The Globe and Mail

“Here,” Xiaolan Zhao says, holding out her hand. “Let me help you sit up.”

She has re-entered a small treatment room in her Xiaolan Health Centre in Toronto’s Annex neighborhood, where I’m lying naked under a sheet on a flat table.

“Drink this,” she says. She hands me a cup of tea and watches as I sip it.

“Dandelion and licorice,” she explains. She puts little pills (cinnamon) on a spoon, and offers it, like a mother to a child.

“Do I chew them?”

“Swallow them with the tea,” she gently instructs.

I do as I’m told and turn to take in her quiet presence, her face a clear pale moon of benevolent calm. Who wouldn’t be curious to understand the appeal of Dr. Zhao? She has a cult-like following, her devotees mentioning her name and ministrations like a secret mantra.

After her first book in 2006, Reflections of the Moon on Water: Healing Women’s Bodies and Minds Through Traditional Chinese Wisdom, the number of patients in her practice, where treatments (at $105 for an hour) are not covered by medicare, leapt from 7,000 to 12,000. This week sees the release of her second book, Inner Beauty: Looking, Feeling and Being Your Best, which includes recipes for traditional treatments for everything from hair loss to dermatitis caused by cancer radiation treatments.

It also includes personal stories about herself and some of her patients that reflect Dr. Zhao’s mindful approach to wellness.

“Be comfortable with who you are. Good health shines through,” the 55-year-old says to explain her philosophy on aging, which she exemplifies. She wears no makeup. Her black hair shows only a strand or two of grey. She mediates and exercises daily; doesn’t drink alcohol or coffee.

Is it simply the growing interest in alternative therapies that fuels her popularity? One in four of her clinic’s female patients (who constitute almost 80 per cent of the practice) is battling cancer. “I don’t believe in chemotherapy,” she explains, adding that she supports people’s personal decisions. “It’s only wrong if you regret what you do.” One of her female patients remains in remission from breast cancer after 15 years of following Dr. Zhao’s regimen of an alkaline diet (no red meat, no dairy, reduced alcohol and caffeine), exercise and herbal/acupuncture treatments.

She respects Western medicine, having trained as an abdominal surgeon in China, where she was born, the youngest of four children. But after witnessing the healing power of herbal remedies, she earned a second degree, in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). “As a young person, Western medicine is very attractive. You believe everything has an answer at that age,” she says lightly. “But then you realize that with many illnesses, almost 90 per cent, the cause is not known.”

Interested in a mix of Western and Eastern medicine, she came to Canada in 1988 to conduct cancer research at Queen’s University.

Soon she found her greatest gift was in helping fellow doctors with her ancient techniques. Someone would complain of a migraine, say, and she’d put him on a table to work with the meridians of the body – there are 12, according to TCM – and assess what’s known as the “three treasures”: a person’s jing (or genetic imprint), qi (energy flow) and shen (spirit or mind). Through acupuncture, herbal remedies and massage, she aims to harmonize the body’s energy.

After she opened her first clinic in 1992, her reputation flourished, due in large part to her following among the Canadian literati, including Margaret Atwood, Susan Swan and Michael Ondaatje. Playwright, actor and author Ann-Marie MacDonald has written a blurb for her new book. An ordinary citizen would be forgiven for imagining that if Dr. Zhao can facilitate the flow of energy for those who rely on their capricious creativity for their livelihood, she can fix anyone.