 With cold and flu season going around and COVID still going around, a lot of people are wondering what they can do to increase their immunity. Now, the people that I see, my patients that are the most susceptible, people that are falling into the category of weak or low immunity, they often catch colds, they often catch flus, or at the most extreme, they catch everything that's going around. You know, it's a direct quote I've heard from somebody, I catch everything that goes around. So obviously that's a little bit, you know, worrying and a bit fear inducing if things are going around and you tend to catch everything that goes around. In this video, I thought I would talk a bit about low immunity in the concept or within the framework of Chinese medicine. It's something that I see very often. And I think the treatment is so unique and the underlying ideological factors, the predisposition to weak immunity is something I would not have guessed until I was in the field of Chinese medicine. So I thought it would be very useful to share in today's video. Hey, guys, Dr. Alex Hein, author of the health book Master of the Day and Chinese Medicine Doctor. Now, before we jump into today's video, two very important links right below it. The first is if you'd like to become a patient of mine locally in Los Angeles, or virtually throughout California via telemedicine, the link below this video is for the contact info for my private practice. So you can get ahold of me that way. The second link is for a free download, which is for daily rituals that can help you add years to your life with traditional Chinese medicine. And that is you'll also get a free weekly video newsletter of these latest videos. So those are right below this video. Now, does this sound like you? You know, we discussed that there are certain people that have low immunity. So one of the definitions of that is that, you know, sometimes people with low immunity never get sick, and then they get a really big sickness. And other people with low immunity are frequently catching things all the time. But I would say, besides low immunity, these kind of people that have a high susceptibility are also prone to seasonal allergies, sinus congestion, sinus pressure, sinusitis, nasal pressure and nasal congestion, stuffy noses. And on the other side, digestive problems, bloating, SIBO, excessive gas production, sometimes low appetite, a lot of fungal bacterial things. What we often see is that the underlying predisposition towards low immunity is often gut in the Chinese medicine perspective. And that's why I want to take some time to talk about an organ system that we have talked about prior. But one of them specifically is the tie in organs. So the lung and spleen or spleen pancreas. So let's talk about these a little bit more. When I think about the patients that I have that have low immunity, I would say the biggest bucket, the largest swath of them, generally are thinner body types, generally are usually run more on the cold side, generally are very prone to stuffy noses and food sensitivities. And sometimes even just fatigue and temperature changes. If the AC comes on, they hate it. Sometimes they can be light sleepers or a little bit more anxious types. They tend to be more delicate people in general. And this kind of somatotype, this kind of body type, genetic type, this person is really prone towards a susceptibility towards digestive problems, like the aforementioned fungal and bacterial SIBO. And in addition, allergies, sometimes asthma, but also this low immunity picture. So Chinese medicine has this concept that the spleen generates the blood, but the spleen is also related to the immune system for sure. And from our perspective, good digestion generates good resources, if I can call it that loosely. And one of the ways you know that is that even in cancer care, patients that have their blood values are not looking good due to the chemotherapy and all the treatments, they're often given in integrative settings formulas that in Chinese medicine, you may not directly think affect the blood. But what they actually do is they're working on the spleen and digestion. And so those functions related to the digestion, the formulas that we use will often improve patterns like for example, anemia and fatigue. So the spleen generates the blood is that when this healthy digestion, the formulas we use to work on that process and this work on the small intestine, work on healing the gut lining will often generate better resources, which for us are chi and blood. But I like to think of it as better resources. So these kinds of people, because that, whether it's constitutional or genetic, that inherent mechanism is already weak, there's already a tendency towards poor digestion. The manufacturing of those resources sometimes is a little bit poor, or we call it deficient. And so what happens is, when you work on the tie in organs, the lung and the spleen, remember, there's almost this similar tissue type where people who have gut problems will often have sinus problems and, you know, frontal low grade brain fog and ear problems, and also asthma, shortness of breath, the mucous membranes are very delicate, very easily upset. When you work on one, the other will improve as well. So some famous formulas that we use that can work for digestion, you could just as easily use for an asthmatic or for someone who's always coughing and having mucous or a little bit of shortness of breath, you could use one for the other and both will improve. So the one of the origins of poor immunity, low immunity is gut problems. And mostly what I see is these are people who are constitutionally weak in that area. So they know they've had weak digestion, or they've come in as that is a problem prior for them already. So when it comes to the treatment and lifestyle factors that can help this, what I find for people is that working on the small intestine, whether it's via digestion and digestive health, a lot of these patients need to have more warming spicy herbs like cinnamon and ginger, if there are more on the cold side. And in general, what I find is that after a few months of treating this with formulas, as digestion gets much, much better, fatigue goes away, some of that heaviness or that brain fog and some of the ear or sinus problems improve or go away. After that, usually when the gut and the small intestine is strongly built up and healed, then the immunity is much, much stronger. And then you'll see people go through, you know, a season or a year without getting sick for the first time, or maybe it's they just get sick once instead of sick four or five, eight times. And that's the clear sign that the immunity and the body is moving in the right direction. So what I see clinically is one of the main roots of this is the digestion, the tie in organs, which we associate with the lung and the spleen. And by working on that, you will often see immunity improve. There are other methods as well and other organs we sometimes have to work on, depending on the level of exhaustion and what's going on with the body. But that is a common, very, very common one that I see. And there's often a very common even body type that you see that is susceptible to this. So that's what I have for you today on low immunity, something very, very important, you know, going into the fall, even though I'm in California, I am seeing this wave of everybody catching a cold or everybody catching a flu that is susceptible to it. So that's something that is worth knowing at this time of year. Again, before you guys go, if you'd like to become a patient of my locally in Los Angeles or telemedicine virtually throughout California, the link below is for my private practice contact info. And there's also a free guide for daily rituals that could potentially help you add years to your life with Chinese medicine. And again, there are two related videos for you right here that can help as well.