Latest / Adventures in Adversity: an inspirational podcast / Ep. 67: Dr. Joy Kong, Stem Cell Doctor of the Decade — her journey from Beijing to breakthroughs

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Ep. 67: Dr. Joy Kong, Stem Cell Doctor of the Decade — her journey from Beijing to breakthroughs · Adventures in Adversity: an inspirational podcast

0:01
Welcome back to Adventures and Adversity.
0:05
I am your host, Bree Wilson. If you're joining us and you've
0:08
been here before, thanks so much for tuning in again.
0:11
If you happen to be new, I'm so grateful to have you listening
0:15
or watching wherever you're tuning in from.
0:17
This podcast is really inspired by all of the guests that have
0:22
come on. This is episode #67 and the goal
0:27
behind the podcast is to simply feature real people with real
0:32
life stories about how they have turned life's adversity into an
0:37
adventure right across all sorts of situations, people from all
0:42
over the world. And so with that, I'm super
0:45
honored to introduce my guest, Doctor Joy Kong.
0:49
Thank you so much for being here.
0:51
Thank you so much Brie for inviting me.
0:53
Yeah, we just my pleasure. We I'm, I'm so grateful.
0:58
We just chatted for a few minutes right before I've been,
1:01
you know, looking at your YouTube channel, learning all
1:04
about you and I just have been very excited for this
1:09
conversation. And I think of these things
1:12
people are like, oh, what do you have an interview?
1:14
And I'm like, yeah, I have AI have a conversation coming up,
1:17
right, like connecting with people.
1:19
And you've had quite an extraordinary life, I will say.
1:24
And I, I'm sure it's like, you know, whenever I introduce my
1:27
guests, I like to kind of brag about them a little bit.
1:32
Because you have done so much in, in different fields.
1:37
And I think you've overcome adversity in your personal life.
1:41
You have clearly overcome adversity in the professional
1:44
life, in medicine. And now you're helping people,
1:48
your patients overcome adversity right within their bodies, which
1:53
is fantastic. So I'm going to make you blush a
1:56
little bit, which is what I love to do.
1:58
And I'm going to just give my audience A glimpse into who you
2:02
are. And then I'm going to stop
2:04
talking and let you kind of bring the story to life.
2:07
So Joy Doctor, Joy Kong, you are a triple board certified anti
2:12
aging physician and stem cell specialist.
2:16
Amazing. You were known for your
2:18
expertise in stem cell therapy and you're committed to
2:22
educating both physicians and the public.
2:25
I know I, I listened to an part of an episode where you were
2:28
speaking to another doctor. So you're obviously having those
2:31
conversations with your peers, You're having conversations with
2:34
clients and podcast hosts like me, right, who are, who are
2:40
interested in learning about your journey.
2:41
So you have founded the American Academy of Integrative Cell
2:46
Therapy, a AICT, you've trained physicians around the world and
2:52
you you are doing all kinds of things here.
2:54
You have also written an inspiring memoir, Tiger of
2:58
Beijing, about your journey as an immigrant from China at age
3:03
20. So just incredible that that
3:07
book was named 2020 Book of the Year by IAOTP.
3:11
So I'm just, again, making you blush to start off, and people
3:18
can find out more about you, I think, through this story.
3:21
And so where I'd like to start, if you're OK with that, is
3:25
before you became, you know, Doctor Kong, you were born and
3:29
raised in China. Yeah, yeah, actually on the
3:33
university campus. So I, I mean, I started out
3:36
pretty lucky, even though some people say, well, it's a third
3:39
world country. Well, I was pretty darn lucky
3:43
that I was born on the university campus is considered
3:46
one of the best universities in China.
3:48
My dad's a professor, my mom's a high school teacher.
3:52
So I was born into a very intellectual environment.
3:56
And the university was built on a older royal garden that was
4:02
transformed by the American missionaries into a university
4:05
campus. So you got a combination of
4:07
eastern, western architecture and all these ponds and, you
4:12
know, the little mountains. And so it's it's an amazing
4:15
place to grow up. So but do I have, you know,
4:20
challenges? Yes.
4:21
I think my own mother was a challenge for me.
4:25
Like a lot of mothers in China or maybe in a lot of cultures,
4:31
there is a, a, a, a, a sense of being judgmental and, or
4:37
whatever, you know, people have their own past, you know, life
4:44
experiences that may not have done them too much good.
4:49
And then they're carrying that on to the next generation.
4:52
So that was one of my challenges that, you know, despite her
4:56
many, many merits, she was very judgmental and can be very
5:00
harsh. So that's, you know, that's what
5:03
I had to deal with. But overall, you know, things
5:09
went fairly well. And I wanted to come to the US
5:13
to study because my parents were teachers and they have
5:17
remarkable students and all these great brainpower.
5:21
They tend to leave China, especially at that time, China
5:24
in the 80s, early 90s was far behind what the West is doing.
5:32
So it was definitely third world.
5:35
So a lot of young Chinese or leaving and going abroad to seek
5:39
opportunities and excitement and and abundance.
5:43
So I wanted to come to America as well because I heard about
5:47
how exciting life could be overseas and of course I saw
5:53
movies and all that. So I wanted to come to America
5:56
and I decided to go for it. Yet my and I worked very, very
6:01
hard for it because I was facing bureaucracy.
6:04
It was very difficult every step of the way.
6:07
So I just, I knew the final destination, which which is to
6:12
get a visa. So first you have to get a
6:15
passport. But how do you get a passport?
6:17
Just that is very difficult. And how do you apply for a visa
6:21
and how do you apply for schools?
6:25
I, you know, where do I send my information?
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And I didn't have any access to the information.
6:31
The only place that has information of the schools were
6:36
in one library in Beijing, the capital Library.
6:40
And there's in what's it Cliff? No, I can't remember exactly
6:43
which, which big book. So I was first year in college,
6:51
I was not allowed to enter that library.
6:53
So I'm just saying that there, there are all kinds of
6:57
restrictions, right? Roadblocks.
6:59
So, so my first step is to get to that book and I and they
7:04
wouldn't let me in. So I had to pretend I, I pulled
7:08
a double O 7 I, I, I waved my student ID as if that was valid
7:15
and you had to go in with confidence, right?
7:17
I was riding my bicycle, was on my bike and I just waved my ID
7:22
card, my college student ID card and the guard let me in.
7:26
But still I couldn't enter into the library proper.
7:29
So I ended up going behind the library, sneaking around,
7:34
finding a back door to enter. So I snuck into the library and
7:39
actually went through the kitchen to get to the library
7:43
proper. And that's when I actually got
7:46
to the book and wrote down handwritten all these about 60
7:51
schools that offered scholarships to international
7:55
students. So that's how I started.
7:57
And of course, just the application fee, you know, one
8:00
for to 1 school, that's like 2 months of my parents salary.
8:04
So I had to write a letter asking them for please, you
8:07
know, can you waive the, the application fee?
8:10
So that's just step by step, right?
8:12
Every step of the way, you know, overcome, overcome, keep getting
8:16
closer to your goal. And I worked very hard.
8:21
You were like, literally hunting Not not.
8:23
You were literally hunting for information.
8:26
Yeah, like. I was a hunter.
8:28
Wild that you can. Well, it's incredible to me that
8:32
I'm sure when you tell that story, you can remember like
8:35
going, it's probably vivid for you, right, Because it's like
8:40
no, no, continue. I remember.
8:42
You know, beautiful sunny day, riding my bicycle, pretending
8:46
that I'm actually, I actually belonged in the library and
8:50
sneaking in. It's kind of fun you.
8:53
Know full memory when you think backed out.
8:55
That's pretty cool, so continue. Yeah.
8:58
So even with all that and, you know, getting my transcripts
9:04
and, and, you know, every step, it was difficult.
