 You know, in China, there's an interesting phenomenon within the field of Chinese medicine where we have many students that go to traditional Chinese medical school instead of conventional medical school. But a lot of them go because they could not get into typical medical school. And so they go for what is the second rate version of conventional medicine, where you get a 50% conventional medical education, 50% Chinese medical education. And so what you end up is a BRC level practitioner at both. Now, in this video, I thought I would share for those of you debating whether or not to go to traditional medical school or something that's non traditional. I thought I would share three of the reasons I did not go to traditional medical school. And I think this can help you make a more informed decision for your own life going forward. Hey guys, I'm Dr. Alexine, Doctor of Chinese Medicine and licensed acupuncturist. So before we jump in here, two very important links below this video. The first is if you'd like to become a patient of mine locally in Los Angeles, or virtually via telemedicine, you can contact my private practice and clinic right below this video. There's also a free download for you for daily rituals that can potentially help you add years to your life with Chinese medicine. So those are the links right below this video. Now, the first reason I did not go to conventional medical school is primarily because it didn't help me. Not because I'm against it or I think it's wrong, or I think synthetic drugs are bad. None of those reasons. Primarily it was because I had lifelong digestive problems. And I went through all the rings, the spectrum of general practitioner nutritionist, dietitian, GI specialist, and all were good people, but none of them helped me. And my personal promise to myself was I'm going to dedicate my life to being the best in the world at whoever helps me the most. It doesn't mean someone's going to mystically cure me, although that would be great. It just means whoever gets me the most relief long term, that's what I'm going to dedicate my life to. And Chinese medicine, specifically Chinese herbal formulas, blew me away. I mean, I saw a Duke educated GI specialist that was completely useless. And I just thought to myself, all these years of medical school, and then the specialty, and then the fellowship, all for a four minute conversation where you said get a colonoscopy and take antidepressants for your IBS. A little bit underwhelming, I would say. All of that Ivy League education culminates in taking modium for your diarrhea. I thought it was a little pathetic, trying to be nicer, but really a little bit underwhelming. And I thought I'm going to be 37 graduating medical school after doing any kind of specialty training or specialization, just to recommend a modium. I don't think so. Hard pass on that. So for me personally, maybe conventional medicine helped you a lot or saved your life. And that's what inspires you to go into it. And that's awesome. And that informs and creates your story. And this becomes my own hero's journey. But for me, it was pretty underwhelming, actually, for something that was not life threatening. And I was shocked to find how well Chinese medicine worked when no one was talking about it. So the first reason for me was it helped me the most. The second one is an even more important one. Let me ask you a question. If you were not guaranteed the money and the prestige of being a typical physician in America. And this is only America, right? Europe and Canada, they don't make much money as doctors. But if you're guaranteed, let's say an internal medicine specialty salary of $300,000 a year, if you were not guaranteed that. And if in your country, being a physician was considered a dirty or lowly or stressful job that no one wanted, would you still go into medicine? Because it's a calling. I think this is a very important question. And I want to paint a certain picture here because this is a big problem with conventional medical care and alternative medical care. Because I went to a school that also was about a $300,000 commitment in terms of my living expenses and the doctoral education. Now, that's pretty comparable to I think to a lot of medical schools. But the difference is that even a non specialist general practitioner earns a guaranteed six figure income. You know, you're in my field, you're in $0 guaranteed. And if you become an entrepreneur, you're even less likely to have a six figure income ever in your life because you need to have the work ethic and the business skills of an entrepreneur. And so what happens is when you're fueled as a Chinese medicine practitioner or alternative medicine practitioner is tough. And then you get frustrated. And then even if you love it and you're helping people, when you're making $35,000 a year and you feel like you're one of the good people working on healing and you don't want your patients on meds. And you want to help people get back to wellness where they need nothing to heal. But you can't even stay open. It produces a deep kind of resentment where you wonder if you went into the right field at all, because you can't even support yourself. And you feel like you're even taking the higher road because you're focusing on proper healing and not symptomatic meds for every single patient that walks in for the rest of their life. Now, on the other side, let's say you're jaded about conventional medical care. And let's say you don't believe most patients should be on the medications. Let's say you're a very self aware person and you really genuinely care about your patients. You don't care about protecting your own blood. You don't care about being right. You care about the sick person in front of you. And you're like, you know what? Should little Jimmy be on antibiotics eight times in one year through those ear aches? He doesn't seem to be getting any better. Well, my standard of care says I need to give antibiotics every time he has an earache. I can't do that. Or I can be threatened with losing my license. Well, it's a lot easier to deal with cognitive dissonance. That is, you don't feel like what you're doing is really the right thing for your patients, but you still do it because you're obligated to do it. It's a lot easier to do that when you're making $250,000 a year and you can go home at night and just forget about, you know, your patients or whatever. You forget about work and you're very placated by the high salary that you get. You can go live and take your nice Greek vacation and have your nice home. And you can live with this cognitive dissonance much easier when you're paying getting paid a lot of money. You want to have your student debt, you don't have to stress the very least. You're like, all right, whatever. Hard day work. I don't recommend medicine to my kids, but I'm doing fine. Right. And this is one of the conundrums we find ourselves in where you're guaranteed making money. You're almost guaranteed not making money unless you have a good work ethic or an entrepreneurial drive. And so what happens is you disproportionately attract people who are maybe the appeal of authority and the appeal of a high income draws you in over here. And over here you have very passionate people who struggle financially. So what work would you do if you were not guaranteed a high income or prestige? That's what I would choose. And that's what I have chosen. The third reason and the last reason is when I talk to medical practitioners, physicians, nurses, whoever, specialists, I didn't see that sparkle in the eye. And what I'm looking for is a great quote is that what the world needs is people who are alive. And I did not see that in a lot of healthcare practitioners. And it's not because there's a problem with them. They're often way overworked and way underappreciated. And the bureaucracy and the paperwork and the hospital BS, I get it. But I didn't see that feeling of aliveness that I saw in the people in our field who were passionate and alive and excited at 50 and 60 and 70 to keep learning and keep taking seminars and workshops, not because they're licensed dictated that they had to do that every two years, but because they were interested in it. And it attracts passionate, passionate, interested people. And that's what I thought was the most interesting. Because to me, no matter how much money you earn, the hardest thing to find is people who are who just love life. And you don't see that a lot in many fields and healthcare being one of them. And the bar is high in healthcare. It's a difficult field. But for me, I knew I wanted to be around people who are passionate about what they did. And I saw that a lot more in the alternative medicine field that I did in conventional medical care. So those are the three reasons I decided not to go into conventional medical school. And I think if you're debating which side to go on, I can't tell you what to do, but I think these will inform your decision. And I think it's important for people to just do the field that they're the most passionate about and then work every day to becoming the best in the world at your field. And I mean, we're in the field of medicine, it completely orients itself around helping people and helping sick people. So if that is your calling and that's something you want to do, then let that be your singular focus and not other things, which is easy to get sidetracked. So my two cents for today. That's all I got before you guys go. I have two other related videos for here that might be interesting for you right here. Check those out before you go. I'll see you in the next video.