Why Your Body "Pops Out" New Pains (The Root Cause Secret)

What happens when a winemaker decides to trade the cellar for a clinic? In this episode of HearMeOut, Belinda sits down with Dr. Regan Kapach, a Traditional Chinese Medical Doctor and Acupuncturist, to explore the bridge between ancient wisdom and modern health.

From battling chronic menstrual pain to uncovering why "inexplicable" nerve pain appears when we suppress our emotions, Dr. Kapach breaks down the powerful synergy of needles and herbs. We dive deep into the philosophy of "patterns of disharmony" and why your body might be screaming for help even when your labs look "normal."

→ The difference between a 3-year and 4-year TCM education (Acupuncture vs. Herbology).

→ Why Western and Eastern medicine are most powerful when used side-by-side.

→ How the "root cause" philosophy prevents symptoms from manifesting in other parts of the body.

00:00 Introduction

01:05 Why "normal" pain shouldn't be ignored 03:45 The path to becoming a TCM Doctor 06:10 Why herbs are "half the medicine"

07:15 Belinda’s personal story: From migraines to maternity 11:15 Why natural healing takes time

13:30 The Chinese hospital model: Emergency vs. Chronic care 18:30 The danger of suppressing symptoms with "Band-Aids" 23:10 Why patients are getting more "complicated" today

27:40 Conclusion and where to find Dr. Kapach

Dr. Regan Kapach is a registered TCMD and Acupuncturist based in Alberta. She specializes in finding patterns of disharmony to help patients move from "coping" to "healing."  

Website: birdsofafeatheracu.com

Question of the Day: Have you ever tried acupuncture for something other than physical pain? Let us know in the comments!

#TCM #Acupuncture #HolisticHealth #ChronicPain #AlternativeMedicine #WellnessJourney #BelindaWaites #HearMeOut #TraditionalChineseMedicine

Host: Belinda Waites Watch full episode Youtube: @belindawaites Instagram:

@belindawaites Belinda Waites - Hear Right Canada – Okotoks: where better hearing starts with listening. 🌐 hearrightcanada.ca

Why Your Body "Pops Out" New Pains (The Root Cause Secret)

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I think it's going back to that more, I want to call it that awakening where people are learning that there are these alternatives and we need to treat the body holistically. We need to look at all the different aspects and how they are linked together so we can treat them correctly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

Yeah. Yeah. And often people are doing this when they're not getting the results they want from the Western perspective. Um and I also I I don't feel like acupuncture is the end-all be-all I used to. Um, but you you come to realize that um everyone needs to heal in in their own particular way. And I've seen where acupuncture has not worked well for the person. Um, and it was just some other shift that they needed from some other modality, whatever that was, um, that um that I couldn't offer. And so I do love to work with uh, I love collaborating with other people and sending people elsewhere as well, because um sometimes they just need something completely different.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Welcome back to Hear Me Out with Belinda. Before I introduce today's guest, if you're enjoying the content of the show, please don't forget to like and subscribe to the channel. Today I'm going to introduce you to Reagan, a traditional Chinese medical doctor and acupuncturist. Welcome in the studio, Reagan. Thank you for having me. Yeah, I'm really excited about our conversation today. Me too. So I think I've said to you, I always like a person's journey, right? Because I don't think in high school you chose traditional Chinese medical as a career. No. Right. So how how did you become, like how what what what made you go into that field?

