 You might be someone like me who suffered with a lot of health problems and you've seen all the specialists or all the established experts in the field. And you might have come away one day thinking, is this really all there is? You have a nagging feeling that there must be something else, but for whatever reason you don't trust it. Well, in this video, this is your sign that maybe you should trust that feeling. Hey guys, I'm Dr. Alex Hine, doctor of acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine and author of the health book Master of the Day. Now before we jump in, I've put together two important downloads and two important links right below the video. The first is for a free guide, which is for daily rituals that can potentially help you ideas to your life with traditional Chinese medicine. You'll also get my weekly video newsletter that way. And the second is if you'd like to become a patient of mine locally in Los Angeles or virtually via telemedicine, just click the link below and it'll give you information on my clinic and how to get in touch. Some people trust authority and other people trust the truth. This was one of my conclusions after I had gone through really all of the modern medical referral system. So if you've seen some of my videos on my own lifelong gut problems, I initially went to a nutritionist and I was surprised by the referral. I mean, I'd always eaten healthy. My family had always eaten Mediterranean. My mom or dad had cooked basically every single night. We were hardly the standard American family. So the referral to the nutritionist and the dietitian, I didn't really think that I was going to learn that much. So I worked with the dietitian for a few months. She gave me her advice in her two cents. It didn't help. And then she escalated it. Again, I was referred from a general practitioner to the dietitian. Dietitian sent me to the GI specialist. And the GI specialist after palpating my abdomen for literally two minutes said, it sounds like IBS. And then wanted to give me a colonoscopy and prescribe a potential medication that I'm learning later was an antidepressant for my gut issues. Now, there's nothing wrong with getting a colonoscopy or getting even taking antidepressants for gut issues. I mean, they do have clinical uses. I mean, a lot of the serotonin is produced in the gut. But the point was that this whole time, there was a little canary in my head thinking that this doesn't add up. Something just doesn't make sense. Well, they may be the experts, which I am now highly skeptical of. And you probably are, too, if you've been through the American medical system as a patient. But I had the little canary chirping in my ear that something doesn't add up and there's got to be another way. But because I was a young kid, I was in my early 20s, and I didn't have the self-confidence or the knowledge that I have now, I trusted those experts and their expertise. But thankfully, before I decided to continue any further, I decided I was going to try a few other things, one of them that eventually worked, which was Chinese medicine, especially Chinese herbs. I think one thing that I see in my patients who are the most chronically ill is that you have to become your own best advocate in healing. Of course, the physician or the expert or whoever you're seeing, the researcher, the book author, they're there to help you. I mean, theoretically, I think most of them are good people, just like I think most physicians are good people and they want to help their patients. They're trying to help you with the medication or the surgery or whatever it is. And they don't know all the alternatives. They don't know all the options on the table. They don't know every possible thing that can help you. I mean, the number of patients that I've had in my practice just in a few years who didn't need surgeries that then got them because their physician or their specialist, according to their training, thought that that was the best way. And then they got the surgery and it changed nothing. I've seen a lot of those cases. Many dozens and dozens. And that person prescribing that thinks they're doing the right thing for the patient. They think they're doing the best thing, even if sometimes they're not. And it's in those moments where you have to trust your own gut. If it says, ah, I just don't... Something just doesn't feel right about this, trust that feeling and go find another specialist or expert or a credible alternative. Because very often it's the person that puts their faith in the medicine guide, the physician guide, and doesn't trust their own instincts, especially when it comes to chronic illness, especially when it comes to something where you should be getting a second or third opinion. So I think very often when I'm doing the coaching aspect of working with patients, very often what I'm trying to suggest is that you eventually have to become your own best advocate. And that means you have to trust your gut feelings about should I do this, should I not do this? Of course there's evidence, but there's also the inner evidence that something feels right, something feels wrong, and I don't know what it is. Trusting that feeling. So I see a lot of bad medicine on both sides of the picture. This isn't to slam physicians. I see a lot of terrible alternative, integrative, whatever you want to call it medicine, which is very new agey, it's very crunchy, it for sure doesn't work, or maybe one in 100 patients are benefited, or maybe it's just no different from getting a massage, or from having a friend sitting there and listening to your problem for an hour, or seeing a therapist. And there's a lot of bad medicine on the conventional medical side. People are over-prescribed antidepressants every day, they're not even followed up on for years. Or people are recommended surgeries for mysterious pains while we removed your gallbladder but the pain is still there, my bad. Or all these kinds of gynecological procedures or surgeries for fibroids or cysts that are maybe not that urgent. I see a lot of bad medicine on both sides. And what I want to say is trust that feeling. Trust that gut feeling. Of course, trust the expert. If they literally see thousands of people with that condition, they know a lot and they know more than you. But trust the gut feeling also as you're going down this healing path. So this is that little sign. If you're looking for a sign that your expert may not have all the answers and it's time to see somebody else, this video is your sign. You guys, I see it all the time and I agree with it all the time. So if that little canary, that little voice is saying something, trust it. Alright guys, don't forget to put together two important links right below the video to download the free guide which is four daily rituals that can potentially help you add years to your life with Chinese medicine. And the second is if you'd like to learn more about me and my practice in Los Angeles and becoming a potential patient, the link right below is for my clinic and how to reach out and how to get in touch.