Maintain a Healthy Life: From the Eight Constitutions

By Che Bong Cho, LAc

Chinese Acupuncture & Herb Center, Inc.

. http://www.myfairfaxacupuncture.com/

More Complementary & Integrative Healthcare Articles

Maintain a Healthy Life: From the Eight Constitutions

There are differences in people’s body types depending on the different strengths of the five organs, which are the heart, liver, spleen, lung, and kidney. People have completely different personalities, talents, sensibilities, and health conditions according to the eight body types of constitutions. These include: metal yang (pulmotonia), metal yin (colontonia), wood yang (hepattonia), wood yin (cholecystonia), earth yang (pancreotonia), earth yin (gasstrotonia), water yang (renotonia), and water yin (vesicotonia).

Metal body types have strong lung Qi. Lung Qi goes to the ears to increase the sense of hearing. That is why metal body types have the best development of hearing and whatever they hear, they understand and remember well.

They also have excellent musical talent and foreign language aptitude. Children of this type are known to be musical prodigies. On the contrary, people who have the wood body type have a strong liver Qi but they have a very weak lung Qi. The feature of the liver is power. They store information little by little. For this reason, they dislike expressing their feelings and store their thoughts and emotions inside.

However, they think through problems carefully and have excellent ability for the application of knowledge. If they study several books on one subject, it is going to be difficult to take in all the information. So, it is better to focus on one book and reread it a couple of times.

For people who have earth body type, they have strong spleen Qi. Spleen Qi goes to the eyes. They have excellent vision. They can understand things faster when they see things. For example, sometimes children have superior skills in solving puzzles. They may be earth body types. They also have a good sense of direction and easily remember where they placed certain objects.

   People who have water body types have a strong kidney jing Qi. The kidney is the cold nature organ. They are very sensitive to cold weather. They always have cold hands, feet, and body. They show admirable presence of the mind, are not easily excited by sudden environmental changes and are always composed and calm. They usually have logical thinking and have delicate and detailed personalities.

Finally, Korean acupuncture theory believes that people should eat appropriate foods, depending on their body types in order to balance the organ Qi.

If there are severe symptoms of illness or health issues, Oriental medicine and acupuncture can be helpful in cases of chronic or acute diseases by helping to balance organ Qi.