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Um I guess early on, uh I mean, even if I do look back to to high school times, um, I was always interested in um even just like natural products and stuff. Um and um at the same time, um I monthly I suffered hormonal um and uh painful cycles. Um and even back then I I just couldn't understand that this was um considered like normal. Um and how to yeah, how was how was this much pain considered normal? Um and so even then it was like this just this doesn't make sense. Like there's there has to be something more out there. Um so that was sort of in the back of my mind for a long time, but I didn't realize, of course, back then that there was anything. Um and then I had um I started traveling uh when I was in school. Um and my interests were always in Eastern cultures. So I I started with like Western religions, and then that went into Eastern religions. So I did the gamut in school, um as you do first year university, everything from psychology to Buddhism, um, which I guess sort of they can kind of play into each other, but um and so yeah, so then this this peak, this interest in in Eastern culture started when I was sort of in university. Um and then I feel like both of my parents were in the um medical field. And so from a genetic perspective, I think that was always there. Um and I uh I ended up um, I have a very um interesting, uncohesive history, some of us do. Um, I was a winemaker for 15 years. Um, and during that time, um I I had thought about going to Chinese medicine school. Um and I had put it aside because winemaking is quite fun, as you can imagine. Um but there was just something missing. I just always felt like um, you know, I just needed to be giving back. There was this thing, it's like I don't feel like I'm giving back to society. And that's just something that um yeah, it it just felt kind of empty, I guess. I was having fun, but it just still wasn't feeling my cup wasn't filled. Um, and then I made the jump after that. Okay. Sorry, that was really long-winded.

SPEAKER_00 4:48

That's okay. It's it's your story, it's your journey. Right. Yeah. So how long is the education to become a traditional Chinese medical doctor?

SPEAKER_01 4:57

Um, so you can do it a couple of different ways. So if you want to just be a registered acupuncturist, it's a three-year course. Um, and then I did I what if I figured if I was gonna do it, I'm gonna do the whole hog. And so I did a double major, and that was in traditional Chinese medicine, uh, which is the herbal formulas. So that's all the herb side, and then that is in um tandem with the acupuncture side. Um, and so yeah, that's a double major, and then that was four years.

SPEAKER_00 5:26

Okay. And you can do that full time or can you do that online?

SPEAKER_01 5:31

Um, you so when I started, uh, we were, we were during COVID, and I thought this is a probably a pretty good time to start studying and being online. Um and so you can do a little bit of online, but then they really want you to get hands-on and start being able to um understand um yeah, point location is kind of the biggest thing and understanding anatomy and where points are and that kind of thing. And just getting you used to being um, yeah, in that position where you're um, yeah, you you're you're playing the part of doctor, right?

SPEAKER_00 6:10

And so then for yourself, you did talk a little bit about um, I think your your menstrual cycle and just the cramping and the pain that you were in. Um so COVID is probably what about, well, it's about six years since the start, I think. And um, how has your journey helped you with that?

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Um yeah, it's it has helped. Um, and I I definitely lean on the medicine when I need to, but it's kind of like you've heard the story about the shoemaker's son has no shoes. So I don't probably practice it on myself as much as I should.

SPEAKER_00 6:45

Okay. Yep. And so in your own um practice, do you use a lot of the herbs or do you focus more on the acupuncture?

SPEAKER_01 6:51

Oh, in my own practice for people, um I do both, actually. I I feel like, I mean, when you look at back at um ancient Chinese texts, they the the Chinese characters on them for acupuncture actually include characters that include that the herbs. Um, so there's yeah, like a character for herbs and a character for the acupuncture. So I feel historically they've gone hand in hand forever. Um, you can get away with just doing the needling, but I find the herbal medicine, I do. I feel like it's half the medicines sometimes. They're just really, really powerful. So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:30

And where do you get the herbs from? Do you have to get them from um far east?

SPEAKER_01 7:35

Or can you get them here? Or no, so I do order them in. There's a little company in Vancouver, um, and they order it in from China. So all of the herbs are um they're based out of China. There's some that you would probably recognize um the names of the English names, but um, but they're all sourced and and um processed in China, and then they're brought over here, and then I order from them. So it's a a few steps to get here. To get there, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

