 In the pre-modern times, both in the West and in the East, this idea of constitution was a really important clinical concept. Because especially in the case of treating chronic illness, it's very important to know all of the factors involved. The person's life, the way they live, the relationship with their family, the food they eat, how they view the meaning or lack of meaning in their lives. But specifically, that's the context for their illness. But the constitution specifically is a concept that has fallen out of favor, but is very, very, very important clinically. And I want to share in this video what it is and why that is the case. Hey, I'm Dr. Alex Hain, author of the health book, Master of the Day. So I'm a Chinese medicine doctor and acupuncturist. Now, before you go any further, there are two links right below this video that are very helpful. The first is if you want to become a patient of mine, the link below is for how to find information on my clinic. The second is for a free guide, which is four daily rituals that can help you add years to your life with traditional Chinese medicine. So those are both right below this video. So what is constitution and what is constitutional medicine? You know, simply put, your constitution, this kind of term that's out of favor these days, is really all the set of genetic inborn factors from your parents that predispose you to certain things. So even in psychology, there's a known predisposition towards certain personality types, towards, for example, agreeableness or neuroticism. Some part of that is nature and some part of that is nurture. But in the context of this video and the context of medicine and healing, what I mean is the certain genetic predispositions we all have towards illness, whether that is anxiety and depression, whether that's digestive, whether that's asthma, or that is something else altogether. These are very, very important to know clinically. And if you are the person who's the patient, this can really help you. You know, your genetic makeup also shows, for example, what your nose ends up coming out like, what your eye color is or your hair color or your hair style, or even your body type runs in families. So all of these are really strong predispositions towards something. And it's an undeniable fact and observation that some kids really are born more sickly and others are born more robust. They have a stronger resistance to disease. They don't get the little stomach aches before school. They just don't seem to be that sickly. So this idea of constitution is very important. Now, I want to give three examples of constitutional illness patterns. Tendencies is maybe a better word. And I want to preface this by saying that none of these are destiny or fate. Just because your mother had horrible digestive problems or horrible anxiety and depression she was medicated for your entire life does not mean that has to be you. There's a whole bunch of research on the field of epigenetics where you could debate this all day long before you believe that your genetics are somehow your genetic fate, your true fate. But it's important to understand these family patterns and constitutional patterns reflecting back through your life and through your childhood so that you can know to offset them. I've shared in another video this kind of idea of course correcting. When you notice whatever the chink is in your armor, whether it's digestion or insomnia or anxiety you notice that wobble. You catch it right away before it becomes something big. For example, one constitutional pattern you see clinically is kids that are more prone to being an anxious personality type versus a more let's just say melancholic or a little bit more somnolent good sleepers. Maybe they sleep too long, a little bit lower energy. Maybe even if there's a stressful event they can sleep right through it. And on the other side, the person if there's a stressful event or some life emotional stress they can't sleep or they wake up too early or they have light fragmented sleep. This pattern of more anxious, more depressed, I tend to see that clinically fairly often but they don't become and they don't have to become clinical anxiety or clinical depression until the life is very very abused and out of balance. Then it can become a truly pathological expression of that. Another one that's a constitutional pattern is a predisposition towards digestive illness. You tend to see people with GI problems come in clinically who often FYI also have anxiety and depressions very common or sleep problems but in this case, if you don't inquire about their family history, they may not volunteer it but then if you ask them they'll say, you know, yeah my grandma and my mom they always had a sensitive stomach always had like a gurgling stomach or complained of stomach aches or they were taking Pepto-Bismol so you start to see this lineage that it runs through. Now the third one is this kind of immune trifecta of allergies, asthma and eczema so the skin conditions as well. You tend to see people that have eczema running in the family or psoriasis running in the family or skipping generations. Unfortunately my family is one of those where asthma, allergies and eczema all run in the family so three out of four of my siblings all have asthma, mine being the worst it's never gone away even to adulthood and most have some degree of gut sensitivity and about half of them have skin problems specifically eczema so you tend to see these running in families and the reason I bring all of this up is because if you understand your constitutional weaknesses if I can use that word then you can understand how to live in a way that prevents those from becoming true illnesses so let's talk about kind of managing illness or managing this constitutional pattern before it becomes something big let's say you are someone who runs colder you're prone to a little bit of indigestion or low appetite you're a bit more high strung than your other family members and you have some asthma so let's say because let's just say GI is your real weak point it's always been since you were young if you understand this is the constitutional pattern to have a healthy pain-free life means to be wise about managing your diet more than the average person and that may suck, that may sound unfair, that may be unreasonable it may be awful that your other siblings have no problem and they have a horrendous diet it doesn't matter this is the chink in your armor and so accommodating for that means maybe being a little bit more aware of that's just my weakness and so I'm going to have to be more careful than the average person and that's just how it is or maybe it is okay I have asthma, lifelong asthma, it's never gone away well I could accept that as my feat or to accommodate for that I go to the gym and I lift weights and exercise four or five days a week and I've done that for 15 years since my late teens as a result I don't ever have to use an inhaler even if I'm exposed to something an asthma attack is not nearly as strong because I do an hour workout four or five days a week and I do 30 minutes of intense breath exercises with Qigong every single day so my respiratory capacity and my cardiovascular health is pretty decent you know maybe if you have asthma living in a big city or living in Beijing, China or Los Angeles is maybe not a good bet for your longevity so these are what I mean taking into account these kind of constitutional predispositions it means you take a proactive look at that part that for you is the weakness if it is GI then you have to be extra careful if it's sleep you have to be extra careful about the way you live to not get insomnia if it's anxiety maybe drinking coffee every day it's just not going to be a good thing for you in your life maybe it has to be every other or every third day these kind of things are really really important to prevent that tilt from tilting past a certain degree where it becomes illness so again constitution underrated very very important concept I hope that helps again if you'd like to become a patient of mine there's info below on my clinic as well as booking a telemedicine appointment with me and before you go I have two related videos on this topic here