Relationship Research between the Chinese Medicine Constitution and Sub-Health

doi:10.4236/eng.2013.510B088

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Engineering, 2013, 5, 429-432

http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/eng.2013.510B088 Published Online October 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/eng)

Relationship Research between the Chinese Medicine

Constitution and Sub-Health*

Xiufeng Liu, Bo Xu, Zhenhu Chen

School of Medical Information Engineering, Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine, Guangzhou, China

Email: [email protected]

Received 2013

ABSTRACT

With further development of the bio-psycho-social medical model, people began to re-examine the knowledge of dis-

ease and health. The concept of sub-health has also been proposed in western medicine. Because of the lack of a specif-

ic standard, it is difficult to make clinical diagnosis and treatments for sub -health. Chinese medicine constitution th eory

has been widely accepted in China, and has a set of executable standards. This paper puts forward a new research me-

thod that connects the sub-health in western medicine and Chinese medicine constitution theory together . The potential

relationships and influences between Chinese medicine constitution theory and sub-health were analyzed and key con-

tent and research progress were discussed. The research method in this paper will provide new ideas for sub-health re-

search.

Keywords: Chinese Medicine Constitution; Sub-Health; Relationship

1. Introduction

The concept of Sub-health State was first proposed by

the scholar Beckman of the former Soviet Union in the

1980s. It is called the “third State” which is the physio-

logical state between health and illness. It means that the

body has no apparent disease, but the adaptive capacity

reduced physically, so as to resulting in a poor mental

state. In 1988, United States Centers for disease control

and prevention identified a group of chronic persistent or

recurrent fatigue symptoms of mental and physical,

which continue for 6 months or more, as the main cha-

racteristic of the syndrome. This synd rome was officially

named for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), and the

diagnostic criteria for CFS were also set subsequently.

The CFS standards were also further developed in Aus-

tralia and United Kingdom on the basis of the works of

United States.

2. Influence Factors and Research Progress

of Sub-Health

1) Sub-health Influence factors

The cause of sub-health can be summed up as: 1) ex-

cessive stress, imbalance of physical and mental state; 2)

unreasonable diet, unhealthy eating habits; 3) disordered

biological rhythm, unscientific lifestyle; 4) increasingly

serious environmental pollution, small living space; 5)

reduced quality of emotional life, interpersonal tensions;

6) bad mood, bad character [1]. In short, personality fac-

tors, psychosocial factors, poor bad living habits and

unhealthy environmental factors are associated with the

sub-health state, embodying much tension, strong pres-

sure, recurrent frustration, excessive fatigue, environ-

mental pollution, and so on. These all are the key risks of

the formation of sub-health.

2) Sub-health Research progress

Wang Qi suggested that the sub-health state was a

low-quality state of body and mind between the health

and morbid state. A lthough the body has no clear sign of

disease, people’s physical and/or psychological feelings

were not really well, resulting in a pathological state of

reduced vitality and adaptability to the outside world.

Wang Qi focused on the subjective feelings of the human

body and mind [2]. However Wang Yuxue believed that

sub-health is an intermediate state between health and

illness. It is not only a separate stage but also a dynamic

process, and it means that body begins to show signs or

symptoms, but has not reached to the standards of dis-

ease. Wang Yuxue focused on the process of develop-

ment [3]. Liu Baoyan set a time limit when introducing

the concept of Sub-health State. Liu stressed the persis-

tence and repetition of sub-health and pointed out that

sub-health was a state with no clear diagnosis, but the

adaptive capacity that has being reduced significantly for

*This paper is supported by

Guangdong Province Tech nology Project in

Social Development Field of Guangdong Provincial Department of

Science and Technology, China (201102). The corr

esponding author is

Zhenhu Chen.

X. F. LIU ET AL.

430

at least three months or longer [4]. Currently no common

standard is available for sub-health diagnose, however, a

conclusion was reached that sub-health is a state or a

process between health and disease featuring with usual-

ly reversible psychosomatic disorders. The development

of sub health is often closely related to the social and

psychological factors. Sub-health associates with a va-

riety of symptoms which often cannot be detected with

existing methods or shows inconsistence test results [5,

6].

3. Chinese Medicine Constitution

The concept of “Constitution” has been put forward since

the Spring and Autumn period by the ancient scholars in

China, but it was not accepted by general physicians until

the Qing dynasty, which has been being developed con-

tinuously since then. Scholars from different schools hold

different opinions on the concepts of traditional constitu-

tion. Mr. Kuang [7] and Mr. He [8]’s point of views are

more or less similar: the factors affecting the formation

of constitution consist of the congenital physical form

and acquired influence factors, the physiological state

and pathological characteristics. The two scholars’ con-

ception of Chinese constitution is based on the physiolo-

gy and pathology areas. In the early 90’s, Wang Qi stu-

died the Constitution theory in ancient and modern times

systematically, proposing his constitution concept: “the

Constitution is developed in the course of individual

lives, finally forming a integrated, relatively stable state

of morphological, physiological and psychological cha-

racteristics on the basis of congenital genetic and ac-

quired factors [9].” Concept of constitution contains the

psychology category. Mental State mainly refers to the

individual and unique personality which is persistent and

comprehensive characteristic of behavior and psychology.

Wang’s views are finally accepted widely and agreed

with to a point that the theory of traditional Chinese me-

dicine constitution is led by trad itional Chinese medicine

theory, its goal is to explore various kinds of constitutio n

features and the relevant physiological and pathological

characteristics, and basing on which to analysis the dis-

ease reaction, lesions and trend, thus guiding people to

prevent and treat illness.

