Rising Stars: Meet Lain Lye

Lain Lye

Hi Lain, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
As a Chinese American who immigrated to the United States, it was the dream of my family for me to do something in the medical field. We immigrated here when I was 7 years old from Myanmar (Burma). Shortly after we moved, my mom was diagnosed with cancer. With a mom who battled cancer, I was exposed to both the conventional medical system as well as many Chinese remedies in my early teens. This led me to become interested in medicine and pursue becoming a pharmacist. Out of college, I worked in a pharmacy, where I was exposed to the world of medicine. Having worked there for about a year, I realized that this form of medicine did not align with my values and my ways of wanting to help people. With that knowledge, I was driven to seek out another form of care that involved healing without the need to suppress the body and its symptoms.

While working in the pharmacy, one of the pharmacists suggested that I look into naturopathic medical school. At that time, Bastyr was opening up a location in San Diego – which was truly perfect because I didn’t want to leave Southern California. After looking into naturopathic medicine, this form of healing made so much sense and aligned with what I wanted to do because it incorporated the values of Eastern medicine that I ultimately grew up with.

Amplify Health and Wellness was an idea, a dream, that came about with a classmate during our last year of medical school. As we started to build the practice after graduation, significant life events happened, and both her and I had to put a pause on the dream. But as life goes, everything truly happened for a reason. Throughout the years of putting Amplify Health and Wellness on pause, I gained an abundance of knowledge and experience. The idea of Amplify Health and Wellness never faded.

Now that life events have settled down, the dream of restarting Amplify Health and Wellness has now become a reality. My next goal is to be able to expand and hire other practitioners in order to help grow the naturopathic community. I aim to create new job opportunities for graduates where they can continue to learn from more experienced doctors.

Absolutely not! One of the biggest struggles was overcoming the fear of leaving my comfort zone and starting. Though I had planned on starting my own practice right out of school, I started to work at various practices, where I made a steady income. When starting a business, the finances are no longer a guarantee, and it is up to me to make sure that there is enough capital in order to sustain the business. Being that a large part of my area of expertise is in IV nutrient therapy, sourcing nutrients has also been a challenge because it is important for me to provide quality nutrients for my patients. Lastly, in this era of social media, I struggle with being seen on public platforms. This is a challenge that is a work in progress that I am still overcoming and working through on a daily basis.

I am the doctor behind Amplify Health and Wellness. As a naturopathic doctor, I guide and teach my patients in their healing journey. We investigate their complaints and explore their symptoms, then try to tie them all together in order to figure out what the root cause of the symptoms are. I enjoy treating patients with  hormonal complaints, metabolic issues, and/or GI and gut health complaints. I address the root cause of the ailments with the use of lifestyle changes, nutraceuticals, various herbs, supplementation, bio-identical hormones, or pharmaceuticals when necessary. My philosophy is that I want my patients to live full and healthy lives, being proactive with their health instead of being reactive, ultimately improving the quality of life. I am an advocate to help them achieve that. Besides working side by side with patients, I also love doing hands-on work through IV nutrient therapy and doing various injection therapies. I offer joint injections in the form of prolotherapy and platelet-rich plasma (PRP), as well as micro-needling with PRP for facials and hair rejuvenation.Teaching had always been one of my passions, so while in school at Bastyr, I was a TA, and after graduating, I stayed on as adjunct faculty as well as clinical supervisor for the IV shift. This sets me apart from other IV therapy practitioners as I have taught the courses for administration of IVs.

My favorite childhood memory was walking to school with my mom every morning. We would recite nursery rhymes and prayers during our walks. She always had bento box-style lunches packed with rice balls and warm home-cooked meals every day. Looking back on it, a lot of my childhood set the foundations of health through nutrition, movement, spiritual practices, and connection.