By Learning 'Face Mapping' You Could Prevent Disease, Look Better

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com)   —  It's called "Face Mapping."

While it is not new, it is something that is catching on with the health, fitness and beauty crowd.

Proponents of "face mapping" say you can look at different areas on your face and not only make yourself look better but also let you possibly prevent and cure various diseases.

CBS2's Health Reporter Lisa Sigell says face mapping is an ancient practice but finding lots of new appeal.

Bita Yadidi, 37, credits face mapping with changing her life.

"I don't need to pop pills," Yadidi says, "I don't need to take supplements. I don't need to go to the doctor and get injections."

Bottom line, she says, "I have the power within my being to be the best I can be."

Before she discovered face mapping, the busy Beverly Hills mother of two, said she dealt with terrible headaches and extreme fatigue.

Western doctors spent eight months trying to figure out what was wrong.

But Santa Monica-based Dr. Mao Shing Ni diagnosed her almost immediately.

He begins every exam with face mapping -- a tradition that goes back 5,000 years. It's a diagnostic system. In face mapping, doctors key in on five separate zones on the face.

"When you have a dysfunction in certain parts of your body, it will show up on your face," the doctor says. "The face will record all the imbalances inside your body."

A blue or green discoloration in the forehead, he says, shows an imbalance in the heart.

A discoloration on the right cheek might point to lung and respiratory as well as possible intestinal problems.

Redness on the left cheek, he says, could indicate problems with the liver or nervous system.

Dr. Mao (that's how he prefers to be addressed) found the key to Bita's complaints by reading the zone just under her nose.

"The chin and area around the mouth corresponds to the hormonal reproductive system," he says.

He saw discoloration and indentation in that zone on Bita. Sure enough, reports Sigell, her health issues turned out to be hormonal, blood tests confirmed.

He treated her with meditation, acupuncture and herbs from his Tao of Wellness.

There is an herb room with more than 1,000 different medicinal herbs. It is there, Sigell reports, where formulas are made for each patient.

By learning about face mapping, the doctor believes more people can take control of their health. He also says by staying on top of changes you see in the mirror, you can stay ahead of sickness.

"In the old days, people paid doctors to keep them healthy and stopped paying them when they got sick," Dr. Mao says.

For more about Tao of Wellness (locations in Santa Monica, Newport Beach, Pasadena) click here.

For more about Chinese medicine and Yo San University, click here.