 Now, in our modern scientific culture, there tends to be an emphasis on the virus or the germ or the infecting agent. And people seem to be very scared about the thing that is coming from the outside and affecting us as if we have nothing we can do and we're these harmless little creatures. Now in this video, I want to specifically talk about the seasonal flu because as we go into the flu season, as there are other viral infections also going around, I want to share what I think and what I observe from a Chinese medicine perspective is the reason why we often get these. Hey guys, Dr. Alex Hine, Doctor of Chinese Medicine and licensed acupuncturist. Now before we jump into this video, there are two important links right below it. The first is if you'd like to become a patient of mine locally in Los Angeles or virtually via telemedicine, the contact info from my private practice and clinic is right below this video. And the second is a free download for my weekly video newsletter and a free guide for daily rituals that can help you add years to your life with Chinese medicine. So those are right below the video. So let's talk about this idea of young damage because it's something that sounds very pseudo scientific but is very clinically accurate and is really more of a clinical observation that's important to know and is the main factor that determines whether or not you get sick from infectious virus. So the first year actually or the only year I've ever gotten the flu. I'd been visiting my family and it was my third year of my doctorate in school. Now I was very run down. I hadn't been sleeping well almost all year. I went home to my family. I was looking forward to having some peace and silence and some rest and some friends invited me out for New Year's Eve in New York City. So living in Portland at the time where it doesn't really get below 50 very often, I just always had a mid-weather coat, which was basically a thick leather jacket with a little bit of a furry warmer inside, a little bit of a fleece inside. So I would just wear this moderate weather coat, a mid-weather coat for let's say 40s to 50s and then maybe a sweater underneath it. So my friend invited me out to New York City and we were in Brooklyn. We were walking around and the East Coast was having a nor'easter at that time and was having a little bit of this cold spell. Now that night in particular it was 15 degrees with a wind chill of strong, strong, strong winds bringing it below zero. Now I figured whatever, we're going to be ubering around or driving around New York City, no problem. But as it turns out my friend had intended on us walking everywhere in the city at zero degrees at night in winter. I wasn't dressed warmly enough, but as we walked around, you know, at the beginning I felt really cold and then as the night went on we were walking around a lot and there was a lot of sitting around because some people were smoking cigarettes outside and we were waiting in lines outside and I noticed all night I was shivering. I was shivering for over an hour in the cold because I wasn't dressed warmly enough. Now I didn't think anything of it. And about three days later when I got on the plane back to Portland I noticed that I was feeling a little weird. I was starting to get a headache, I was starting to feel a little bit warm and then alternating with chills and then by the middle of my flight about halfway through I could not tell if I was about to throw up on myself or poop on myself, probably both. And that's when I realized that I'd probably caught the flu. Now the point of my story is just to understand that just like rooms may be filled with influenza virus or the cold virus or hundreds of viruses and humans are often carriers of viruses that just because you're exposed to a virus doesn't mean you get the virus. And just because most people you know may have the virus doesn't mean you may get the virus when we talk about influenza virus in a non-pandemic or a non-epidemic. So what leads to you getting it and getting sick? That's a very important question. When we talk about our ancient medical texts in Chinese medicine what a very important quote is is that people who are deficient will get sick when basically when there's an infectious disease going around or there's a virus going around. So the virus by itself is only one half of the equation and just like I'd been exposed to the flu where I had friends get the flu or a family get the flu I'd never gotten the flu in my life until I had let myself get to run down to the point where I was now susceptible. And I hear this story of many, many iterations. I hear it with COVID, I hear it with many other infections where oh you know it was New Year's Eve and I stayed up all night and I was drinking boom came down with whatever. Or I was the only one that didn't get it and then boom I was up too late three nights in a row for work and I only slept five hours a night then I got sick. So there is what comes from the outside and then there is the terrain and the terrain is almost entirely ignored by conventional medicine. Why? I don't fundamentally know. I just think conventional medicine is not really oriented around health it's oriented around pathology. And so if conventional medicine researched medicines that could be used to boost your immune system for example to be taken over a long time maybe you would recommend that but I think it just recommends Tamaflu basically. So there's always what comes from the outside and then the susceptibility that makes you sick. One of our ancient texts, the Shang Han Lun is about basically herbal formulas at a base level. And in this text this practitioner this famous physician talks about how 70 of his extended clan his extended family and his area there had died of this what he calls cold damage but is usually a febrile event from a viral infection. And so he dedicated his life to trying to figure out how to treat these. Now one of the things he talks about one of the things that is the fundamental core of this text is that if you let your Yang get too weak it leads to an increased chance of getting cold damage i.e. this viral infection or getting sick. So from our perspective you could think of it as immunity, right? If you let yourself get run down you have low immunity and you get sick. Low immunity can come from poor diet from not enough sleep from acute alcohol consumption, right? Very common scenario I see is patients getting sick because they were staying up late till three, four, five in the morning and drinking alcohol. That's a great combo to get an upper respiratory infection. This idea though of protecting your Yang I have videos of this all over the channel here but it's so important because it is the foundation of what we do in Chinese medicine. We make it so that the body's resources are strong enough that if there's exposure that's not a cause for concern. The only cause for concern is that the terrain is weak and that the Yang is weak because then you are much more susceptible to catching something that goes around. So I think the most base level is you could view Yang as immunity. And this goes back to that idea when it's flu season why don't most people get it, right? Why do some people get it? Other people don't. And most people are even in the same family some people get it, some people don't. Same thing with COVID and many other illnesses. Some people get it, some people don't. It's not just the infection that is the factor that determines the outcome, right? A very serious pathogen will of course lead to a very likely very serious disease there's no doubt about that in the majority of people. But just like most people carry strep in their throat people even make out one person gets strep throat the other person doesn't. They both have their tongues on each other's throats. So if that's not the greatest evidence for the terrain being one of the essential factors in getting sick then I don't know what is. So just remembering that as we go into flu season and as we go into these other there's a lot else circulating not just the flu there's still cold viruses and coronavirus and just remember this idea of keeping your young strong keeping your resources strong your immune system strong and to pay close attention to your sleep and diet and exercise patterns. And if you notice yourself getting run down take extra precautions to make sure that you take it easy. Number one rule, protect the young and then most of the time there's a lot less to worry about. All right guys, that is what I have for you today make sure you check out the related video on protecting your young it's a whole video on that topic, super important. Again, before you go down below you can reach out to me if you wanna become a patient of mine locally in LA and there are two related videos for you that can help you right here.