 Over the last three years, I've spent over $6,175 on acupuncture and Chinese medicine doctors for health problems that I've had. Now in this video, I want to share a few of the key lessons I've learned that you might not think about otherwise because I've had the good fortune of both having problems and needing to see internally if Chinese medicine actually works, as well as the opportunity to see patients and be on both sides of the spectrum. Hey, I'm Alex Hyan, current doctoral student in traditional or classical Chinese medicine. I'm also the author of the book Master the Day. Now, I want to share a little bit about my experience spending a lot of money on various different Chinese medical doctors, in other words acupuncture and herbs, and I want to share what I've learned both being a patient, needing results, hard proof results, as well as being someone on the caretaker side who sees patients. The first lesson for me was that who you see matters more than anything else. The majority of Chinese medicine practitioners I saw, even when I was young, just like naturopathic doctors, I got no results from. Not only did I get no results, I didn't feel anything from the acupuncture. And there are a lot of people who see acupuncturists and they're like, was it supposed to do anything? Because I didn't feel anything. And the reality is, yes, you should ideally feel something. Will you every time? I don't know. But a lot of the time, they're patients that come out so dizzy and woozy or dramatic pain relief in just one acupuncture appointment, like a 50% to 70% reduction, that it makes me wonder what the majority of practitioners are doing. And the thing, the reason why who you say matters more than anything else is that the standardization process of Chinese medicine in the US is not great. There is a wide range of education, of training, of even clinical hours, and honestly of skill at the end of the day when it comes to people seeing patients. And not all are created equally, not even close. And I'm not going to say the difficulty of a person's school, of their education, is what makes the difference. The difference is their own hunger and drive to be great. Their mentorship opportunities, who they've done clinical research or experience, have experience with. Do they have mentors that have been in the field longer than them? And I think most of all though, it comes down to the person's character. Are they a scientific, want to figure this out kind of person? Or are they kind of airy fairy about it? The second thing for me was that herbs are what made the biggest difference, like night and day difference. Like I was a kid that would go to the bathroom once every 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 days to within 2 days on a Chinese herbal formula had daily bowel movements. I mean like that level dramatic. 30 years of issues. And then as soon as I was on herbs within a few days, I was regular as a normal healthy person. I never knew what that felt like. I mean I'm 30 years old now, I didn't know what that felt like until I started taking Chinese herbs daily. And what I found is that the majority of practitioners according to some statistics over 90% don't even give herbal formulas. And for most of the mentors I've had, and certainly the doctors that have gotten me the best clinical results that have resolved issues I've had, their powerhouse came from the herbs themselves. And so for them to say that herbs are the real power of the medicine almost, and yet most practitioners don't even give herbal formulas, it makes you wonder. And that's just purely been my own experience as a patient and on the other side. But certainly herbs have been the thing that has made the difference for me and it kind of makes you wonder what's going on at some of these other practices. The third thing for me is something that anyone who's gone through a chronic illness for decades will know to be true. And that is that you are often going to be the most useful part or person or piece of advice in the healing process. Because first of all you've lived in the body that does not feel well. And so you know where it's inclined towards or away from. You know what makes it feel better and what makes it feel worse. But often you may have intuitive feelings behind why you're having what you're dealing with. Whether it is overwork and stress, maybe it's an emotional problem you're dealing with with someone else or a relationship. Maybe it's some stress or anxiety you've had in your life, hating your job, something going on in your relationship or going on with your kids. But when you view yourself as the person that heals you, you begin to look for the ways that you can change. So those ways may be as simple as changing habits. Not being an exerciser to being an exerciser. Not cooking foods and eating Dunkin Donuts every day to cooking a few times a week. Sometimes they're deeper and you have to change the fundamental way that you live. Like for me I'm very prone to overwork and I regularly will work 60-70 hours a week just because that's the way I fill the void. So the first insight was that I fill the void through work. And my mind likes the work but my body may show symptoms of stress. And that was a huge revelation, right? We say we like working, we like working and yet we have back pain, neck pain, can't sleep, anxious. And so it's like do you like working or does your mind like working? Does the body like working? What? What part of you likes the work? Because it's not everything if there's symptoms showing up. And so when you understand yourself at a higher level, you'll understand on one level what is causing this illness. The fourth thing is that there will be many false starts. I mean I just like many people try conventional medicine. I went to five doctors so I thought that maybe conventional medicine doesn't work. Well just as many people I'm sure say that about Chinese medicine or naturopathic medicine or homeopathy. The reality is that there are many false starts. And the way that I looked for the fact that I should continue with the Chinese medicine person was that I went through a personal referral from someone who got results number one. I saw I wanted to see if the practitioner actually could explain what was going on in my body. And this guy that I saw was the first one that ever was like this is what I think is going on. This is why you have that and that and that symptom. This is what we're going to do. This is a roughly how long it should take. Boom. Here's the formula. He was right. I got results. He gave me an explanation. Not any of the practitioners I ever saw could even explain what was going on in my body or why. And then gave me something that actually worked. And I was East or West. I saw five doctors, nutritionist, dietitian, GI specialist first before I went to the alternative side. And so it makes you wonder, right? Not all people are created equal in this field. Flat out. Like we don't need to beat around the bush. Some people really are not great and others are exceptional. And so I think it's finding those gems, those needles in the haystack, is maybe a little bit harder than you think. And the final revelation for me was that you will need to change the way you live internally, more so than externally. So I shared a little bit about how I'm very much like that type A, ambitious, go, go, go, go, go high stress, high strong, responsible performer type person. And it wasn't until I started reading that cardiologists in the 1950s who wrote about the link between type A personality and heart disease. Now I haven't confirmed if the research is true, but what I found the type A personality is correlated with heart disease, even when they factored in diet and exercise and no smoking and things of that nature. And it's interesting to see how we don't need a study to prove that the high strong people we know generally are higher performers, but they're also higher stress. Anyone can feel that. Just like a lazier person who maybe likes watching TV a little bit more is not as ambitious. They're generally lower stress, right? This is just a natural observation. We don't need to go to PubMed and do a search for the research here, but it may be understand where my personality is on that spectrum related to illness and where other people may be in the future of the patients may be that I have, where their personality relates to their illness or the way they relate to the world like being a victim or blaming or life is so unfair or it's so out of my control or I'm going to crush this and I'm going to just destroy my goals. Those are different sides of a spectrum and they affect the types of diseases, the illnesses, the pathology, how they show up and that's what was going on in my body. And when I understood my character, my worldview, my beliefs, how they affected for me pathologically my body when there were symptoms showing up, that was a completely mind-opening experience because I already ate right every day and worked out without fail, never missed a week in the gym in like seven years. So for me to still have any symptoms was mind-blowing. I couldn't understand why that would happen but they were linked to other aspects of my personality. So for me I had to tell myself, Alex if you think that eating right and exercise will prevent all illness and disease and that's the ultimate way to heal yourself, that's not true, that's wrong. I had to update my model in my mind of what I thought health and disease was. So I hope that helps. Those are a couple of insights I had spending a lot of money on acupuncture and Chinese medicine and being a patient. Now that are insights I think may benefit you if you're going through a health struggle or if you are a patient of somebody else. Now the best way to stay in touch with me here is to come download the free guide I put together on five daily rituals to add 10 years to your life with traditional or classical Chinese medicine. It's in the description there below or here alexhine.com forward slash free.