9:07
And studying for the TOEFL test, the English, you know,
9:12
competence, Yeah. So I worked very, very hard.
9:15
So it took 18 months for me to actually get a scholarship from
9:20
university, Clark University in Massachusetts.
9:24
And I was very confident. I think I was given $10,000
9:29
scholarship, you know, I thought that was great.
9:32
And there were so many missing, you know, to pay for the
9:35
education. But I was going to work my ass
9:37
off. I was going to go to a Chinese
9:39
restaurant. And that's how most Chinese do
9:41
it, right? You, you bus tables, you wash
9:44
dishes. I was willing to do anything so
9:47
I could. And I also learned acupressure.
9:50
So, you know, that medicine and, you know, the human body, the
9:54
human healing, that's already kind of part of what I was very
9:56
interested in. So I learned from this master of
10:00
acupressure. So I thought, oh, my goodness, I
10:02
can do this. You know, pressuring different
10:05
acupuncture points and through different massage methods and
10:08
through manipulation of energy system, I can help so many
10:12
conditions. So why don't I just go to
10:15
America? I would charge 20 bucks a
10:17
session. I I got it all planned out,
10:19
right. 20 bucks a session. And yes, of course I can get
10:22
through it. Yeah, I'll be able to pay for
10:25
everything. Yeah, got it.
10:28
Yeah. I have a plan.
10:30
I had a plan. So and then very confident, very
10:34
confidently went to the embassy to get my visa.
10:38
My parents went with me. I remember they were hiding the
10:42
cash all over there, different in different pockets, because we
10:47
were going to go right, right to the mall afterwards to get me
10:52
myself a suitcase and also some clothes because I had almost no
10:57
clothes. I mean, we, we, we buy one piece
10:59
of new clothes a year. So we, we have very little.
11:03
So when I stood in front of the embassy and that's when the
11:09
consulate, you know, the whatever counselor just doubted
11:14
me, doubted why I wanted to go to America and doubted how the,
11:20
the person that was signing the affidavit of support, right?
11:23
A financial kind of a guarantee. It was really just a piece of
11:27
paper. But legally there's some
11:29
binding, you know, that this person will take care of you.
11:32
And that was written, that was given by my mom's student.
11:36
So he did not believe that this student of my mom's would be
11:41
willing to take on that responsibility.
11:43
So he stamped it, denied. And I was like, no, no, it's my
11:50
entire dream, right? Working for 818 months, right
11:53
from, from every step of the way.
11:57
It was very crushing. So I, I was, I, I was in shock
12:04
and very, very disappointed. And it's like somebody just
12:08
slapped me on the face and, and, and, and telling you that your
12:12
dream is, you know, too bad. Too bad you had a dream.
12:15
So, yeah. And so I was feeling down for
12:19
about 3 days, and I got really angry.
12:22
My anger came from just who are they to tell me no?
12:27
Like, who gave them the right to stop me from where I feel I
12:31
belong, of what I think my life should be?
12:35
They should not have that kind of control.
12:37
So what can I do? Because I'm pissed off because
12:40
I, I wasn't going to take that. I was going to do everything in
12:44
my power to get to where I needed to be.
12:47
So it was that really the anger that was driving me.
12:52
So like, turn that into like, you alchemize that into like,
12:56
action and like tenacity, right? Yeah.
13:00
So in that moment of anger, I I was looking at a situation.
13:04
The reason I was denied was not because I wasn't smart enough, I
13:08
didn't have good enough grades. It was only because I won.
13:13
I didn't have any money. 2 The affidavit support wasn't good
13:17
enough to the American embassy because the person that was
13:24
writing the affidavit was not, you know, I guess strong enough
13:29
in their eyes. So which was the hard part,
13:32
which is know somebody, know somebody in America that's
13:36
willing to do that. And I just didn't have access.
13:39
I, you know, my families didn't have any connections.
13:42
I was, we didn't know anybody. The only people we knew were
13:46
students of my parents and maybe, you know, someone like I
13:51
remember a friend of my mom's friend who is British couple.
13:57
And it was very, it was somewhat humiliating because I remember
14:03
my mom took me to meet this British couple and they
14:07
basically just like, you know, they they didn't really have any
14:12
interest and intention of helping and kind of look down,
14:17
you know, upon us as these poor resourceless people in this
14:24
thorough country. So that was, you know, I
14:27
remembered that I was like, wow, but this is temporary.
14:32
This is, you know, you just wait.
14:35
So but, but, but that's the thing that I didn't know
14:39
anybody. So what, what should I do?
14:43
My conclusion is obvious. I needed to know somebody so so.
14:47
What make it happen right? Yeah, So what I did was that I
14:50
took the Yellow Pages of Beijing.
14:55
I was like. I am going to know somebody.
14:58
I'm. Going to know someone by the end
14:59
of the day. So I just, yeah, it's it's it's
15:05
illogical, right? Why would you?
15:07
Like, how are you going to do it?
15:08
I don't know because I didn't know any, but I have to start
15:09
somewhere. So I just started calling the
15:13
best hotels in China randomly, like like the in Beijing, I just
15:17
called one after another. I called different rooms hoping
15:23
to find somebody. If I figured if they speak
15:27
Chinese, I'll ask if they want to learn English because my
15:29
English was pretty good, and if they speak English and then I'll
15:33
ask them if they want to learn Chinese.
15:35
That's it. That was my pick up line.
15:37
Hey, but like you said, it's I'm, I don't know, but I'm going
15:41
to figure it out one step at a time.
15:44
Yeah, yeah. So it's interesting, right?
15:46
That's the event adventure. So I had no idea who I'm going
15:50
to run into what's going to happen.
15:52
Well, let's do it. So I I wrote about in my book.
15:54
So I I met as you know, a few freaks in in in a science, you
15:58
know, not very good situation that I got myself into, but I
16:01
got out, out, out. It was just interesting kind of
16:05
life snippets and then I ended up meeting somebody that
16:08
actually worked for a travel agency.
16:10
So it was I ended up calling a travel agency that's inside the
16:14
hotel and that's how I eventually got the job as a tour
16:18
guide to Tibet. So so that was is a dramatic
16:22
right. I was trekking for three weeks
16:24
in the Himalayans toward Mount Everest.
16:26
So going from a college student, you know, with no resources, not
16:30
even allowed to work like it's prohibited at that time, and to
16:34
leading a group of Americans trekking the Himalayans and.
16:40
And. Yeah, and, and.
16:43
But people have to read the book just to find out what happened
16:47
next. And I'm sure.
16:48
Along those, along those, you're literally on a, on a literal
16:53
journey, right where you're having all the, you're hitting
16:55
all these roadblocks. So you're pivoting and you, you
16:59
had said when before you're like when you had those rejections,
17:03
you said just wait, just wait. And so it's almost like a, it's
17:07
not almost like it is. It's a refusal to not attempt to
17:11
figure out the next solution. It seems like you were just
17:14
like, all right, what next, right?
17:17
Yeah, yeah. One thing I know I'm good at is
17:20
pivoting, because I believe pivoting is a sign of life
17:24
force. So the life force within you is
17:27
so strong, no matter what hits you, you're going to find a way
17:30
around it. Yeah.
17:34
So cannot be suppressed. And later on, when I met another
17:39
difficult situation, very difficult, soul crushing type of
17:41
situation I talked about in the book, how do you get around it?
17:47
Do you succumb? Do you let it, you know, let
17:51
your your, your spirit die? Or do you actually go for
17:59
transcendence or, or liberation? Yeah, so.
18:07
So continue. So obviously you can, they can
18:09
in your book like you were mentioning.
