Dr. Seo Hyo-seok
A defining figure of Korea's 50-year lung-clearing clinical tradition. Graduated from Kyung Hee University College of Korean Medicine in 1972, founded Pyunkang Korean Medicine Hospital, and developed the Pyunkang-Hwan formula.
- Top-ranked admission to Kyung Hee University College of Korean Medicine in 1966
- Finalised the Pyunkang-Hwan formula in 1972
- Founder of Pyunkang Korean Medicine Hospital, in continuous practice for 50+ years
- Lecturer for Kyung Hee University Korean Medicine special seminars
- Featured guest on PBS US public television in 2025
- 2025 · Letter of Recognition from US Senator Andy Kim
- Board director: Korea–US Alliance Foundation, General Douglas MacArthur Foundation, Trump Freedom & Peace Foundation
- Author of 6 books, including The Miracle of Lung Cleansing, The Pyunkang Path to 100, and How Mouth Breathing Makes You Sick
It started at a clinic in Busan
In 1947, Seo Hyo-seok was born into a family of Korean medicine practitioners in Busan. His father ran the Pyunkang clinic, and from a young age he absorbed traditional Korean herbal compounding and clinical practice.
In 1966, he entered Kyung Hee University's College of Korean Medicine — the highest-ranked Korean medicine college in the country at the time — as the top-ranked candidate nationally. Six years of systematic training gave him an unusual two-way fluency between modern medicine and the Korean classics.
When he returned to Busan in 1972 to take over his father's clinic, he had already decided to focus his clinical practice on the lungs — an organ then largely overlooked by mainstream medicine. The Pyunkang-Hwan formula he finalised that year has remained unchanged for 50 years.
Outside medicine, Dr. Seo served as the 8th President of the Korea Baduk (Go) Association and now sits on the boards of the Korea–US Alliance Foundation, the General Douglas MacArthur Foundation, and the Trump Freedom & Peace Foundation. He is the author of 6 health-related books, including The Miracle of Lung Cleansing, The Pyunkang Path to 100, and How Mouth Breathing Makes You Sick — published in both Korean and Chinese markets.
Why the lungs
“Modern people spend 70% of their time indoors, with poor air quality, too little movement, and chronically shallow breathing. The lungs absorb all of this — and yet in Western medicine they only become visible when there is infection or a tumour. I chose to put my whole clinical attention there.”
Dr. Seo's core view follows the classical line: the lungs govern qi and respiration, open at the nose, and pair with the skin. The respiratory tract, the skin, and overall immune state all extend from the state of the lungs. The 20+ herbs in Pyunkang-Hwan are arranged around that whole-system view.