 Is Chinese medicine scientific? I mean, tiger penis, tortoise shell, dragon bone, and mammoth fossilized bones. How could this stuff possibly be scientific? Now in this video, I want to share a little bit about the underlying philosophy, the medical philosophy of traditional Chinese medicine, why it actually is incredibly scientific, and how it can actually help you understand a little bit about. It's not based on hocus pocus, but instead, these are some of the greatest physicians in the history of humanity. Hey guys, I'm Alex Heine, current doctoral student in traditional or classical Chinese medicine. Now one of the questions that comes up quite a lot is, is Chinese medicine actually scientific? And the answer is unequivocally yes, and here's why. For example, Chinese medicine is actually based on the same tenets on one level that conventional biomedicine is based upon, which is called allopathy. For example, if something is going on in the body, we use the opposite to counter that process. So if the patient has a huge raging fever, we use cooling herbs to bring down the fever, right? You're using cooling for hot, hot and cold, it's yin and yang, they're the opposites. If a patient has anxiety, insomnia, irritability, restlessness, these are symptoms of rising, right? Chinese medicine is based on physics, so think of the direction of movement, not only of your symptoms, but also the herbs. For example, an herb that makes you poop is a purgative, and that is a descending motion. So within ascending condition, we often use descending herbs, or even stones and minerals that help strongly descend and calm the person down, like a natural xanax. If a patient or a person has, for example, acid reflux, nausea, indigestion, again, these are symptoms of ascending, where the stomach wants to naturally go down, this is considered pathological. As a result, we give herbs like banxia, which is panellia, which is a strong flamm amuchus and helps descend type herb. The second thing is that Chinese medicine is based on observable phenomena, even if we cannot always measure it externally. So what does that mean? An observable phenomena would be bleeding gums, or a patient having diarrhea. A observable phenomenon that's also subjective in the person or the patient would be, for example, a feeling of anxiety, tightness in the chest, shortness of breath, or even a sensation of heat in the chest. As far as I know, there is no machine in biomedicine or in Chinese medicine that can measure a patient's subjective sensation of heat only in their chest, unless we use thermography. So Chinese medicine will treat not only the objective, for example, the patient's diarrhea, or the raging fever, but also the subjective, where a patient says, I have this stuffy feeling in my chest. And if you go to a conventional doctor, a conventional physician, they'll probably say it's stress or they'll refer you to a shrink. It's not very helpful sometimes. Now the third thing is that Chinese medicine has predictable, repeatable methods of observation, diagnosis, and treatment. Now the origin of science is pattern recognition. This happens, then that happens, and that happens. If this happens, then that happens. If there is winter, there will always be spring in a temperate climate. Without fail, that never does not happen. Now in Chinese medicine, in medicine in general, the best bed of the physician is to try to figure out, okay, 90% of the time when this happens, does that happen? And if so, what do I give the patient to make it go away? Now all medicine is imperfect. There is no 100% of the time this will work and get that done. That's very rare of a guarantee in medicine. But just like in biomedicine, which is conventional medicine, Chinese medicine has certain ways of observing and predicting what's going on with the body and how to treat it. For example, in palpating the abdomen of a patient, if this bulbarygmus is gurgling, this bubbling sounds, and the feeling of this gas, there's alternating diarrhea, constipation, a certain pulse quality. And the patient also reports other symptoms. We know that with a certain percentage of certainty, that indicates these four, five, or 10 formulas, which we then use a differential diagnosis to figure out what is most appropriate with what's going on with the patient's symptoms, as well as what that means for the formula. And again, these aren't like, whoa, whoa, I'm feeling the patient's chi and energy. They are, you palpate the abdomen and the patient goes, ouch, or you palpate and you hear gurgling, you hear the gurgling going on. These are objectively verifiable. And then the last thing here that allows Chinese medicine to be understood as a science, but it's often misunderstood, is that Chinese medicine is based on concepts. And this is where people get into trouble, because they either don't understand that these are just concepts, or the practitioners themselves may not even understand this. For example, this idea of kidney-yung deficiency. There is no such thing as kidney-yung, or kidney-in, or kidney-deficiency, really. These are just concepts to understand what's going on in the body. So it's very important that kidney-yung deficiency may show symptoms such as, there's cold in the body, there's cold like extremities, the person has spermatorrhea or erectile dysfunction, there may be low back pain, there may be no energy, no libido, it may be a middle-aged man that's showing this kind of presentation. Now kidney-yung deficiency, it's not a real thing, it's just a way to describe a cluster of processes going on in this person's body. And we have formulas that address this cluster of symptoms and pathology, and the direction of what the body's working on. And can help counteract this process that's going on in the body. And consistently, given this formula, the patients will improve and see a resolution of the symptoms in a few weeks very often. So that's a little bit about how Chinese medicine really is based on science. Now, there are other aspects that are harder to verify. For example, even the subjective sensations of the patient, stuffiness in the chest, rib feelings, indigestion, but Chinese medicine is based on what all medicine is based on, which is pattern recognition, there are symptoms, and there are repeated, predictable ways to treat those symptoms after diagnosing them for a resolution. So that's a little bit about the two cents here about is Chinese medicine based on science? I hope you'll see yes. And it's a fusion of both the objective and the subjective, which in my opinion is what makes it so powerful because in conventional medicine often is hard to diagnose things unless there's something structural that can be observed, either with digital imaging or by the physician themselves. Subjective sensations are a lot harder to treat. And Chinese medicine really comes in strong there. So I hope that helps. The best way to stay in touch is to come to my site. Go to alexhine.com forward slash free, which is a guide on five daily rituals to help you add 10 years to your life with traditional or classical Chinese medicine. It's also in the description there below.