18:11
And I'm going to put a link to all of all of the resources in
18:14
ways that everybody listening can can find out more about you
18:19
read your book. But it sounds like there are
18:21
some adventures there in the Himalayas, which yeah, some some
18:25
soul changing adventures there. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
18:29
A lot of time and, you know, sometime in Tibet, you know,
18:33
seeing a different culture. And then eventually, actually
18:37
within eight months of my visa rejection, I landed in San
18:40
Francisco. So.
18:42
So that definitely it was faster than I thought.
18:46
I didn't know how long it was gonna take.
18:47
Yeah. So.
18:49
So that was my first glimpse of the power within me, what I can
18:55
do to change my circumstances because I literally was just one
19:00
of the whatever, you know, half a billion Chinese women.
19:05
So with no resources and how would I make something happen?
19:12
Because but you can make it happen.
19:13
Because I remember hearing that if you have a goal and you put
19:22
it out in the universe, the universe will conspire to help
19:26
you to make it happen. So I thought about it hard.
19:30
I thought, I need to be in America.
19:33
I'm going to be there. I just have to be there.
19:36
And then I believe the universe helped me out.
19:40
And you it, you had that vision, you, I mean, I'm sure they're
19:45
like you said, there were literal obstacles that came in.
19:48
Do you remember what you were saying to yourself in those
19:53
initial phases when those like what kinds of thoughts ran
19:56
through your head to keep you going?
20:02
That it's my I feel in my bones that's part of my destiny and
20:13
I'm not going to. I'm just not going to give up.
20:19
I believe me. People around me were telling me
20:22
why are you trying? It's just about next to
20:26
impossible. Like why even bother?
20:29
But to me, I wouldn't know if I didn't try.
20:35
So I owe it to myself. And, and, and I, I figured I'll
20:42
give myself a year, you know, if nothing happens, OK, then
20:47
there's a different way to go about it because I was studying
20:49
architecture at the time. OK, So a.
20:53
Little different where you ended up, but you started there.
20:56
So I took a year off my school, yeah, studying architecture.
21:01
So all my classmates was like, why would you, you know, why
21:05
don't you study architecture at the same time of trying to leave
21:09
the China so you don't lose out. And you know what, if you can't
21:13
leave? I was like, I don't, I don't
21:15
want to deal with what if I'm going to give all my all what
21:19
I'm going to do for this whole year, I'm going to get out of
21:21
this place. And that's what I'm, I had a lot
21:25
of restrictions that like I've all my life, I've been a
21:30
troublemaker all my life. To be honest.
21:32
I've had a difficult time getting into these organizations
21:36
that, you know, that the kids of merits get into.
21:39
So the, the, the, the, the young young Pioneer, that's when
21:43
you're in elementary school until you're 14 and then the
21:46
Young League, that's from 14 to 18.
21:49
So I have trouble getting into all of them because I had
21:53
trouble rules and and because I have my own ideas, there are
21:57
things that I feel are are the right thing to do.
22:01
There are a lot of rules in China and my I understand that's
22:05
how you govern a country. But to me, just in my spirit, if
22:09
a rule does not make sense because they say I'm not
22:13
observing the rule, but I'm not hurting anybody and I'm doing
22:16
something a little differently. Who are any of these people to
22:20
tell me that I can't just in in my heart that it doesn't sit.
22:25
So I just then to me, that's not my rule.
22:28
That's your rule. So I'm not yes.
22:33
I, I can, I can imagine that would be extremely challenging
22:37
as somebody, as a, as a woman with an idea that just simply
22:41
wants to express them right or wants to cultivate like a happy
22:45
life. It would that that is adversity
22:50
with within itself. I mean, it's just, yeah.
22:54
So I always felt kind of constricted and the judgement
22:59
not only from my mother, but from people around me.
23:02
And there's just a lot of judgement because you're
23:04
supposed to conform, you know, I love Chinese culture.
23:08
There's so many amazing things about the culture.
23:10
You know how wise it is and how you know it has collective
23:14
wisdom and and understand how to govern a large number of people.
23:18
I mean, it's a very, very profound culture.
23:22
But at the same time, it's not a perfect system, just like
23:25
America is not a perfect system. We have some really entitled
23:29
people who are getting very lazy and that's a whole other
23:32
conversation, but. But.
23:37
I wasn't happy with certain constrictions.
23:41
I feel to the spirit and to judge how I should be that I
23:46
have to be certain way and then everybody has to be this way
23:49
other than you know, otherwise you are weird.
23:52
You are, you know, to be suspicious of.
23:57
It's a lot better these days. People are a lot more
23:59
individualized. They, you know, such as
24:03
reflected, let's say a garment right now they have plus sizes
24:07
and it's OK. It's OK to be other ways that
24:11
then just be in one way. So the the culture is
24:14
progressing. However, when I was there, that
24:16
was late 80s and early 90s, it was still to me, I felt stifled.
24:25
So I wanted to break free. Yeah.
24:29
So that's kind of that's partially what was driving that.
24:32
That was, yes. Yes.
24:34
And yeah. So you, so you bounced back
24:39
within eight months, you said you landed in San Francisco.
24:42
Yeah, that was. A glorious day.
24:44
That was a glorious day. That's my neck of the.
24:47
Woods over here. I'm just outside the Bay.
24:49
I'm in the Bay Area, just outside.
24:50
Oh, really? Yeah.
24:52
First day straight. To Golden Gate Bridge.
24:55
I was like, Oh my God, how can it be so beautiful this Golden
25:00
Gate Bridge with the clouds weaving through the red bridge
25:04
and and the ocean the the the sailboats underneath.
25:07
I was like, what a magical place and after all of.
25:12
The after all of that, all that, Yeah.
25:17
OK, so you. So you, you land and take me
25:21
through the next chapter. Like, how do the next chapters
25:24
unfold once you're kind of, you can take a breath, but I'm sure
25:27
that's not the, that's not the end of adversity here, no.
25:32
So I I wrote about it in the book.
25:36
That was hard. So with all the excitement, so
25:40
it, it, it a dramatic romance story was actually part of the
25:44
story, which made it very interesting a whole other angle.
25:49
But as somebody that's inexperienced in relationships,
25:53
you know, I was 20 years old, didn't really understand how to,
26:00
you know, evaluate a person and what were the right red flags.
26:04
So if a person tells me they love me, love me, love me, then
26:08
they must love me. And that must be, you know, all
26:13
that matters, right? Can you believe love?
26:15
Conquers all. Right.
26:17
Love Is All powerful. So Yep, we're done.
26:20
You know, we love each other perfect.
26:22
You know, this is going to be amazing because if we love each
26:25
other, we're going to be able to communicate, we're going to be
26:28
able to work problems out. We're always going to be try
26:31
trying to do the best for each other.
26:33
How can anything be obstacles. So that was all I thought, yeah,
26:38
but everyone comes into this world with their own baggage,
26:43
whether or not it's from their parents or from something even
26:47
deeper in their DNA. There are.
26:50
Limitations in what they can they can offer in a
26:55
relationship. So that was a bit of a rude
26:59
awakening just because I think I'm willing to give and love
27:04
that everything's going to be OK.
27:05
So I think a lot of young people probably, you know, learn it in
27:10
their own way in their life. And they're very lucky few that,
27:14
you know, got a high school sweetheart and and that's it,
27:17
you know, they're happy for the rest of their lives.
27:19
And those are very, very, very rare.
27:21
So, yeah, so that was something that I had to navigate with
27:28
absolutely no support. I was here by myself completely.
27:33
I had no, not only I didn't have my family here, I didn't want to
27:38
tell a thing to my family of all the problems, all the troubles.
27:42
And this person I was with, I was actually married to, was
27:47
making sure that I had as few friends as possible.
