Frequently Asked Questions About Sherman Lai

Sherman Lai is a retired Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner and licensed acupuncturist who practised in Guelph, Ontario, from 1986 to 2023. He is also a 27th-generation Ninjutsu grandmaster who founded the University of Guelph's Ninjutsu program in 1983. He served on the Ontario Ministry of Health's advisory committee for regulating TCM and acupuncture in 2003–2004. Read a fuller account in Who Is Sherman Lai?

Sherman Lai practised Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupuncture, combining Chinese medicine with Western science, nutritional science, and lifestyle coaching. He was the founder and director of the Oriental Healing Arts Research Institute and the director of the Centre of Integrative Natural Medicine in Guelph. See What Is Traditional Chinese Medicine? for an overview of the underlying framework.

No. Sherman Lai retired from clinical practice in 2023, and the Centre of Integrative Natural Medicine is no longer operating. He remains active as an educator and occasional speaker for medical institutes internationally.

Sherman Lai comes from a family lineage of Ninjutsu masters spanning 27 generations. He founded and taught the University of Guelph's Ninjutsu program from 1983 to 2006 and holds an honorary 10th-degree black belt. He was known for public demonstrations aimed at correcting Hollywood's violent portrayal of ninjas, teaching the art instead as a discipline centred on restraint and self-control. The full story is in From Ninjutsu to Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Sherman Lai is a Traditional Chinese Medicine practitioner and licensed acupuncturist. He served on the Ontario Ministry of Health's advisory committee for TCM and acupuncture regulation (2003–2004), held executive board positions with the Canadian Society of Chinese Medicine and Acupuncture and the World Association of Chinese Medicine, and sits on the medical advisory board of St. Mary's Hospital in Tai-Tung, Taiwan. Ontario TCM practitioners are regulated by the College of Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners and Acupuncturists of Ontario.

Sherman Lai practised in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, from 1986 to 2023, at the Centre of Integrative Natural Medicine. See Traditional Chinese Medicine in Guelph: A Local History for more on the city's connection to TCM.

The Centre of Integrative Natural Medicine was Sherman Lai's clinic in Guelph, Ontario, where he practised from 1988 until his retirement in 2023. Over its history it treated more than 20,000 patients from across Canada and internationally. It is no longer operating.

Yes. In 2003, Sherman Lai was appointed by the Ontario Minister of Health to the advisory committee that helped establish the province's regulatory framework for TCM and acupuncture, work that contributed to Ontario becoming one of the first provinces in Canada to formally regulate the professions under the College of Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners and Acupuncturists of Ontario. Read more in Why Ontario Regulated Traditional Chinese Medicine.

Sherman Lai was a member of Rotary International from 1992 to 2006 and chaired the Rotary Club of Guelph's Health Committee. In 1998 he volunteered in Taiwan providing care to Indigenous communities living in poverty, and since 2006 has served on the medical advisory board of St. Mary's Hospital in Tai-Tung, one of the most remote hospitals in Taiwan.

Sherman Lai authored and presented a series of clinical observation reports and literature reviews at TCM and acupuncture conferences in Canada and the United States between 1995 and 2005, including meetings co-sponsored by the World Health Organization. These are case-series and clinical-observation reports rather than independent, peer-reviewed, placebo-controlled trials; a full list is available on the Research & Practice page.