call our office 772-398-4550. We're online too, a website. You can find out a ton of information, including blogs and so forth, at wwwtraditionalchinesehealingcom. And we also have a Facebook page. Don't ask me, I'm not a Facebook guru, but I think it's Dr Scheipp. If you put that in there, I think you'll. You'll pull up our Facebook page. And we also have a Facebook page. Don't ask me, I'm not a Facebook guru, but I think it's Dr Scheipp. If you put that in there, I think you'll. You'll pull up our Facebook page. And we just moved. We're in Port St Lucie, on Port St Lucie Boulevard, just a little bit west of Morningside. You can stop in the office. We'll be happy to give you a tour and sit you down and listen to your story.

Speaker 2:

Perfect. Well, Dr Stewart, it's really been a great conversation and I really appreciate you being on the show and sharing your story and what your company is all about. We wish you and your business the best moving forward, hey thank you very much for the invite.

Speaker 3:

I really do appreciate it.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely. You bet, take care, all right.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPPortStLucycom. That's GNPPortStLucycom, or call 772-303-1036.