And obviously all Health Canada approved and everything to be imported. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah. So I know um I was brought up in Johannesburg, South Africa. Okay. And I know I remember I used to actually struggle with a lot of um migraine headaches as a young adult. Yeah. And I sort of work at a specific hotel which was pretty close to what we would have called Chinatown. Right. Yeah. And um, this is going back to the early 90s. And I remember a colleague of mine had said to me, because I was really struggling, you know, with the headaches, and she said, you know, you should go, you should go try them. There's this um traditional Chinese medical clinic in Chinatown, go in. And so the one Friday afternoon I walked in there, and um, I remember that they didn't speak a lot of English. It was definitely um, you know, very much within, you know, Chinatown, very much a cultural very place. And but yeah, they definitely helped me. Um I told them, you know, what was, you know, happening and um kind of laid down, had the needles, had the cupping. They they did give me some herbal medicine, and then um, I think there was like several appointments, but I do remember um it was about within a month and the migraines, headaches had stopped. Um and then it's something that you don't think about, right? Because now they've solved the problem. So you've you've had your your medication, you know, you've had your your acupuncture, and then you sort of carry on with your life. And you know, for me, life happened was we were immigrating and all of that. Um so a lot of a lot of things happening. We got to Canada. And it's something that I hadn't really thought about until I was pregnant with my second son. And um, I really wanted to have a natural birth, but because my older one had been um an emergency C-section in the end, um they had said that, well, you have up until this date to give birth naturally, otherwise we have to, you know, go in. And I'd gone out to the I think there's a clinic in Calgary where you can go and I'd had the acupuncture to try and, you know, induce labor um just one session. And unfortunately it didn't work, you know. So in the back of your head, you're thinking, oh, you know, it doesn't work. Um but on the other hand, I thought to myself, you know, when I was having my oldest son back in South Africa, I wanted a natural birth as well. And my um OBGYN had said to me on the Friday at my 38-week checkup that, you know what, I got last-minute tickets to go to the Sevens Rugby in the UK. So I'm actually leaving on um Thursday. So I just recommend he come in on Tuesday to be induced. Oh. And I was like, but that's not what I want. That's not part of my birth plan. Right. And he was like, well, you know, and they do really scare you, you know, at that point. He's like, Well, if you want to give birth naturally, that's fine. But just please be aware there may not be a doctor on duty to help you, you know, so you are putting yourself and your baby at risk. Yeah, it's kind of terrifying when I think back to it now. So, anyway, what do you do? You book your appointment, you go in to be induced. Oh. You know, 11 hours later through pain, um, he did become an emergency. Like, I don't think he was ready at 38 weeks. He wanted another two weeks inside where it was warm. But anyway, yeah he came out, he's beautiful, he's healthy, he's 19 now. But my point being, like you you dismiss a tradition uh like a tr uh uh traditional medicine, forgetting that the Western medicine didn't work either, right? That induction did not work. Right. The same as acupuncture did not work, right? And maybe it was a you know, that once-off thing that your body's not ready or that type of thing.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

That's interesting.

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Going back into you have to give a time, like anything. You can't just do something once-off, I don't think. You have to give a time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:53

And I find that that's the that is the hardest thing for people to wrap their head around when they come in for acupuncture the first time. Um because we are groomed as a society, um, and it's what we know is that uh you go to a doctor, they give you medicine, and and everything is fixed, and that's all you have to do. Whereas in Chinese medicine, we're really what we're trying to do is um we are asking your body to physiologically change. And so that is not something that happens in an instant. Um, and so when you do that, it does take time. And it's it's that piece, and it's also um, you know, what got you to this point where you you need the medicine and and maybe it's lifestyle. And so then that's another difficult piece that I find is really challenging for people to be like, well, um, yes, you can do the acupuncture and maybe it won't work. And the reason might be because um you're in fight or flight or you've been stressed out every single day for the last three years. You know what I mean? And so um, so there's pieces of it that are are difficult for sure. Um and it's interesting for you to to put it in that light because I've never really thought of it that way before. Like maybe the acupuncture didn't work. Yes, you maybe you needed more, maybe the body wasn't ready, as you said, but it's also, yeah, like you say, the the Western didn't work in particular well either. So yeah, yeah. So it's um yeah, it's a mind shift in one sense. Um and yeah, just being open to things that can take time. I mean, if you look in in nature, and that's the biggest part of it, is that um nothing in nature is rushed, you know. And so when you do decide you want to take a natural route, you do have to keep in mind that it's it might be a slower process.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

