BAY AREA GROUP GOES HERB HUNTING : EXPERT LEADS REMEDY SEARCH.

Byline: Zachary Coile San Francisco Examiner 

On Chinatown's busy streets, the casually dressed folks looked like an ordinary tour group scavenging the markets for souvenirs.

Wrong.

All in the group were Bay Area residents, guided by one of the nation's leading experts on natural Chinese remedies. They were hunting herbs.

Letha Hadady shepherded the group through grocery stores. A petite, soft-spoken woman with long pale hair, she looked incongruous but appeared comfortable, pointing out medicinal herbs that she claims can help heal just about every ailment from acne to certain forms of cancer.

She specializes in introducing people to the closed world of Chinese medicine. In Chinatown on Saturday, she let her nose lead her around. The group popped into small grocery stores and produce markets along Stockton and Grant.

``Here is one of China's oldest medicines,'' she said, holding up a foot-long, carrot-shaped Dakon radish. ``If you're asthmatic, use a little bit of this. It will also help clear up your sinuses.''

Chinatown bustled in overdrive Saturday with preparations for celebrations.

The Vietnamese New Year celebration started Sunday.

Chinese New Year celebrations - it is the Year of the Ox - will kick off Feb. 21. The Chinese New Year Flower Market Fair already began.

Hadady is a trained herbalist and acupuncture specialist from New York. She wrote a best-selling book on herbs, ``Asian Health Secrets: The Complete Guide to Asian Herbal Medicine.''

She said her goal is to lead a ``quiet, ladylike revolution'' bringing herbal remedies from the Far East and other spots around the world into everyday use in American homes.

``My point is that we can speed healing with Chinese medicine,'' she said. ``If we don't, we are ignoring one of the treasures of the world.''

Those on her tour agreed that it is a legitimate science. ``As people get more and more frustrated with the side effects from synthetic drugs, they are starting to look at other ways to heal,'' said Donna Gorecki, who does custom interior work on cars.

Hadady said health care providers increasingly incorporate acupuncture and homeopathic remedies into their plans. The $20 billion Americans spend on ``unconventional therapies'' is testament to the growing acceptance of non-Western medicine here, she said.

So Hadady is in the right place at the right time.

Born in Indiana, she was 5 when she moved to Albuquerque, N.M., where her father worked on weapons projects at the Sandia Laboratory.

When her father turned 40, he developed periodic fevers and cold sweats, the first signs of multiple sclerosis. Conventional treatments failed to stall the illness. On the day the Saturn rocket lifted off toward the moon - a project he helped to launch - he shot himself.

``This was a crushing blow,'' she said. ``I realized that there had to be some other way to heal.''

She began studying acupuncture and ancient healing techniques still being used in Asia. And what began as a basic acupuncture practice grew into a consulting business.

Her major clients these days are businesses, seeking ways to keep employees happier and healthier. She will soon launch a regimen for employees at two large New York companies, a recording studio and a public relations firm.