 So we've discussed in many of my videos here on how to recognize the early warning signs of certain organ dysfunctions. Now in Chinese medicine because we're very concerned with how things relate to each other and not how these disparate or unrelated parts, for example, topain or bloating and headaches, we're not concerned with how they're different but what links them together and I think that is a very unique aspect of Chinese medicine that makes it very very clinically effective in the right hands. Now in this video today I thought I would talk about one of the most common pathologies I see as well as some of these key warning signs so that you could know if your body is moving in that direction. Hey I'm Dr. Alex Hein, author of the health book Master of the Day, licensed acupuncturist and doctor of Chinese medicine. Now before we jump in today I have two very important links right below this video. The first is if you'd like to become a patient of mine locally in Los Angeles or virtually via telemedicine, the contact info for me and my private practice is right below this video. Besides that there's also a free download for you for daily rituals that could potentially help you add years to your life so if you want to get that PDF it's right below this video as well. So let's talk about what's called the Xiaoyang organ network. In Chinese medicine organs are often linked by pairs and based on their shared relationships. Now what we're going to be talking about here in this video of course many of the symptoms of gallbladder issues are really in digestion so one thinks of it as the stomach or intestines but in Chinese medicine we think of the Xiaoyang organ network as being the gallbladder and the sanjiao. And the gallbladder people are familiar with is also gallbladder removal surgeries are very very common at this time in history. The sanjiao the triple warmer is considered an organ that has it describes more a physiological function than it does a physical organ. I mean it's literally called the organ with no form but a function. So the sanjiao is a little bit more difficult to explain so we'll focus on the gallbladder today. So these Xiaoyang organs are often related to what's considered the wood element and many of the digestive organs are considered the earth element. Now common pathologies considered wood overacting on earth and that's what we're talking about here today where the person is experiencing gallbladder issues and signs and symptoms. So let's talk about what those are because they are very common very chronic and very often undiagnosed. So the first thing that I notice with people and I've experienced many times is sour or bitter or odd taste in the mouth. You know a lot of people will feel this when they're about to get a fever or when they are febrile and a lot of people get this at the beginning of COVID as well. So one of my first questions is often are you noticing a weird or sour bitter or metallic taste in your mouth? And for many of us that is the little bit the baby warning sign where we have too many cups of coffee in one week when our digestion needed a break and then we notice like my saliva tastes a little bit sour. That is one warning sign of this Xiaoyang organ network involvement and maybe that is the sign where I need to lay off the coffee a little bit this week or the alcohol the wine or the fried food or maybe just fast a little bit and eat a little bit lighter. The second sign is frequent indigestion or reflux. So indigestion can range from I just feel like food doesn't go down very easily. I feel a lot of burping. I don't feel like my stomach is descending or emptying feels too full all the way to burning sourness indigestion can't fall asleep wake up in the middle of the night with burning and sour and reflux. All of those can be categorized into this kind of indigestion or GERD pattern. One of the most common problems modern people face today and some of the best selling drugs the top five I think is a PPI for treating indigestion and GERD and reflux. This is obviously a big issue in modern society but I would say getting more and more frequent indigestion is another sign as well. A third sign is dizziness and or pressure in the head. Very common for people with this kind of indigestion pattern and gut problems to also manifest with stuffy noses and frontal headaches or brain fog or head pressure. Again, this is the area of digestion and Chinese medicine. One of the reasons for headaches and head pressure here is that there's something going on pathologically in the digestive system. But dizziness is one of those symptoms as well and even though dizziness can have many myriad different causes, I would say most commonly what I see is that people with this pattern who also have digestive problems will often manifest this frontal headache or frontal head pressure. It's very common. I've experienced it. Many people have other people though will experience more of the more stuffy noses and so it's more gut or small intestine related as opposed to strictly gallbladder related. The fourth symptom is pressure and fullness in the chest or ribs. So from our perspective in Chinese medicine, I mean, obviously, logically, anatomically, your gallbladder is tucked under your ribs. And so it's common to feel gallstone or gallbladder pressure, we call it distention, a sensation of sensation of pressure in the ribs or underneath the ribs, sometimes both sides, there can even be a kind of paradoxical gallbladder pain that's on the left side, even though the gallbladder is on the right side. But in general, the ribs side fullness, distention, pressure and pain, especially after eating sometimes for a couple hours, a low grade pressure you feel in your ribs, sometimes on the right side, sometimes it goes down towards the end of the ribs, that you can't quite differentiate. Is this my intestines, am I just bloated? But ribs specifically from our perspective, are often in those those wood organs, that's one of the possible pathologies that can manifest there. And the fifth, maybe a little bit less obvious to people is sleep problems. A lot of the people that I see, and myself having experienced it, a lot of sleep problems are digestive in nature. And so even, you know, our gut instinct is to go towards a sedative treatment. If a person can't sleep, right, just put them to sleep, because that's our cultural thought about what sleep problems come from. But a lot of sleep problems are digestive in nature. In other words, the person is manifesting with these signs and symptoms. I give them a formula for working on the Shayan organ network, the gallbladder off in the stomach, sometimes the spleen pancreas as well. And they sleep amazing. And I didn't give them a sleep formula. I didn't give them a sleep sedative treatment. I gave them a formula to work on the weak link right now, which is digestion. And so anywhere the body is not experiencing proper physiological function, from our perspective, can often produce insomnia. And so that's why jumping to a sedative kind of treatment or sedative formula, a skilled practitioner does not do that. That's why we do our differential diagnosis, our pattern differentiation in Chinese medicine, and GI problems people often find are correlated with anxiety, depression or sleep. So we always want to treat according to the pattern. Now those are five signs of gallbladder or Xiaoyang problems from our perspective. And I thought I would share it purely because of the fact that they are so common. And being able to observe some of these symptoms will help you observe the warning signs of what is building. And so you can recognize that maybe this week, you know, coffee is not usually a problem, but I should maybe just do a couple days this week, or maybe since the holidays, I'm getting a lot of odd sensations in my GI, the sourness, the bitterness. So maybe the next month, I'm going to be really light and really healthy. That's the point for sharing this, just you can observe what may be going on and what may be coming next. You know, there's that saying in our ancient medical texts that the skilled physician treats illness that has not happened yet. And so this is one of the best ways to actually do that. Observe these before they become a problem. Alright, you guys, that's all I have for today. Again, if you'd like to become a patient locally in Los Angeles or virtually via telemedicine, the link below is the info, my private info for my private practice and the address for my clinic. And otherwise, I will catch you guys in these related videos over here.