Resilience Medicine
Dr Reece Yeo, Integrative Chinese Medicine PractitionerThe Resilience Clinic, Burleigh Heads
Resilience Medicine is the framework Reece uses in practice. It draws on classical Chinese medicine and modern physiology to look at how your body takes in a challenge, responds, finishes that response and settles back. Rather than looking only at a diagnosis, Reece looks at where in that cycle things may be struggling, and works with you on diet, lifestyle and Chinese medicine care. It isn't a medical specialty, and it works alongside your GP and any treatment you already have.
What does resilience mean
In Reece's framework, resilience means how your body handles a challenge from start to finish. It has less to do with how much you can put up with.
He thinks of it as four steps:
- Take in the signal. Your body notices something has changed. It might be a virus, a hard week at work, poor sleep or a shift in hormones. In Chinese medicine, this first line of response is traditionally described as Wei Qi.
- Respond in proportion. The response needs to match the challenge. Sometimes it is too weak, and sometimes it overshoots or doesn't switch off.
- Finish the response. Recovery is an active process. If a response never fully finishes, a short-term problem can drag on.
- Settle back to baseline. Your sleep, energy and appetite return to where they were before.
Same cold, three different recoveries
Here is an example Reece uses. Three people in the same office catch the same cold virus in the same week.
Person A notices a scratchy throat early. She has a runny nose and feels flat for a day or two. The cold clears in about a week, and her sleep, energy and appetite are back to normal soon after.
Person B doesn't notice much at first. His response is slow, and a week later the cold has settled on his chest.
Person C has a mild cold, but the cough lingers for weeks. Afterwards she doesn't feel quite right. Her sleep is off and she seems to pick up every bug going around.
Same virus, same week. What differed was how each body took in the challenge, responded and recovered. That is the question Resilience Medicine asks: where in the cycle are things struggling for you, and why?
What Reece looks at
| Step | The question | What Reece looks at |
|---|---|---|
| Take in the signal | Is your body noticing the challenge? | Sleep, stress load, energy, your Chinese medicine pattern, and functional pathology tests (such as nutrient levels) where useful |
| Respond in proportion | Is the response matched to the challenge? | Your constitution, how you usually react when unwell, signs of a response that overshoots or doesn't switch off |
| Finish the response | Does the response run its course? | Digestion, appetite, how long symptoms linger, your Chinese medicine pattern |
| Settle back to baseline | Do you return to how you were? | Sleep quality, energy, mood, how long recovery takes, and heart rate variability (HRV) and sleep stages if you track them on a wearable |
If a functional test might be useful, Reece will talk it through with you first, including cost. Medicare doesn't cover these tests.
Terrain and constitution
Chinese medicine looks at the person as well as the problem. Two people can have the same diagnosis and very different constitutions, habits and stresses. Reece asks why your capacity to respond may have worn down over time, and that shapes the plan you work on together.
Where the framework comes from
Resilience Medicine brings together these things:
- classical Chinese medicine, including the Shanghanlun (Jingfang) tradition
- modern physiology
- biophysics, meaning how light, posture and movement affect the body. This is the thinking behind Reece's use of light therapy (photobiomodulation) and posture assessment.
- your existing test results and any diagnosis from your GP or specialist
A question Reece explores: compensation
One question Reece explores is what he calls the Compensation Crisis. His idea is that the body can keep things looking normal for a long time by compensating, so test results can look fine while a person feels their reserve is running low.
What care involves
Care is based on Chinese medicine, with diet and lifestyle advice to suit you. The aim is to support your body's own capacity to respond and recover. Reece works alongside your GP and any treatment you already have. He doesn't practise as a GP, so please keep seeing your GP for diagnosis and medical care.
Hear more on the podcast
Reece talks through these ideas on his podcast, The Integrative Blueprint.
Dr Reece Yeo is registered with the Chinese Medicine Board of Australia (AHPRA registration CMR0001952522).