Data-Based Constitutional Therapy in Traditional Chinese Medicine (2)

Body types and syndromes interact with each other. As an example, when individuals with body type (F) which is yang excess are under the attack of dampness, their syndrome becomes damp-heat. On the other hand, when individuals with body type (B) which is yang deficiency are under the same attack of dampness, their syndrome becomes cold dampness. As the number of syndromes have continued to increase, close to 300 in total, syndromes differentiation become a serious and complicated issue in traditional Chinses medicine. On the one hand, a disease must be traced back to its syndrome before it can be properly treated. Therefore, in Chinese medicine, a doctor treats syndromes, not treating diseases as such. On the other hand, a given symptom or disease under treatment may reach over 10 or 20, or even more syndromes, how can the traditional method of syndromes differentiation by reasoning and speculation achieve it. In April 1984 a national conference of traditional Chinese medicine was held in Beijing, China. Again in May of the same year, another similar conference was held in Shanghai, just two years before my college was established. At both national conferences, over seventy experts from twenty-seven organizations attended to discuss the important issue of differentiation with respect to syndromes. In what way are people different? It is maintained in traditional Chinese medicine that people are different mainly in their constitutions, called body types. People are broadly classified into six body types each of which displays distinct signs and symptoms and requires certain remedies for their good health