As a traditional Chinese herbalist and healer, who we learn from and how good our training is sets us apart from the average. My father was one of the best traditional Chinese herbalists in the country, especially so when he was the only one that saw patients individually for their health concerns and prescribed herbs specific to their needs. Since I was young, he dedicated much of his life to training me to become a traditional Chinese healer, like him, but better.

“I trained you become the best, I taught you all I knew, gave you all the good and took away the bad, you can only get better”. – Dr. Hen Sen Chin

Through his teachings, I learned about what is compassion and empathy, I learned how to control my emotions and give patients what they need, but most of all, I learned that the greatest gift anyone can give is life. As a healer, my job isn’t necessarily to let you do what you want, but to give you a longer, healthier life. I help you get rid of the bad news in your body, then I guide you to take better care of yourself in order to maintain good health for the rest of your life. It’s your decision whether you want to make ‘interesting’ decisions that make you sick all the time or whether to live long and pain free.

Just imagine all the grandkids and great-grandkids running around in the house by the time you’re in your 100’s. Yes, it’s possible and yes, it will happen if you follow my instructions. Good health means a long health. It means a longer life.

I am a product of this traditional Chinese medicine, experienced its wonders on my health and longevity, and wish to share with you what I learned, so that you too can experience the pain free life I live every day. For you to understand me and my background, and why I do the things I do; we’ll do some digging into my past and you’ll understand why I’m such a strong believer in holistic care.

My story begins with my father. He was one of the Chinese immigrants arriving into the US during the year of 1933, before going back to Hong Kong to study traditional Chinese medicine. He learned Traditional Chinese Medicine in Hong Kong after the Second World War. Back then, apprenticeships took about 5 years; he started at age 15 or 17 and stayed there until he was about 22 or 23 years old. In an apprenticeship, you don’t get paid. You are expected to learn everything and start from the bottom up. It teaches discipline and hard work that’s required in every step (In this aspect, everything was very traditional, even when my father trained me, a little over 20 years later). He was trained specifically to help patients in America and the health conditions many faced in the West, to be the first traditional Chinese herbalist and practitioner that saw patients and prescribed them herbs exclusively.   

At the beginning, sickness was of hunger. Many people went hungry because of no money or no access to food. He’d always tell me that if he had bags of rice, he could heal them all. The priority was having enough food so that their stomachs won’t grumble when they went to sleep, in a way, times were much simpler, whoever had a bit more shared with everyone else when they were in need, it was normal.

Over time, having food to eat wasn’t the problem, but having too much food became an issue. Many were eating a lot of unhealthy foods (junk foods, soda, fried and oily foods, etc.), making it easier to get sick. As a result, issues with food, diet, and digestion has become more and more common, affecting not just your health but your family as well. In time, we begin to see more illnesses that stem from issues related to indigestion and being overweight.

Within a few decades, health issues changed to more complex illnesses and diseases. What used to be easily solvable with a change of diet and some tea now became cases where patients would come in with something, they don’t know anything about, unaware of how they may have gotten it in the first place. In western medicine, many these cases are new, and no one knows what it is. So, they describe it as cancer.

In terms of Traditional Chinese Medicine, what is cancer?