27:51
And he was very much objection for me having my own support
27:54
system. So I was extremely isolated and
27:57
trying to navigate on one hand experienced this person hurting
28:03
you in various ways. On the other hand, the person
28:05
keeps telling you how much they love you, so it's very it was,
28:09
you know it. Was confusing.
28:13
For a young girl with no experience.
28:15
So that's what I I had to figure out what's going on and what do
28:20
I do? Do I I because I was slowly
28:22
dying inside. So do I do I because I had a on
28:27
the surface, had a good, good life.
28:29
There was, you know, abundance. There's yeah, I had, I had
28:34
resources. This person, you know, it's is
28:39
smart, accomplished. And everything seemed fine on
28:42
the outside, but I knew that if I continued, that would be the
28:48
end of me. So the only way to do it is to
28:52
to escape, to get out of it. So that's what I did.
28:58
And that's what I talked about in the book.
29:00
And eventually, yes, I triumphed, but not without
29:04
battle scars. So it did leave some scars on me
29:08
which I had to overcome later on.
29:10
I didn't talk about that in the book.
29:13
I want to write the second book to talk about how I tried to
29:18
overcome all these, you know, other other things that were
29:23
keeping me down, right, not allowing me to be living the
29:27
fullest, happiest life even though I won these battles.
29:32
I. Just need to find time.
29:33
To write the book, you know, I think that that old.
29:38
Time thing, you know, it's you've got a few things on your
29:40
plate. You know, you're like, where can
29:41
I carve out some book writing? Yeah, that's right.
29:45
Yeah, but thank you for sharing. That and I know you go into
29:49
detail in your book as well, which I'm very excited to dive
29:51
into myself. Yeah, yeah, the book is called.
29:55
Tiger Beijing, you know, by the way people are interested.
29:58
It's on Amazon, yes. There's an Audible version as
30:01
well. So people, yeah.
30:03
Drive and listen. Absolutely.
30:05
Well. And, and we, you know, last
30:07
month was domestic violence awareness month.
30:11
I always try to just, you know, whether that abuse is
30:14
psychological, physical, you know, spiritual.
30:18
It's something that this podcast too.
30:22
It's just incredible to me how many people, both men and women
30:26
have experienced that and have a story.
30:30
And you're like, wait, what? You know, you know what I mean?
30:32
It's always, it's always shocking.
30:34
And then it's even more shocking when it's something that, like
30:37
you said, it's all behind closed doors.
30:39
Everything looks fine on paper, right?
30:41
Or it's fine. And then there's a different
30:43
reality with relationships behind closed doors, you know,
30:47
and it takes a lot to realize that because you have the
30:52
cognitive dissonance and then actually do something about it.
30:56
And then the post separation of, I mean, there's just and then
30:59
the recovery yourself after you're out of it.
31:01
It's such a hard journey. So I just commend you for being
31:05
able to do that. And then now speaking about it,
31:08
because somebody listening, I know, yeah.
31:11
Can relate. Yeah, it's interesting.
31:13
When I, I really didn't think I was going to write a book about
31:16
my story. But when I met somebody in San
31:19
Francisco after all this happened, right, I was, you
31:22
know, getting, I got my life coming back together back in
31:25
school and I met this person who's a, you know, ex police
31:29
officer and I told him about this whole story and he said, Oh
31:33
my goodness. He said, joy, you have to write
31:35
a book. You've got to write this book.
31:37
You need to share this story. So he kind of planted the seed
31:40
in me that I have to write this book.
31:42
And that's what happened when I was actually in medical school.
31:47
I, I took a year off, you know, I wanted to take a year off.
31:49
I travel, I went to Africa. And then I, I decided I'm going
31:54
to write this book. So I wrote it pretty fast.
31:57
I wrote it, I wrote 2/3 of it, I think within a few months.
32:00
Within, yeah, five months or something, every day going to
32:04
Starbucks and just kind of meditate on, on life, right.
32:08
So it was really, really enjoyable until I got to the
32:12
part of the abuse and because I keep a journal.
32:17
So I was going back to read my journal of what happened so I
32:20
could, you know, faithfully document.
32:23
And I got so angry when I was reading it, I and I thought, who
32:28
wants to read this shit? You know, like, who cares?
32:32
Like why would anyone care? So I just I tossed it and I
32:35
didn't want to finish. So I sat there for 17 years
32:41
until somebody pushed me. You know, after I went into stem
32:46
cell therapy became kind of more more prominent in in this, you
32:50
know, new Ralph medicine and somebody really wanted to, you
32:55
know, to to get me, you know, out there to more people.
33:00
And I mentioned a book and and this person was pushing hard,
33:04
like why don't you finish it? Finish it?
33:06
When can you finish? It's like in.
33:09
Two months. So that's, that's how I finished
33:12
book. But what's interesting was I was
33:14
going to write it as a novel in the beginning because I, you
33:20
know, I, I felt this is story to share.
33:22
This is not about me. I you know, I don't, you know,
33:25
it's, it's a story. It's a, it's a damn good story
33:29
on its own. So it could be a good novel.
33:31
So but I, I wrote and wrote and I was writing in third person
33:36
and at one point I just got sick of it.
33:38
I was like, I'm tired of talking about she and how she feels.
33:43
I feel this way. I'm just going to I would just
33:45
want to it's it's almost like you want to speak from the depth
33:48
of your gut, right? You just want to speak.
33:50
This is how I feel. And and finally, I just said, So
33:54
what that the whole world knows that this happened to me.
33:58
Big deal. One day I'm going to die and
33:59
nothing matters anyhow. So who give us two guys a deal?
34:04
Let's just write it and show it to the world.
34:06
This is what happened to me. Big deal.
34:08
So that's that's how I just change it back, change it to a
34:12
memoir. Well, that's super.
34:14
Cool that when you started that you were just like kind of more
34:18
like no and then that that something comes within you and
34:22
and kudos to you for following that because you're right in the
34:26
end. Who?
34:29
Like what is? It it, it's what happened, it's
34:32
what happened, and it's the human thing.
34:33
Truth has so much power. Truth is, it's fascinating.
34:36
Liberating. So liberating.
34:38
That's why I love documentaries. Is that show me what actually
34:41
happened? Because you know, it's it's
34:43
there's a lot of drama in real life.
34:46
There is. OK, so you, you and and I know
34:50
again, like we're, we haven't even gotten to the chapter of
34:54
your life where you're working as a doctor and stem cells and
34:58
it's already just so evident to me that.
35:02
At every phase of. Your life, you're encountering
35:04
obstacles of different kinds, rejections, mistreatment, but
35:10
what seems steady is like what what obviously has carried you
35:14
through is sort of a refusal to accept that as.
35:19
This is what it's That's not going to.
35:20
Be your story, right? No, it's just not.
35:24
Yeah, hey. OK, so continue, continue on.
35:28
We're here for a. Good journey, right?
35:30
We're supposed to be here for a good journey.
35:33
I've looked at life and death very early in my life and I
35:37
ponder about it, why we're here. You know, it's, you know, we're
35:42
going to die like what's going on?
35:43
Why do we have to all die? Like what, what are we doing
35:47
here? So, you know, I've decided very
35:51
early on, I'm here to learn, right?
35:52
This is a place to grow and to become just to gain more
35:59
understanding, to become, I don't know, just to become more
36:04
enriched. So.
36:07
So that's the whole point then. How can I make this life as
36:11
enriched and interesting and fulfilling as possible?
36:17
I want to do something that's useful.
36:19
I've always known myself that I wanted to do something in this
36:22
world. I've never set my goal as being
36:26
a mother or being someone's wife.
36:29
My goal is to make something happen to do, to bring something
36:34
to the world. So I know that's me.
36:36
It's not everybody's life path, right?
36:38
I have no judgement for people who just want to be a mother,
36:41
that if that fulfills you and makes you happy, wonderful.
