Dr. Linda Tao is a triple board-certified physician in Cardiovascular Disease, Internal Medicine, and Integrative Medicine, with more than 30 years of experience in academic medicine, cardiovascular care,and personalized integrative health. As an academic cardiologist and Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine at NYU Langone Health, she has dedicated her career to combining rigorous medical science with a systems-based approach to chronic disease prevention, management, and health optimization. With extensive training in Integrative and Functional Medicine, Dr. Tao integrates the best of conventional medicine with nutrition, lifestyle medicine, environmental medicine, and selected evidence-informed complementary therapies. Her approach focuses on understanding the complex interactions among genetics, environment, lifestyle, and physiology to develop individualized strategies that support long-term health and well-being.
Commitment to Advancing Integrative and Functional Medicine
For more than three decades, Dr. Tao has served on the faculty of the NYU Grossman School of Medicine. She pioneered the institution’s first lectures on Integrative and Functional Medicine for medical students, reflecting her longstanding commitment to advancing physician education in this rapidly evolving field. In addition to her clinical and teaching responsibilities, Dr. Tao has contributed to research examining the role of environmental factors in cardiovascular disease. She served as an investigator at the NYU Langone site for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)-sponsored Trial to Assess Chelation Therapy (TACT2), which evaluated the effects of metal chelation in patients with cardiovascular disease. She has also completed extensive postgraduate training in the Metabolic Approach to Cancer, as well as advanced coursework in the evaluation of chronic infections and their potential role in complex chronic illness.
Education, Training, and Areas of Expertise
Dr. Tao earned her medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine. She completed her internship and residency in Internal Medicine, as well as fellowship training in Cardiovascular Diseases, and advanced fellowship training in Interventional Cardiology at NYU Langone Medical Center in New York City. Building upon her extensive cardiovascular training, Dr. Tao is also board certified in Integrative Medicine, and completed an Advanced Fellowship in Metabolic and Nutritional Medicine. These advanced areas of training have expanded her clinical expertise in nutrition, lifestyle medicine, metabolic health, and systems-based approaches to chronic disease management. Her practice integrates state-of-the-art cardiovascular care, chronic disease management and health optimization by incorporating tools including nutrition, lifestyle medicine, environmental medicine, and carefully selected evidence-informed integrative therapies with conventional medicine. She provides
individualized guidance on nutrition, targeted supplementation, and intravenous nutrient therapies when clinically appropriate.
Additional Training and Clinical Interests
Dr. Tao’s clinical interests include the role of cumulative environmental exposures in the development and progression of cardiovascular disease and other chronic illnesses, including myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), cancer, autoimmune disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, and complex chronic infections.
She has completed advanced training in Autonomic Response Testing (ART) and European injection techniques used in biological and integrative medicine. She incorporates these modalities, when clinically appropriate, as part of comprehensive, individualized treatment plans. Dr. Tao is a member of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM), the International Society for Environmentally Acquired Illness (ISEAI), and the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society (ILADS) and the Institute of Functional Medicine (IFM). She remains committed to ongoing professional education in environmental medicine and other emerging areas of integrative and
functional medicine.
Commitment to Patient Care
Dr. Tao believes that exceptional medical care begins with understanding the whole person—not simply treating disease. She partners closely with her patients to identify the underlying contributors to illness and develop personalized strategies to promote resilience, health optimization, and long-term well-being. Her approach combines
rigorous scientific evidence with compassionate, individualized care. Her practice emphasizes comprehensive evaluation, patient education, shared decision-making, and personalized treatment approaches designed to support cardiovascular health, chronic disease management, prevention, and overall wellness.
Fluent in English, Cantonese, Mandarin, and medical Spanish, Dr. Tao has extensive experience caring for culturally diverse patients from around the world. She strives to create a welcoming and collaborative environment in which patients feel heard, informed, and empowered to take an active role in their health.