 There are two really important questions in medicine. When somebody gets sick, the first is, why did they get sick? What's the etiology? What caused it? But the second, especially in the case of chronic illness, which is mostly what I treat, is why do people stay sick? And I want to focus on that second question here today. Hey guys, I'm Dr. Alex Hine, author of the health book Master of the Day and doctor of acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine. So before we jump into this video, there are two very important links I've put together right below the video. The first is for a free guide, which is four daily rituals that can potentially help you add years to life with traditional Chinese medicine. And the second is if you'd like to become a patient of mine locally in Los Angeles or virtually via telemedicine, you can reach out to my private practice and clinic right below this video. So the first and most obvious reason why you are still sick, and I say this as someone who's dealt with a lot of chronic illness in his life, probably 10 years of being chronically ill, maybe a third or a quarter of my entire life. So I say this as someone who has himself asked himself this question too many times and truly an uncomfortable amount of times. The first and most obvious answer is that you're doing the same things that maybe made you sick in the first place. You know it would be a lot like a diabetic who is visualizing and meditating and doing the law of attraction hoping that it will change their A1C, right? And it won't. They need to change what they eat and their physical exercise. It may be also what I see. Some people, they just take their meds from their doctor, they take their medications and they just go on living how they always lived. The thing that caused the symptoms, that caused the disease, now because the canary has been strangled by the medication, right? The canary that used to be chirp, chirp, chirp, chirping, letting them know about the pain or the acid reflux or the depression or the anxiety. Now it went from a 10 to a 3. They still have it, but they can live. And they just go on living the way they always did and they ignore my advice where your life has to be your medicine. So the most obvious answer is you're still sick because you're still doing the same exact things and living the same exact life that made you sick. That's usually the most obvious answer. Now the second thing is that you may not be giving enough time to your habits and to your rituals. You know, purely from a cosmetic point of view, I see people, you know, historically I was a personal trainer and I had a lot of clients that were really frustrated by trying to lose those last 10 pounds. Now I have a whole chapter in here talking about the power of changing tiny little habits on a daily basis. And I share the story of one of my clients at the time who was frustrated that she worked out religiously and ate religiously every single day and in 30 days had lost zero pounds. And I share the story of how that same person continued those same rituals, those same habits, but over the next year lost those last 12 pounds. The problem was it was so slow that she was losing a pound or less per month and that can fluctuate based on a big meal, a lack of a bowel movement, sweating heavily. But over a year, those same habits that were working produced healing and produced the physical changes she wanted. You know, it's a lot like someone taking an antidepressant and being like in three days, I'm not undepressed or I'm not no longer anxious. When in reality, physicians that prescribe them will say, you know, it's often four to eight weeks to take maximal effect. But if you don't know that, you take it for a few weeks, you're like, yeah, it's not doing anything. So that's an obvious one, the time. Also, let's say people do a they remove food sensitivities. And they say, I'm going to remove, you know, gluten for two weeks. But it turns out that the half life of the IGA gluten antibodies is about two months. So really, you need to be removing gluten for months to years for some people four months, five months, six months. And even then other aspects of gut healing can take even longer, even after you've removed that. I mean, there are some studies on how a person can remove gluten. But then the mucus membranes take even longer to heal, or they don't even seem to heal on the same way or at the same rate. So first of all, time. And the second is that's assuming that what you're doing is actually even working in the first place to produce healing. Now, the third box, which is sort of uncomfortable is that you may be taking medications that actually prevent healing. I found that when I have patients that have common and very treatable conditions that I'm able to reverse on a daily basis, like let's say acid reflux, or let's say mild to moderate clinical anxiety or clinical depression. And I find that when they are very stubborn case, the less than a one in 100 less than 1%, the main barrier to healing is often the exact medication they're on. And it is the thing that helps them in the short run, but prevents them from actually becoming permanently free, which is something that is usually doable. And for many people, it may be the medication itself that prevents them from being free. They go through a stressful phase of life, where they're having heart palpitations and they're put on a beta blocker from the age of 30 until the day they die. When in reality, they could have been free. After a year, if they manage the stress that situation resolved, the divorce is over, they got a new job. And now they're not having palpitations, they didn't need that medication, and they don't need to worry about what potential side effects it may have in 20 or 30 years. So I find that honestly, one of the third leading causes of illnesses staying chronic if you are really taking action is taking medication. Sometimes is a barrier to healing. It's my honest to God advice, my honest to God observation clinically. So three common reasons if you're very frustrated because you've been chronically sick, and you feel like you're doing quite a lot to heal, and things are not moving at the rate or in the way they should. These are the three things that I've seen very common clinically. So I hope that helps you guys. Again, don't forget two very important links and the free guide right below this video. And I will see you soon.