36:44
You're you're lucky. You know that that's great.
36:47
But for me, it just I can't, I can't suppress that.
36:52
It's just who I am. I feel that it's in me.
36:57
There's this potential, this thing that wants to come out to
37:00
do things. So yeah.
37:04
And then and to now that I can't stop doing things, I just, I, I
37:09
need to cut it down, do a lot of things.
37:12
There's too many things I know. It's a beautiful, it's a
37:16
beautiful bird. Not it's just, it's like I'm
37:20
only starting to feel that way. Like I've just now awakened the
37:24
beast within me where I'm like, if I could do this, what what
37:27
else do I want to, you know, like, how else can I do?
37:29
And then you can't stop, right? Well, just wait.
37:34
Oh yeah, I'm like, oh. Gosh, I'm like, I can't turn it
37:37
off. It's a it's.
37:37
Quite a balancing act of how to do a lot of things you want
37:42
while having enough time and making sure that you are in a
37:47
balanced place. So that's that.
37:50
That's the, the, the, the newer lesson to me, it's not about
37:54
trying to get to a place. It's about having already, you
37:58
know, got to a place or places and but still wanting to do
38:02
more. But how do you actually maintain
38:05
your sanity and and a sense of peace and joy while doing more?
38:12
Yes. Beautiful.
38:15
That is the question right And well, and that I think you are
38:19
actively answering that question through what you're doing as a
38:23
physician. I would say right that you are.
38:28
I mean that that inner pole you've, you've turned into a
38:32
profession that is actively like making an impact on the world
38:37
through stem cell infusions, right?
38:40
Well, I didn't start. Out as a stem cell doctor
38:43
because nobody starts out as a stem cell doctor.
38:46
So I went to UCLA and I, you know, I've been fascinated by
38:51
the brain because before even I before I even went to medical
38:55
school, I thought I was going to become a professor in
38:58
neuroscience because I like the brain I wanted to study the
39:00
brain. I thought, how amazing, you
39:03
know, why are we, why do we think the way we think?
39:05
What are emotions? How did emotions occur and how
39:09
do they, how do they rage through the body and how does
39:12
that affect everything we do? Like how it's a bit of a
39:16
mystery, right? So I wanted to, to study the
39:20
brain. And then at UCLA, that's when I
39:23
realized that sometimes I see a lot psychiatry actually makes
39:31
more of a difference in people's lives in a lot of the
39:34
disciplines for, for example, internal medicine, diabetes, you
39:39
know, I feel, or some other chronic severe illnesses, you
39:44
know, pulmonary fibrosis, a lot of things that medicine doesn't
39:47
have a whole lot to offer, to be honest.
39:49
You go to a doctor, you have a sense of safety because a doctor
39:52
tells you what's going on. There's a finality to it.
39:55
Doctor knows and doctor knows something can help or something
39:58
cannot help. So you are given a sense of
40:00
finality. However, a lot of times the
40:02
results are not satisfactory because a doctor is not offering
40:06
a good solution. But in psychiatry, what I've
40:09
seen is that people are getting a lot better.
40:12
It's pretty amazing. We can kick somebody out of
40:14
psychosis. Pretty rapidly or knock them out
40:18
of depression. I've seen that over and over.
40:21
That's why I went into psychiatry.
40:23
It was like, wow, that can actually make a difference.
40:26
You know, for example, neurology, right?
40:28
I love the brain. I could go, I could become a
40:29
neurologist, but I realized what I've learned is that it's a very
40:33
depressing specialty. You can exercise all your
40:36
intellectual powers to diagnose somebody.
40:39
You can locate exactly where in the brain the problem is, and
40:43
that's the end of what you can do.
40:45
So how is that benefiting the patient besides knowing, I mean,
40:49
that still that's not really helping their life quality.
40:53
So I went into psychiatry. I went into psychiatry.
40:59
It's not because I only care about the brain.
41:02
I'm fascinated by the body, by by life.
41:05
That's why I went into medicine, because everything about the
41:08
body is a mystery. It's a something to be unraveled
41:12
is to understand how the hell do we get in, get this machine that
41:17
we can operate and with our, our consciousness and how does it do
41:22
everything? Because a lot of times they do
41:25
everything without us understanding how it works,
41:27
right? So it's doing its own thing.
41:29
So what's going on there? So, so I want you know, of
41:34
course, growing up in China, my mom, my mom eventually passed
41:40
away from lymphoma, but she was diagnosed with multiple myeloma
41:45
when she was 43 and everyone thought she was dying.
41:50
So she died eventually at 75. But when she everyone thought
41:56
she was dying, she was in the hospital in the best tumor
41:59
hospital in China and stayed there for six months getting 6
42:04
rounds of chemotherapy, lost most of her hair and was
42:07
miserable with blackened veins. And most of the patients with a
42:12
similar diagnosis on the same ward, they've all died.
42:15
They've been carried out on a stretcher after being treated,
42:19
you know, treated with this chemotherapy, very harsh agents.
42:22
So she got so sick of it of seeing herself not getting
42:27
better and people dying all around her.
42:29
And she said, you know, Get Me Out of here.
42:31
I'm out of the hospital. So I'm not doing chemotherapy
42:34
anymore. She went to a Chinese medicine
42:37
doctor and she got the Chinese diagnosis right based on the
42:41
pulse and the tongue and, you know, the whole, the whole when
42:45
you look at the body, right? Yeah.
42:46
Different and he. Was also specialized in immune
42:50
system, immune health. So she, he looked at what my
42:53
mom's body, her particular constitution needs and wrote her
42:57
a formulation of all these herbs and stuff.
42:59
And all she did was that she came back home every morning.
43:03
She went to the playground because we live in university,
43:05
There's an elementary school. She was doing aerobics with a
43:08
bunch of other middle-aged people.
43:12
And then that too. And I.
43:14
Was in San Francisco. They're up early, exactly so.
43:17
For an hour she was dancing around, and then she drank this
43:21
potion twice a day. Nasty, nasty.
43:23
Smelling and tasting. Oh, that's Chinese medicine for
43:26
you. It has to be bitter, otherwise
43:29
they don't think it works. But that's just the concoction.
43:32
Within six months, everything went back to normal.
43:35
Tumor. There's no cancer.
43:38
There's no sign of cancer. Kidney function restored to
43:41
100%. So she went back to work full
43:44
time for, for years for another probably 15 years.
43:49
And then she retired and had an amazing good life.
43:53
And eventually, you know, she for whatever reason, you know,
43:56
our life deteriorates. But that that was an experience
44:01
of a different medical system. So even though I love science,
44:04
I've always loved science. Western medicine is very
44:08
interesting, but I saw what this whole other system can do when
44:15
the the the traditional system had caused a lot of people to be
44:21
suffering and miserable and die. But my mom took a different
44:24
route and she recovered. So what's going on?
44:28
What's in the Chinese medicine that the Western medicine didn't
44:31
know, right? If they knew they, they
44:33
hopefully they would have utilized it.
44:35
But there's some interesting capacity like or, or wisdom in
44:42
this other form of medicine. So I never forgot that.
44:45
And I always thought is very elegant of what the Chinese
44:49
medicine is able to do because it's connecting the body through
44:53
these energy channels and it's looking at the body, not just,
44:56
oh, let's just look at your head, Everything's happening in
44:59
your head, your eyes. Let's just look at your eyes.
45:01
No, your eyes actually in Chinese medicine connected to
45:03
your liver, if you start to get angry, you have liver problems,
45:07
it's going to affect your eye because energy actually runs
45:09
through your body. So you don't just isolate
45:13
different organs. So to me is a system approach.