So yeah, yeah. I know when I used to work in Calgary, I actually did have a traditional Chinese medical doctor and acupuncture that I would go to actually primarily for relaxation and coughing. You know, I had a a one-hour lunch, so I was like, I have a 55-minute appointment in and out today. Yeah. Um, and so she had said to me that when she had done her training years ago, um, she had done, I think it was maybe six months with somewhere within China. And it was very fascinating to hear that they have this, um, I'm gonna assume it's still the same. I've never traveled to China myself, where they have this parallel medical system where you would walk into an emergency room and if you're you know having chest pain or symptoms of a heart attack or you've been involved in a car accident, you're definitely going almost like the Western medicine route, that emergency care. Right, right. Yeah, yeah. But if you're going in with a chronic illness, they're actually pushing you to that traditional Chinese medicine system. Where they're gonna treat you and really try examine, you know, I think they call it the qi, maybe out of balance, and they're gonna see what's happening within the body, what caused that. Yeah, and then they're gonna try and treat it with the the traditional herbs or the acupuncture, you know, and that type of thing.

SPEAKER_01 15:10

So I really felt that was quite interesting to hear how beautiful system, and it makes sense. And I tell people that all the time like, don't come and see me if you're having a heart attack, please. Um yeah, it's it's very much uh and we need Western medicine for sure. Um it definitely has its place, but it it's less so proactive, um, whereas the yeah, the traditional Chinese medicine. It's it's more proactive. Um, and it is, it's it's great for for chronic sort of things too. Um and there was a piece, sorry, that I just wanted to go back to too before I forgot is the um the also being aware. I I think in Chinese medicine, too, a big piece is that um like going back to your story, and you in your mind, you felt it was too early. Uh and so one thing that I I try to promote with my patients um is this self-awareness and being more in tune with your body and that empowerment to go uh to be able to say to your midwife or whatever, it's like, no, this is how I feel and this is what I feel like we should do. Um, and being confident in saying that and not just going by um this is what the doctor is telling me to do. So then I will do it, you know? Um, because I think we get very complacent in in and we should trust our doctors. We should absolutely listen to what they're saying. But in your particular case, like that's I want to go to a a foot like that just makes me crazy. I know.

SPEAKER_00 16:48

Sure, it made you crazy as well. It did. And going back to, you know, that is I don't know, I've been out of South Africa for for almost 19 years now, so I can't really speak to the medical system today. Sure. But definitely at the time I was really angry. I'd actually gone to um somebody else for a second opinion. Um, she was not, she was a female, obviously, but she was not an um uh uh I think OBGYN or a gynecologist. And she had basically said the same thing to me. She said, you know, like you need to follow the advice of your doctor. You know, if you go back through history, um women in childbirth have, you know, died. But really, like it was this fear of factor. This fear of factor to everything. But really, not even talking about, well, if you go back through history, a lot of women did die, but it was due to, you know, lack of medical care, lack of, you know, sanitation, people washing their hands, you know, all those type of things. Um but yeah, I was yeah, and you know, you're young, you really don't know. You want to do what's right for yourself and your child, so you have to follow it. But yeah, that was private medical care where really the doctors would dictate what's happening.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

