Yifan Yang studied traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine in Beijing Universities of Traditional Chinese Medicine from 1977 to 1982. After graduation, she worked there as a doctor and a teacher in the Chinese Herbal Formula Department. completed her Master’s degree study in Chinese herbal medicine and formulas. In 1990, she moves to the Netherlands and she works as a practitioner and teacher in the same field for more than 30 years. She gives lectures and hold seminars in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Poland. In 2013, She passed her defense of her thesis Depression and the Five internal organs and received the highest clinical expertise title of TCM in China, translated as senior specialist of TCM/Prof. of TCM treatment. She is the author of Chinese Herbal Medicine -- Comparisons and Characteristics and Chinese Herbal Formulas – Treatment principles and Composition Strategies. She contributed sections for the book The Treatment of Pain with Chinese Herbs and Acupuncture. She also contributed her chapter for the book Acupuncture Schizophrenia, Sleep, Acupuncture. In 2020, she published her new book The Aftercare of COVID-19 Infection -- Herbs, Acupuncture, Nutrition, Massage, Exercise to help long COVID patients.

Traditional Chinese herbal medicine has a long history, which dates back to the beginning of Chinese civilization 5,000 years ago. It is the result of man’s effort to utilize nature for survival and is developed on the basis of long-term observation, study and practice under the guidance of ancient philosophy. However, as the interaction between man and nature changes with time, some ingredients in traditional Chinese Medicine have become unavailable or are now protected or banned under certain legislation. Traditional herbal medicine must accommodate such changes. Alongside the use of cultivated herbs and synthetic ingredients in clinical practice, one can also use other herbs as substitutes for these species which are now unavailable, protected or banned. However, one must always bear in mind that, due to the specific functions and characteristics of each substance, the therapeutic result achieved by the substitute substance will never completely match that of the original one.