The difference between Chinese medicine and natural medicine?

So people seem to think that traditional Chinese medicine is somehow the same as natural medicine. Whatever that really means I'm not quite so sure. And people seem to be confused about what's the difference between seeing a Chinese medicine doctor versus any other practitioner of essentially alternative medicine. Well in this video I want to share the very big differences between traditional Chinese medicine or a Chinese medicine doctor and other types of alternative medicine or natural medicine. Hey I'm Alex Hein, author of the book Master of the Day, current doctoral student in traditional or classical Chinese medicine. Now I've included a free infographic, it's the first link in the description, on the five daily practices to add 10 years to your life with traditional Chinese medicine. So you can click that link in the first description to check it out. So the first difference between traditional Chinese medicine or seeing a Chinese medicine doctor versus any other kind of alternative medicine is the traditional Chinese medical theory, which is very very different. So for example you could have a physical therapist do dry needling, which is basically just needling trigger points on the body. You could have an Ayurvedic doctor give you herbs. You could have a naturopathic physician give you herbs. The difference is that the theory behind giving those things. For example in Chinese medicine, needles, herbs, lifestyle, meditation, all of these are designed to treat specific patterns and all of them apply to one pattern. Whereas for example you know a naturopath may give you an herb for this, an herb for that, an herb for that, a different lifestyle modification for this, in Chinese medicine you treat the whole pattern with the acupuncture, the herbs, and the other lifestyle advice. It's all moving in the same direction working towards this common goal. Now to be clear, any great and skilled physician will tackle treating your whole life. They'll treat the bigger picture of course, but what I find more often than not is that many other practitioners tend to focus on more symptomatic relief or tend to focus on very specific and narrow targeted forms of treatment. So for example we call it green medicine, where for example if a physician that's a natural doctor ends up treating a condition just the way a conventional allopathic doctor would, but they're just using an herb, it's the same kind of biomedical thinking to treat the problem and is not really a difference in terms of the way you're approaching illness and health. The second thing is the way that traditional Chinese medicine uses herbal formulas. So for example traditional Chinese medicine is the most advanced herbalism on the planet. The level, the depth, the specificity, Chinese herbal formulas are like sniper bullets. They're so specific to the patient, so micro-customized to the situation. They're humbling in the level of just sophistication behind them and the thousands of years of physicians writing commentary after commentary saying we should modify this, we should change that, this has been my experience, this works, this doesn't work. I mean it truly is humbling that in this modern era we still have their experience, their clinical experience. Now in Chinese medicine for example, you know if you go to a conventional doctor or even maybe a naturopathic doctor, you may find that let's say you have hot flashes, you feel agitated, you're having some issues with digestion, some sleep issues, you may get a different supplement for each one of those things if you see a naturopathic doctor, a natural doctor as well. In Chinese medicine though that is a pattern that we recognize instantly and so you'd be given one herbal formula that's very customized specifically for that pattern that these physicians noted over thousands of years. And so you're getting a very specific formula that's really really stood the test of time and is incredibly customized to you as opposed to giving you all these miscellaneous pieces for all these miscellaneous symptoms. So you don't need 10 different medicines, these ancient physicians were smart enough to see that this pattern is all related. The final difference is you have traditional Chinese medicine's philosophy of health, disease, and healing. Now for example in Chinese medicine, health is all about flow. So let's say for example you read a study and it says coffee is good for you, you should drink more coffee. But when you drink the coffee in the morning you start to get indigestion, acid reflux, and in your head you're like but the coffee is good for me, my doctor said it's good for me, the study says it's good for me, and yet the body is clearly showing pathology. It's showing illness because that symptom really is the precursor to illness. In Chinese medicine we always trust the intelligence of the body, which humans have made it thus far, we've made it millions of years, and as the modern form of somewhat human, hundreds of thousands of years. And trust me we didn't do it by listening to studies, we did it by following the intelligence of the body, which is how all organisms on life evolve and survive. That kind of bodily intuition is what teaches an organism what to do, what not to do, in the absence of rational analyzing and double-blind placebo studies. In Chinese medicine it's about flow. So if coffee, despite being proven to be good for you and lower your cancer risk, is giving you indigestion, it's not good for you. That's something you in your unique constitution should avoid or should minimize. So these are just a couple of the ways that the Chinese medical philosophy is different from other forms of what's called natural medicine. And I hope that provides some insight into how we think, how we think differently, because it really is very different in the way that we approach illness and we approach disease. So I hope that helps. Don't forget I've included that free download, 5 Daily Habits to Add 10 Years to Your Life with Traditional Chinese Medicine. It's the first link right there in the description box, otherwise you can check out my last two videos right there and right there.