45:17
Not that molecular approach is bad and doesn't work, but it's
45:22
only a piece of the puzzle. So if you don't zoom out and
45:25
look at the whole piece, you're never going to solve the problem
45:28
in a very effective way. So that's what had always kind
45:33
of kept me. It was like I, I, you know, I
45:35
want to learn Chinese medicine. So that's what I did in medical
45:37
school. I took electives in Chinese
45:39
medicine. I went to work at East West
45:42
Medical Center in, in Santa Monica and, and I studied on my
45:48
own. But what I realized was that the
45:51
Chinese medical system is, is very complex.
45:53
The medicine, it has its own language that's steeped in
45:58
history and it in the language before science.
46:02
And so now we have the language of science and then we have the
46:05
language of dampness and, and, and, and fire.
46:10
And so all of a sudden, you know, how do you bring the two
46:13
together? And it was very challenging.
46:16
So when when I was searching and I was looking at integrated
46:19
medicine and realized that they were using some of the
46:22
principles of Chinese medicine of looking at the body as a
46:25
whole, looking at things that connect everything, right?
46:28
If you just look at vitamins, it connects everything.
46:31
All your different organ systems need vitamins, right?
46:33
One vitamin could control many systems or, or hormones that
46:41
could be systemic, right? Control can control different
46:44
organs and, and, and so it connects everything.
46:47
So you want to look at things that can, can connect your,
46:50
your, your entire system and integrated medicine or
46:55
functional medicine does that. So that's what I thought, OK,
46:59
this is, this is on the right track because you are able
47:02
finally to zoom out a little bit.
47:04
And now I have a way of looking at the body, maybe incorporating
47:11
some of the wisdoms from Chinese medicine, but in the language
47:15
that we can understand, we can understand hormones and and
47:19
minerals and and peptides and you know, all these things
47:23
connect everything. So and now we come upon cells,
47:28
stem cells. That is the epitome of holistic
47:34
approach because the cells connect your body, connect
47:38
everything and sends you vast, massive amount of information
47:43
all of all at once. It gives you all kinds of
47:47
peptides, all kinds of cytokines, all kinds of micro
47:50
RNA growth factors and it can hit all these different systems
47:55
all at once. I was like, what could be more
47:58
powerful than the intelligence that made us right?
48:02
So that talk about looking at the system as a whole.
48:05
Now we have the epitome of holistic approach.
48:10
So that's when I just, I was like, this is like a dream come
48:13
true it all. It was, it's so cool.
48:16
I, I'm literally you, you took the psychiatry, the brain, the
48:21
neural, like the, you know, the, that angle and then you've got
48:26
growing up and like seeing your mom heal and growing up with the
48:29
culture of Chinese medicine. Then you've got the education.
48:33
I mean, it's, it's quite fascinating to see how you've
48:38
kind of looked at all those different, you've studied in
48:41
depth in all those three areas. And then when you it sounds like
48:44
you came upon this realization that that's the way right
48:49
through the cells. Yeah.
48:51
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense eventually.
48:53
So is it everywhere, right? Yeah.
48:55
So again, if I just say stem cells can solve everything and
49:00
that's end all be all, I'll be falling into the same trap as
49:04
traditional Western medicine because that's thinking that
49:07
everything there's, there's one answer to everything.
49:10
No, it's not. Still you need the vitamins and
49:12
minerals, you need the different antioxidants, you need different
49:16
hormones, You need your microbiome to be operating
49:19
appropriately, right. If you've got some, you know,
49:22
imbalance in your, the critters in your gut or you've got
49:26
parasites. I mean, all these things are
49:27
important. You can't just say, I'll give
49:29
you one thing. It solves all the problem that
49:32
is being a child that that you just you're not able to think as
49:35
the mature adult. So, and that's the problem I
49:38
have the beef I have with the current traditional medicine
49:41
model is that it's still being a child that is not allowing
49:44
yourself to open up. You don't know what you don't
49:47
know. The important thing is that you
49:49
accept that you may not know and be open.
49:51
So one problem with the current medicine model and a lot of
49:58
doctors is that they got their blinders on and they're trapped
50:01
in the system. But there are also some amazing
50:03
doctors who are just not satisfied, like me, right?
50:06
I wasn't sick. I was just searching.
50:09
I was searching for answers for my patients and also to help
50:13
optimize my own health. But a lot of, I know a lot of
50:15
doctors in the integrated space actually had been sick
50:20
themselves or had a family member that were really sick and
50:23
they tried everything. They went to the best
50:25
specialist, right, Mayo Clinic, everybody, and they weren't
50:28
getting better. What do you do?
50:29
Do you give up or do you try to keep searching, right?
50:32
If somebody says this herb really helps, you don't think
50:35
you're gonna try it. If you really want to live, you
50:37
may, you may try it and then you get better.
50:39
So what do you think if that's happened to you, you're a doctor
50:43
and that happened to you or your family, the appropriate thing to
50:47
do is to try to understand how everything this Top Gun
50:51
institutions have failed you. But this simple herb helped or
50:55
the OR some kind of simple remedy helped you, you better
50:58
understand why, right? So a lot of doctors do have that
51:01
curiosity and are willing to come in and try to understand
51:05
why. And there are doctors like me
51:07
who just want to search for a better way of looking at how we
51:11
can heal the body. But just be careful, you know,
51:15
your listener is a wide range of people.
51:18
So some may still be trapped in this belief of the conventional
51:23
medical model. If something is not approved by
51:25
the FDA, then it can't be good enough, right?
51:28
So that's a whole other conversation.
51:30
That's a whole like, hey, let's. Talk about that.
51:32
I was a big fan of the. FDA When I was in medical
51:35
school, I was, I was actually thanking the FDA.
51:38
I was like, thank God we have the FDA.
51:40
Of course, my perspective perspective has changed knowing
51:43
what is going on in that particular agency.
51:47
So, so when people are trapped in into believing that their
51:52
doctors know the best, they have to realize their doctors are
51:57
humans. These humans are groomed to give
52:01
you drugs, and that's a system. And they're groomed in a sense,
52:05
brainwashed to say that other systems don't work because
52:10
there's not enough evidence. I was one of them.
52:12
They tried keep trying to put that in me, right?
52:15
And I resist it because I know from my own mother that this is
52:20
real. That's not the case.
52:21
You have the. Data.
52:21
Deny it? Yeah.
52:23
So, and I've, you know, seen plenty of them when I was
52:26
growing up, my mom was always using both Chinese medicine and,
52:30
and conventional, you know, western medicine in our medicine
52:33
drawer. They're, they're always 2
52:35
worlds, right? They're.
52:36
All. Intermingled all over the place,
52:39
right? So it's like the body, right?
52:40
The everything so so do you ask? Me like what's going on?
52:43
You have a stomach ache like what's their symptoms because
52:45
she she actually loves medicine. So I'll tell her what's going on
52:49
and then she'll go into the drawer and she would pull out.
52:50
I never know if she's going to pull out a Chinese medicine or,
52:53
or Western medicine because depends on what you have.
52:57
So it's not like 1 is always superior.
53:00
So you've, you've got to. Yeah, I, I don't bash
53:04
conventional medicine, but I also, I'm not arrogant to the
53:08
point where I think that that conventional medicine has all
53:11
the answers. Yeah, you have to have.
53:13
That growth mindset right as I mean, it's just not you know, I
53:17
think maybe people assume, I mean, they like, oh, my doctors
53:22
probably, you know, open minded to all the things, right?
53:24
Like they're doing all the research for me and then I'll
53:26
just. But you, you have to advocate
53:29
for yourself and do that research right And know if your
53:31
doctor right, like you said, doctors are human.
53:34
Yeah, there's no and. There's no reason for them to
53:37
know unless they're searching because I was in that system.
53:40
So if I had not searched, I would have been just I kept
53:44
going doing my my thing because we are required to have CME.
53:48
We're required SO11 gateway to get CME is to go to conferences.