Well, and it really still is that way too. And then to your point about going back in history, well, if you go back farther enough in history, there were no medical doctors. Women have been giving birth for a very long time, and they didn't have a hospital to go to, and we still seem to be, you know, they made it, that sort of thing. So it just, yeah, that piece that and that that fear piece is always um, it's tricky because yes, their job is to keep you as safe as possible. That's their duty. And so, yes, they're gonna go by this is the safest route for sure. Um, but yeah, that's it's just so, so frustrating. So interesting. So, yes, and they should, and even now, I mean, I would never tell a patient to go against what their doctor is recommending. Um, but know your body, you know, know what's going on. And when I when I work with a patient, I do my best, if they're interested, I do my best to lay out what I am seeing from a Chinese medicine perspective. Like these are they call them patterns of disharmony. So these are the patterns that I'm seeing. Um, this is what is out of balance. This is why you have the symptoms that you do, and this is what we're gonna do to try to get you back to health. And I think that's the, as you said, with the um, with the um the hospital that deals more with chronic issues in China, that that um uh they do the whole concept of Chinese medicine is is to try and figure out what is the root cause. Because if you have a root cause, it's like a roadmap to how do you get past that? How do you fix that? Um whereas putting a band-aid on it and stifling the symptoms, um, that's not getting better. It's just masking what's already there. And the scary part about that is that if you are just stifling symptoms, the body is gonna find another way for to manifest it. Um and an interesting thing that I've I've noticed uh in my relatively short time of practicing, but in the time that I have, um, is that often um, again, and I never want to say um that people should not take the medications that they've been prescribed for sure. Like it's it's safety, they're needed when they're needed, but at the same time, um, keeping in mind that take them, but also think of maybe, well, how do I fix it so I don't have to take them? So I've seen many patients who are on suppressive medications, um, and that could be anxiety or depression. And they come to me after years of taking this sort of thing because they have this inexplicable nerve pain and it's on a random part of the body. It's like on the side of the foot or it's in the rib cage. And Western doctors can't tell them why it's happening because they don't know. And my uh simple theory, as humble as it may be, is that you're suppressing something, but the body is still trying to deal with the root cause is still there. So this pain is going to find another way to manifest, and that's where it's coming out is through the nerves and weird parts of the body that have no relationship to any other Western defined um ailment, you know. So so it's just anyway, I just I could the it's so fascinating. It's such a fascinating medicine, and it's just it's so practical. Um, and it makes so much sense in so many ways, which is just why I love it. But um yes, Western to have that like that piece of Western and Eastern working side by side is brilliant. I would, I would adore that.

SPEAKER_00 21:48

Yeah. Yeah. It could be an an interesting uh shift, right? I feel like there's a lot more people um awakening to these more traditional uh practices, whether it's It's traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture or you know reflexology or um I'm just trying to think, you know, herbalism or being a naturopath, you know, all of those different things I think are these alternates, right? Because people, like I said, we can't do without our medical doctors. Absolutely. Um and they're definitely much respected and appreciated. But I do think you're right that there's a part of us that needs healing. And if we're not addressing how to heal it and really pay attention, I think one of my favorite authors is um, I think I'm gonna say his name, Minduskaboe Mate. And he wrote a book where um it says where when when the body says no. And I'm but I'm actually in the middle of reading that. And I think it's really on the along the same lines. If you've got that stress and you're not dealing with it, your body is reacting, your body's actually getting sick. So going back to what you're saying, if you're not treating what's actually causing your body to be sick, um, you're not actually healing at all. You're just putting that band-aid on and then your body's gonna, it's gonna pop out.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:00

It's gonna find another area to come out. And he was here recently.

SPEAKER_01 23:03

Did you go and see him?

SPEAKER_00 23:04

I didn't manage to get into the sea, but I was really sad that I missed him. Yeah, but I did have a lot of friends that got to go and see him. Yeah, yeah. And I think that would have been one of those. Yeah, for sure. But I think that's all, like I said, I think it's going back to that more, I want to call it that awakening where people are learning that there are these alternatives and we need to treat the body holistically. We need to look at all the different aspects and how they are linked together so we can treat them correctly.