1) Classification of Chinese Medicine Constitution

Wang Qi and his followers consulted 168 kinds of li-

terature, analyzed 12,471 cases of epidemiological in-

formation, and then summarized 408 kinds of physical

characteristics. T hey specified that Chines e medicine con-

stitution includes nine basic types: constitution of yin-

yang harmony, constitution of qi asthenia, constitution of

yang asthenia, constitution of yin asthenia, constitution

of phlegm-dampness, constitution of damp-heat, consti-

tution of blood stasis, constitution of qi stagnation, and

allergic constitution [10]. In order to uniform the stan-

dards, the research group of classification on Chinese

Medicine constitution leaded by Wang Qi establishes a

standardized scale and for m the Classification Criteria of

Chinese Medicine Constitution [11]. These criteria have

been listed as the Chinese medicine standards of Chinese

Association (for trial implementation), and can be ap-

plied to the health assessment directly.

2) Effect factors of Chinese Medicine Constitution

Formation o f the Constitution is closely asso ciated with

the congenital genetic and acquired geographical factors,

it is interac ted with the climate co ndition, diet hab it, emo-

tion state, work environment, rest efficiency and so on.

Graduate student Gao Fei in Beijing University of Chi-

nese Medicine studied 624 copies of medical information

during December 31, 2008 and December 31, 2008 from

the Beijing Chinese Medicine Hospital. He classified

those patients as nine kinds of types according to the

above criteria and found that BMI (weight index) and

three kinds of biased constitutions including yang-asthe-

nia, blood-stasis and qi-stagnation are positive related,

related coefficients are respectively 0.191, 0.099, and

0.105 upon examination of statistically significant d iffer-

rences (0.05) [12]. It shows that the body weight can ob-

viously affect the constitution formation and develop-

ment, and the abnormal body weight is easy to bring

about the sub-health pr o blems.

4. Chinese Medicine Constitution and

Sub-Health

Constitution is inherent and comparatively stable indi-

vidual characteristic from innate and acquired essence.

Different people have different constitution types, which

have been accepted by the scholars at home and abroad.

Constitution of yin-yang harmony can not only benefit

people’s health, but also help the transformation of sub-

health into health. However the people of biased consti-

tution may tend to be in the sub-health state due to the

disordered yin-yang harmony, although it has not devel-

oped into disease. The biased constitution easily tends to

develop into disease, at the same time determine to some

extent the development and process of disease.

1) Biased constitution and sub-health

Epidemiological survey shows that yin-yang harmony

accounts for 14% of 9 constitution types, with biased

constitution for 67.86% [13]. The top 3 of 8 biased con-

stitution types are qi-asthenia, damp-heat and yang-as-

thenia, accounting 13.42%, 9.08% and 9.04% respec-

tively. They are the main types of biased constitution

types for human beings.

Gao Fei et al. studied four biased constitution types,

yin-asthenia, damp-heat, blood-stasis and qi-stagnation

and their potential of developing into sub-health status.

The results showed that: 1) the probability of developing

sub-health status for Yin-asthenia was 1.618 times higher

X. F. LIU ET AL.

431

than that for non Yin-asthenia; 2) the probability for

damp-heat was 1.585 times higher than that for non

damp-heat; 3) the probability for blood-stasis was 1.6

times higher than that for non blood-stasis; 4) the proba-

bility for qi-stagnation was 1.891 times higher than that

for non qi-stagnation [14]. Sub-health state can be pro-

posed by person with biased Constitution, which can

develop into sub-health status under stimulation of cer-

tain conditions. Therefore, more investigations on biased

system are necessary for further understanding the rela-

tionship between biased constitution and sub-health.

2) Constitution and sub -he alth in yin-yang harmony

The significance of constitution lies in exploring the

nature of the disease in treatment. The essence of “Sub-

health” Symptoms is one kind of pathological constitu-

tion. In order to harmonize “sub-health”, we must iden-

tify the constitution first, which is the so-called “treat-

ment by constitution identification ”. It uses the individu-

al constitution as research object, and grasp individual

differences and general whole factors of health and dis-

ease in terms of physical characteristics and different

constitution classifications, on the basis of which to de-

velop the prevention principles and select the appropriate

method of treatment and prevention.

Zheng Ziqiang studied the homemade “digestant for-

mula tea” by doing research on the 3 patients of phlegm-

dampness constitution in the July 2009 - October 2009,

finding that this product have a good effect on adjusting

symptoms in phlegm-dampness Constitution [15]. So we

can draw a conclusion that traditional Chinese medicine

can recuperate biased pathological constitution signifi-

cantly, so as to prevent sub-health and even the disease.

Chinese medicine constitution is also considered in the

same treatment for different diseases and the different

treatments for the same disease. It is also strongly sug-

gested that scholars can research the sub-health problems

from the view of constitution types.

5. Discussion

The standard of Chinese medicine constitution has al-

ready been introduced for some time, but in fact the

scholars have spared no efforts to improve the standards.

Although detecting gene is a good method for constitution

identification, the cost is too much for people to afford.

Subjective consciousness will exist inevitably when do-

ing questionnaire investigation of family history or life

history, which will affect the accurac y of the constitution

type’s judgment. Therefore each clinical expert should

do their best to develop simple but exact method to judge

the constitution. What’s more, the four biased constitu-

tion types have been proved to be pathological features,

but the key point is what causes the concern of the mass-

es and help them adjust biased constitution to yin-yang

harmony constitution, so as to prevent disease effective-

ly.

6. Acknowledgements

This paper is supported by Guangdong Province Tech-

nology Project in Social Development Field of Guang-

dong Provincial Department of Science and Technology,

China (201102).

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