53:52
What do you guys? Do you read articles?
53:54
That's written by the industry or you go to a conference that's
53:57
sponsored by the industry. So it's all drug oriented and
54:01
there's no reason to let you skip out of there.
54:04
Like, why would they want to teach you something that tells
54:07
you that you don't need a drug when when the whole point is
54:11
that they really want you to use drug?
54:12
And that's our entire education at UCLA, right?
54:18
Half an hour of nutrition and the rest of the time we don't
54:21
care about preventing you from getting sick.
54:23
That's yeah. Prevents the medicine.
54:25
Yes, yes, they mentioned it. That that's something that's
54:29
it's good. But we weren't.
54:31
Taught how to do it, which is we're told, yeah, there's a, you
54:34
know, there's preventative medicine, you know, we really
54:37
should prevent, but that's lip service because we don't know
54:39
how to prevent. We don't even know about
54:41
nutrition. But what we're we're taught is
54:44
once the patient gets sick, now you can run all these tests, you
54:49
can do all these imaging now you can find out exactly what the
54:52
diagnosis is. The only reason the, the, the
54:55
well, not the only reason, I guess, but the most important
54:59
reason, one of the most important reasons to find the
55:01
diagnosis is that diagnosis will give you medications.
55:05
So now you got direct correlation, right?
55:07
That's the whole point about medications.
55:09
Every medication is approved for a particular diagnosis.
55:13
So this is a locked in system. This is why now doing integrated
55:17
medicine is is hard. Or people who are doing, you
55:21
know, selling supplements, it's difficult, even though we know
55:24
something has been very beneficial for the body, but we
55:28
can't make claims because claims are related to, to conditions.
55:33
So the moment you mentioned condition, now you're infringing
55:37
upon the the territory of the drug companies because they've
55:41
spent the money. They have spent the money.
55:43
So that, that's one reason that they have the, the Vantage
55:47
right. They've spent the money.
55:48
So if it takes average $2.1 billion to take a drug to
55:54
market, they have a very important mission to recover
55:58
that money, right And that will come out at you and they want on
56:03
that. Medication, right quick, right?
56:06
They want to get people on it. Yeah, and they would love to.
56:08
Keep you on it for a very long time.
56:11
So that's the thing that I didn't, I realized that was a
56:15
flaw in the system and I want people to get better.
56:18
And just, it's just my sense of integrity as a doctor as I went
56:23
into this because I really feel that I can help people.
56:26
So then why don't I just do my job and try to help people as
56:29
much as I can? And if I see a system as not
56:32
being very effective, then I'm going to find a different way of
56:35
helping. It's like you said in the.
56:37
Beginning growing up that that's their rule that's not your
56:41
you're you're seeing something where you're like wait a second,
56:44
but that doesn't make sense like for you if you want to just
56:47
automatically do that and but what about like it's it.
56:52
I'm just so glad that and so grateful for doctors like you.
56:56
Like, thank you. As someone who has no medicinal
57:00
knowledge other than, you know, some some classes in high
57:03
school, I just really appreciate that there are doctors like you
57:07
who aren't afraid to rock the boat and like be like, wait,
57:10
wait, but this doesn't make sense.
57:12
Or why don't we consider? And it's not without risks.
57:16
So there's professional attack, right?
57:19
So actually when I went into stem cell therapy, my prior
57:24
colleague who's a Co resident in a psychiatry residency was
57:29
telling people that I lost my mind.
57:30
I was like, no, I think I just found my mind.
57:36
So whatever narrative you. Want to I'm going to go and get
57:38
busy with people over here and. Then the fact that the therapies
57:43
are not in the conventional sense.
57:46
So there's always, you know, the, the, the different entities
57:49
governing bodies that could be breathing down your, your neck.
57:53
And also it's a known fact in the integrated medicine medicine
57:58
space that some of the most well known integrated medicine
58:01
doctors, especially cancer doctors have a have died
58:05
mysteriously quite a significant number I've seen, I've seen.
58:11
Some headlines about that. And so that's.
58:13
Yeah, so. So the risk is, is real, yeah,
58:18
but is the right thing to do. But it's it's.
58:21
Like you said, what are we here for?
58:23
Like if speaking the truth, like I don't think you've been one to
58:27
shy away from truth. It sounds like you were born
58:30
with this desire to just find it, pursue it, and let people at
58:34
least know about it and make their own decisions about what
58:38
they want to do with their butt. Like, right, Like give them the
58:41
information, like you were sneaking into the library.
58:44
Just let me have access to the information.
58:46
It's it's like scary that that that's really disturbing and and
58:53
not OK that these. Yeah, it's just the.
58:57
Suppression of information and control and money and yeah.
59:02
And I got a taste of it. It it's just funny.
59:04
It's it's sad. You know, you're talking to
59:07
somebody that came from country that there where I felt
59:14
suppressed, right. So I felt there certain like I
59:17
I'm not able to get information. I mean things are way, way, way
59:25
better, but I came to this country because I thought
59:30
America what a beautiful concept because people can actually be
59:33
free people. All races come together.
59:37
They actually learn to get along together.
59:40
We respect each other. We're this melting pot, and we
59:44
can express ourselves. We can be free to speak without
59:48
repercussion. But guess what happened during
59:50
COVID? I do not feel that I could
59:54
actually speak my mind. I do not.
59:57
My channel probably will be shut down.
59:59
I mean, I had one video taken down.
1:00:02
You know, I got a strike. Because I'm just speaking our
1:00:11
mind. So I've I've become I've no,
1:00:13
Yeah, unfortunately you've seen it.
1:00:16
So it's. Everywhere.
1:00:17
It's everywhere. And you know, my bubble was
1:00:20
burst like, no, not here, man. Come on.
1:00:25
And it's a it's a reality that we need to talk about and keep
1:00:29
it real. And, you know, if we want if if
1:00:33
we want this country to be a place where information flows
1:00:36
freely, you gotta call out when someone's censoring.
1:00:39
I mean, it's that that's my worst nightmare is being
1:00:42
censored. Like, I'm a chatty person with a
1:00:44
lot of opinions. And I like to hear that's the
1:00:47
beauty of this country is like being able to freely discover
1:00:50
information, debate it. What do you think?
1:00:53
Let's test it. Let's try it.
1:00:54
Let's. Right.
1:00:55
But that, yeah, that's what make.
1:00:58
What makes exciting? That said, I'm still very
1:01:03
grateful and appreciative that I'm here.
1:01:06
Not, of course that there are, there are.
1:01:08
There is a lot of level of freedom and it does allow people
1:01:12
to reach their dreams because I have done, you know, something
1:01:16
wonderful in my life to to reach for that American dream, right?
1:01:23
Actually, totally. I actually achieved it.
1:01:26
So. So the country gives tremendous
1:01:29
opportunity. It allows you that latitude.
1:01:31
You can be anybody. If you want to go to school, you
1:01:33
can go to school. You That's right.
1:01:35
Now go. Yeah.
1:01:36
That's not true in every. Country in China, you bust your
1:01:39
your your head open to try to get into a college because the
1:01:43
competition is so high. The year when I was entering
1:01:46
college is one in seven of the High School graduate can can go
1:01:51
to college. Everyone went to college, right?
1:01:53
And my name is an easy one. The year behind, yeah, after me
1:01:58
was one in 13. So just because you want to be a
1:02:00
college student doesn't mean that you can get in and and and
1:02:03
it's very limited on what you can choose.
1:02:05
But in the US, that's what you know, that's why I majored in
1:02:10
photojournalism. When I first came here, I was
1:02:12
like, I can be anything I want. So it was it's amazing.
1:02:16
It's amazing. It is beautiful.