SPEAKER_01 23:29

Um I feel like um, yeah, and often people are doing this when they're not getting the results they want from the Western perspective. Um and I also I I don't feel like acupuncture is the end-all, be all I used to. Um, but you you come to realize that um everyone needs to heal in in their own particular way. And I've seen where acupuncture has not worked well for the person. Um, and it was just some other shift that they needed from some other modality, whatever that was, um that um that I couldn't offer. And so I do love to work with uh I love collaborating with other people and sending people elsewhere as well, because um sometimes they just need something completely different. And I think the other piece too is that um I was speaking to the woman who actually inspired me to go into natural medicine. So she was a naturopath. Uh, she was one of the first, um, I think registered naturopaths. So they didn't have a school, like whatever it would have been, probably 50 odd years ago. So they had to go through a chiropractic college in order to get um regist I I don't know how the how it worked in particular, but so she was one of the first people to, I think she was one, um, she like rallied for uh the the practice to come together and be recognized. Um anyway, she's obviously very inspiring to me. Um but yeah, so at the time that I saw her, she had been practicing for 40 years and um and she just knew everything there was to know about the body. But um I spoke to her recently, excuse me, and she was saying that um it's getting harder and harder to treat people. And she said, people are just getting more and more complicated, which is really um it's it's sad, but it's uh not surprising, you know, with with what we deal with on a daily basis, and especially now with the onslaught of social media um and news events, and you know, how how can we possibly deal with everything that's going on? Um and so again, going back to that, people are they're starting to search out other ways because they're realizing that we need more than just a prescription medication and something to stifle what we're feeling like we need to actually deal with this to yeah, yeah. So um, so I'm happy that um that there are more modalities out there and it's getting more more attention for sure. So yeah, yeah. Do you get to acupuncture anymore? Are you still going? You know what? I haven't been in a long time.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

I just and sometimes you just don't need to. You just need to have a good place. So I do do regular massage therapy right now. So I do think as long as you have something, um, an outlet, and um the clinic, I do have, you know, here right Canada here in Okotok. So I do get to talk to a lot of people, which is really amazing and help improve their quality of life by treating their hearing loss, and while doing that, get to hear the amazing stories of their journeys. And so that's also what's really opened my eyes to all these different modalities as well of hearing what they've been doing or what's worked from them, or you know, uh, you know, maybe 60 years ago, you know, what happened or that type of thing. So I think it's been really fascinating.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

And everyone, that's I mean, and that was one of the biggest um eye-openers for me when I first started. Because as an intern, you go in and um people uh they open up to you. I'm sure they do with you as well. Um, and you get stories that blow you away and you start to realize that every person that comes in to see you is struggling with something like everyone is going or has gone through something. And you you look at them and go, How are you even functioning? Like, how are you managing to keep it together on a daily basis? And um, and we just do, you know, and so yeah, we are kind of like pushing down all these stresses and hopefully getting support in other ways, right? Massage or or whatever modality it is. So yeah, yeah, it is, it's fascinating. I I love that side of it too, that um you do you get to know people really well when they come to see you often and yeah.

SPEAKER_00 28:04

And I think it goes back to just building those communities, right? Creating those networks, those communities so that you can collaborate when others when necessary, but also for yourself. You have people that you can connect with and talk to. Right.

SPEAKER_01 28:17

Oh, absolutely, yeah. And bouncing ideas off of uh off of each other too, because you do start to feel like um you're a bit of an island when you just work at one clinic and you're just doing your thing. Um, so it is, it's good to get different perspective on things, and especially with Chinese medicine too, because um there's a million different theories out there and it's it's such an ancient medicine that um it's um you can interpret it in many different ways as well. So um, so yeah, different perspective is always very good for sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Reagan, it's been a wonderful chat today. Thank you for coming on the show and talking about that. I so appreciate the time to talk about it and um yeah, and share. I just I wish it was more known to more people because it can be just so incredibly helpful. So I really appreciate this uh this platform for being able to share.

SPEAKER_00 29:08

You're more than welcome. And thanks again. Thank you.