 I heard from a patient once was after they were given their herbs which usually come in a powdered it's called a granule it's like a powdered mixture she said that she was given a bag of dirt from her doctor and it didn't do anything so I want to share a little bit about my own experience being a patient and taking Chinese medicine because that was my first ever exposure to taking like raw or granule herbs that are powdered you mix them into water and some of the things that I've noticed that surprised me like how long did it take to work what conditions did it help fix were their side effects all these questions that I think you may have that I wish I knew before hey guys I'm Alex I'm current doctoral student in traditional or classical Chinese medicine and author of the book master the day now the first thing that I was really wondering because I was a patient I had symptoms I wanted to go away was how long does this work and it seems like you know this is idea that things that happen slowly have to go away slowly but I don't actually believe that's true anymore sometimes that may be true but for example you know I worked for this acupuncturist once and we had a woman who came in and she had 20 years of chronic pain chronic back pain joint pain knee pain all over the place and this is one of those weird anomalous cases where after one acupuncture treatment her pain was 90% gone I mean she thought there were drugs on his needles and that was a like a question we joked about a lot where he would have patients ask are there drugs on these needles and so that to me made me think non-linearly about what it takes to heal a person and I find this to be especially true in acupuncture but with herbs I've had results that are both quick and results that take a little bit more time so for me one of the things and one of the conditions that I was taking herbs or formulas for was digestive problems and the very first time that I took an herbal formula the first 30 days that I took it and really in the first week I noticed the effect but the first 30 days I had the most regular bowel movements of 29 years of life and I had been eating right I cooked well like I took care of my health I wasn't eating the standard American diet smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee I took great care of my health but the very first month I had the most normal bowel function of my whole life and that was pretty amazing to me to see at the same time I had around the age 30 I basically burned myself out I was overworking running my business and my first year of medical school and I was having severe, severe insomnia where I could only sleep after 3 a.m. and I was sleeping like three to five hours a day I was having heart palpitations every day I was having indigestion every meal and I was kind of freaking out because I'd never had that many symptoms ever even close in my life and they all happened at once so I saw this one Chinese doctor who's a professor of the former dean of my school and within two days of taking your herbs my sleep was like like a log I just like crashed and I slept normally every night for about three weeks then the next time as I started to see him again it got a little wonky we changed the formula and sure enough went right back to normal I didn't have a heart palpitation once after taking his formula from daily to after about a week I didn't have one once so that to me was pretty astounding I'd never seen anything like that I didn't think herbs could do that and so to me the timeline is it really is a question mark it really depends some patients have more chronic illnesses like with my digestive problems it's something that generally takes weeks to months to years to go back to totally normal and so it's important to have the right expectation to speak with your acupuncturist or your Chinese medicine doctor whoever the practitioner is to set those expectations for how long should I try this before we try something else so what kind of things what kind of conditions can Chinese herbal formulas actually fix I mean it's kind of a trick question what can Chinese medicine or acupuncture work for and it's a question I get a lot and the reality is everything because in Chinese medicine we treat the body based on the whole system and so any isolated symptom is never isolated it's not like when you go to a physician and you're like oh I've digested problems and back pain and I can't breathe very well and I have shortness of breath in Chinese medicine they're probably all related and so what can it fix what some of the most very very most common conditions anxiety depression skin conditions digestive conditions insomnia dysmenorrhea or any issues with your medsies these are all very very very common in the top 10 of the specialties that Chinese medicine treats well for good results so I hope that helps a little bit typically most practitioners these days either actually don't give herbal formulas which to me is shocking or you'll get it in capsules which are the granules but in the capsules you don't taste them or typically you'll get them as a powder and you mix in a certain dosage usually 10 to 15 grams per day you mix it in warm water and then you drink it either before or after a meal so it really depends on the practitioner or who you're seeing for me most of my best results have been from the herbal formulas but I hope that helps set some expectations about what it can treat how long it takes and so on now before you go I want you to leave a comment there below let me know for you do you have any experience taking Chinese herbal formulas did it suck did it taste awful what was your experience come there below and again the best way to stay in touch is to grab my free guide on how to add 10 years to your life with traditional or classical Chinese medicine so if you want to learn about herbalism you want to learn about longevity and self healing you can go to alexhine.com or you can check out my last two videos right here and right here