1:02:18
Wonderful thing about this. Country and the fact that I can
1:02:21
do stem cell therapy in this country freely, I have to thank
1:02:26
the system because the system has certain protection of
1:02:31
doctors who are what like me. What we're doing is that we're
1:02:34
providing tissue transplant because we as doctors are able
1:02:39
to transplant one person's organ or cells into another person.
1:02:44
That's part of the practice in medicine.
1:02:46
So because of that philosophy and that approach, I'm able to
1:02:52
do it and look at how many people I've helped, look at how
1:02:55
many doctors I've trained and how many people they have
1:02:57
helped. So we're creating a wave because
1:03:00
of this latitude, because of this, we can do it.
1:03:03
But that's not true in every country.
1:03:08
So you it's, it's not with, it's a it's, you're grateful to have
1:03:12
that opportunity, yet it doesn't come out come without its
1:03:16
adversity within any system, right?
1:03:18
Like, but what a beautiful country that we can have that
1:03:22
like we need to be grateful, right for that.
1:03:25
And I think it's incredible to hear that what you're doing is
1:03:32
having that ripple effect where you can actually like
1:03:35
fascinating the science behind it.
1:03:36
And and that's like, you know, we could talk for hours about
1:03:40
it, But again, I think it comes to comes down to like being able
1:03:45
to have information freely flow and being able to have that
1:03:50
curiosity. And if like a government or a
1:03:52
body is suppressing that it's going to, it's going to change
1:03:56
the whole world. You know, it's so I just again,
1:03:59
I commend you for for taking on that and having that courage,
1:04:04
because it's not easy. I mean, it's not easy to to to
1:04:10
bear that kind of criticism and sort of attacks when, you know,
1:04:13
what you're doing is helping, you know?
1:04:15
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, a got me A got made me a
1:04:19
rebel for a good reason. So you know what?
1:04:24
I think, and I'm only beginning here, but just through the
1:04:26
podcast and through talking to guests like you, you see that
1:04:30
the human spirit can withstand quite a lot, right?
1:04:35
I mean, if you've got not to say that it's, you know, not
1:04:39
extremely difficult at times, but what I have learned and it
1:04:43
what what I think you're a testament to your journey is
1:04:46
showing me that tenacity and that will and that spirit can
1:04:51
get you a hell of a long way through.
1:04:54
Like a lot of really, really hard stuff.
1:04:58
You know, no, I'm just looking at the time here and I know we,
1:05:05
I just wanted to kind of to wrap this up.
1:05:09
First of all, again, wanted to thank you Doctor Kong Joy.
1:05:14
I this has been fascinating for me.
1:05:17
We haven't on my podcast really talked about medicine like this
1:05:21
and the way we're, you know, we're the way a doctor is, the
1:05:25
challenges that you have. And I appreciate your opinion.
1:05:28
And then I also appreciate just as a doctor, like you opening up
1:05:32
about your personal life through your book, which I'm going to
1:05:35
put a link to that in the show notes.
1:05:38
But I think it just takes a lot. You know, I, I know you've come
1:05:40
on podcasts and talked about your life, but I always remind
1:05:43
people to kind of come on and just open up about everything
1:05:47
you've been through. And it's it's what what's really
1:05:51
interesting. I just remembered I was looking
1:05:53
at the countries that are listening to the podcast and
1:05:57
this last week country #55 China, OK.
1:06:03
So just saying I mean. I don't know.
1:06:05
Hey. Timing right when?
1:06:08
The universe conspiring things. I was like, I just did a reel
1:06:11
about it. I'm like welcome.
1:06:13
And then here we are. So OK, now you've got me.
1:06:15
On it probably is going to rise up in numbers.
1:06:18
Hey rise up the rank. Thank you, thank you.
1:06:22
But again, is there any? Sort of message you'd like to
1:06:24
leave just with with our listeners about anything that
1:06:28
that you've said. Again, all they can learn more
1:06:31
about you, your podcast, your videos, the interviews, your
1:06:34
book and you kind of part parting words for us.
1:06:38
Yeah. Keep searching.
1:06:40
SO people when I have gone through actually when I, when I
1:06:46
talked about having battle scars after winning battles, it's it's
1:06:53
for it's very real because I've dealt with depression.
1:06:56
Of course I come out at the other side winning.
1:06:59
But I remember actually in medical school, that's when I
1:07:02
first really kind of fell into, you know, it felt very down to
1:07:07
the point where I thought I was 29 years old.
1:07:10
I thought, I don't think I will ever be happy again.
1:07:14
I just don't see how because because I was stuck.
1:07:16
I was stuck in my mind, in my way of looking at the world.
1:07:21
So if I didn't think because I thought I wasn't good enough.
1:07:25
So then how do you get out of that?
1:07:28
You know, was there a solution if I just wasn't good enough?
1:07:31
But what about why you thought you weren't good enough?
1:07:36
Like what is good enough? So that's that switch, right?
1:07:40
You have to get over that gear. But you don't get over it if you
1:07:44
don't keep searching. So I kept searching.
1:07:47
I kept reading books. I went to a psychologist.
1:07:52
I debated with him why I wasn't good enough.
1:07:54
She told me why I was. We were fighting it out.
1:07:58
It was all stories. That.
1:08:01
Eventually he made me see, like, what?
1:08:03
Like, why are we here? Who gave you the idea that you
1:08:05
weren't like, what's good enough?
1:08:06
Like, so we're just peeling through.
1:08:09
Yeah, you have to peel the onion.
1:08:11
So eventually you get over that, and that's one hurdle.
1:08:14
Psychological hurdle is 1 right? You're you're in trauma.
1:08:18
That's another. But how to deal with your
1:08:21
pattern of of reacting and then physical barrier.
1:08:27
If you're not having the right nutrition, the right elements in
1:08:31
your body, then you can't feel good.
1:08:33
How do you overcome that? And another thing really
1:08:36
important is spiritual. Like, do you know why you're
1:08:39
here? If you think you're here just to
1:08:41
grab anything you can before you go, you know, that you, you're
1:08:45
going to just, you know, for physical satisfaction, then
1:08:52
you're going to have a whole different way of living.
1:08:56
Some people live that way. I think I'll just, you know, eat
1:08:59
the best food and, you know, have the best sex and, you know,
1:09:02
have best people on my arm to show off.
1:09:04
You know, that's a different way of living than other ways.
1:09:08
And why would you live in another way?
1:09:10
Like, do you have a reason to do that?
1:09:12
So do you have any spiritual connection?
1:09:15
Any reasons why you will do something to help the world to
1:09:20
connect with others in a meaningful way?
1:09:23
So all that has to be worked out and that's layer by layer by
1:09:27
layer. Beautiful searching keep.
1:09:31
Searching, that is what definitely going to have to
1:09:34
incorporate that into the title somehow because keep searching.
1:09:38
That's gonna be my motto for the weekend and so much I really
1:09:43
appreciate it and really enjoyed connecting with you.
1:09:47
Yeah, it's been a wonderful. Conversation.
1:09:49
Yeah. Out of me then I think I've ever
1:09:52
talked about in practice. So wonderful.
1:09:56
Well, hey. My work here is done, but I know
1:09:59
the work of this episode, you know, is, is just beginning
1:10:02
because it's going to go live and all the people around the
1:10:05
world, it's going to spark something in somebody that is
1:10:09
going to, I just got chills, actually change their life.
1:10:13
I I got the full. Body chills.
1:10:15
That's always a good sign. Yeah, wonderful mind.
1:10:19
Body connection going on here. But Doctor, Doctor Kong, have a
1:10:24
wonderful, wonderful weekend and I just can't wait to share this
1:10:28
with the world. Wonderful.
1:10:30
Thank. You so much, Bree.
1:10:31
It's such a pleasure. Thank.
1:10:33
You take care. You too.