Have you ever wonder why some of your friend resistance of cold is better than others? After having a meal of spicy hot food together, why some will have soar throat or pimple outbreaks while others do not? Do you feel more fatigue than friends of your same age group having a similar lifestyle? All these can be explained by understanding the body constitution of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
        |
The Concept of Constitution
Constitution is a kind of living phenomenon that exists objectively. It is the comprehensive and relatively stable characteristics that living body show itself in the aspects of morphological structure, physiological function, personality and mentality.
Constitution presents the individual differences of Zang-Fu Organs, Qi-Blood and Yin-Yang with the differences of individual morphology, function and mentality. In physiological aspect, it presents itself with the individual differences of function, metabolism and response to external stimuli. In pathological aspect, it presents itself with susceptibility to some pathogenic factors, liability to some diseases, and particular tendency in the development and transfer of diseases.
For example, the person whose constitution is Phlegm-Dampness Type has a higher levels of blood lipid and blood glucose, and an abnormal indexes of blood rheology. There is a significant relationship between the constitution of Phlegm-Dampness Type and obesity, hyperlipemia, diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke and so on.
The Types of Constitutions of Human Body
After over 30 years of effort, the Chinese medical experts have put forward nine kinds of basic constitutional types of human being, which are Healthy Type, Qi-Deficiency Type, Yang-Deficiency Type, Yin-Deficiency Type, Phlegm-Dampness Type, Dampness-Heat Type, Blood-Stasis Type, Qi-Stagnation Type, Allergy Type. They also have designed the Questionnaire for Survey of Constitutions in Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Criteria for Classification and Diagnosis of Constitutions in Traditional Chinese Medicine, which is a standard tool for the classification of constitutions.
Of course, people who are single constitutional type are often rare in real life, compound constitutional type are the majority.