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This is Roundtable with me, Steve Hatherly and Yixuan.
Do you have a friend who complains about feeling cold all the time, while another get overheat really easily?
Why does the same lifestyle work for some but not another?
In traditional Chinese medicine, the answer often starts with body constitution, a framework that explains these fundamental differences long before illness appears.
Now, with a new national standard in place, this old idea is finding new relevance in modern health conversation.
So what's with the new standard?
So, first of all, on December 31st, China has officially released its first national standard for the classification and identification of traditional Chinese medicine, TCM.
So body constitutions, TCM. under this umbrella, which will take effect on the 1st of April.
The standard was organized and drafted by the National Administration of Traditional Chinese Medicine and approved by the State Administration for Market Regulation.
Why it is important is because the standard marks a turning point for a field that has long been influential in practice but lacked unified national rules.
And that is signaling that TCM constitution theory is entering a more standardized and regulated phase.
So the topic of this is not necessarily brand new to Chinese culture, right?
This body classification?
No, no, no, not at all.
For us.
We have always been told that you have to deal with the problems of yourself, also based on not only the symptoms but also your body constitution, because it would mean that you're more sensitive to certain actions, certain treatment or even certain medicine and food.
And, at the same time, you might B being not as sensitive, meaning that you're taking too much dose of something without the effectiveness of it.
So it has been there for quite a while.
But the fact that the way that you should word it was that it will take effect on January 1st.
It does not mean that before January, April 1st.
It doesn't mean before April the 1st.
Nobody had a body constitution.
It doesn't mean that.
It means that after April the 1st, for example, traditional Chinese doctors would have to master the new standard.
They would have to make their diagnosis and their treatment based on the new standard.
So that's why there is the concept of taking effective.
But the key point here is, for those who are not familiar with this kind of theory, exactly what does TCM body constitution mean?
Yeah well, we all have a body constitution and it's about your body's strengths and weaknesses and patterns of responses to things like stresses in the environment.
Basically, it's kind of like the rule book or the playbook of how your own body functions.
And it's less about diagnosing a disease and more about understanding your kind of baseline.
And then, once you understand what that is, then you can adjust your daily habits, things like your diet or your types of exercise or your sleep patterns or your stress management or things like that.
And the reason you make those adjustments is to prevent problems before they arise.
So it's kind of like...
It's kind of like a personalized little roadmap for keeping your body balanced and resilient.
And the way that you do that is by understanding your body constitution.
And there are things that you can do, a very specific thing that you can do to know what your body constitution is.
For some reason, when you're using these words of balance or resilience, it makes you sound like a very, very professional master in TCM.
Yes.
I am not.
I don't want any of our listeners to say, like, oh, really?
That's where Steve comes in?
No, no, no.
But I think once you start approaching TCM theories, you would hear a lot of words, very often like yin and yang, which would refer to the relatively negative, but not in a negative connotation negative.
It's just negative. negatively charged energy negative charged energy as well as yang would be the positively charged energy if you're someone with too much yang heat or element in your body and you need both you definitely need both and you need the balance so being too yin or too yang or not good and also there's the qi which would be the energy or life force circulating in your body and if the qi does not go smoothly from one place to another it means there is a area that needs a little bit help and smooth at that time yeah it's kind of like a holistic approach to your to your well-being but also kind of a specific approach as well through the holistic approach you can identify where better balances are needed, I guess, if I understand it correctly.
And one thing interesting here is that from the surface of it, it's easy to explain.
When we explain it like this, you know, if you have too much young energy, you got hot easily.
So that sounds simple.
But to the fact that we have, according to the new standard, nine different body constitutions, showcase that you cannot really identify your body constitution based on only one symptom.
Because like Steve said, it's a holistic system and they're all linked together.
And our reporter Yang Yang has spoken to Mr Liu Yang, an expert in TCM knowledge, and he shared two specific types of the body constitutions so that from these two examples, we can understand the standard and the classification of it and the logic behind it a little better.
Let's start with what we call a yang-deficient constitution.
People with this type tend to feel cold easily in daily life and they naturally reach for warm food and hot drinks.
Personality-wise, they are often quieter and more introverted.
In terms of health risks, They're more prone to issues like swelling or frequent diarrhea.
When it comes to the environment, they usually tolerate summer better than winter, and they're more vulnerable to cold wind and dampness.
In reality, most people don't fell neatly into just one category.
The majority of us actually have a mix of different constitution traits.
It's really a matter of proportion, especially in cities today.
With high stress levels, staying up late and eating a lot of processed or fast food, we see certain mixed constitutions becoming very common.
Hmm.
So not only are there nine different types of body constitution, we all have these different type of body constitution in our bodies.
Just one might be below average, one might be more than average, or by saying average I don't mean average in the population, in the human group, but that balanced point.
Yeah, and you're not going to fall into one category only.
You'll have elements of different categories, but you will lean a little bit, perhaps more, towards one particular site.
And that being said, I have to ask, what are your body constitutions, both of you?
Because we all did the test.
There is a test table that you can score yourself the level of.
Well, we'll release some or review some of the questions a bit later.
But yeah, did you take the test?
Yeah, we all kind of took the test and my results said that I have an allergy-prone constitution, which is correct.
I have a very sensitive skin.
I'm allergic to like pollen and something like that.
Oh, I didn't know that about you.
Yeah, but personally, the way I experienced it, the results of the test felt very, very similar to the questions.
That's how I feel.
The characteristics of the nine body types are basically the same things that test asks about.
So for example, the question is like, are you prone to allergies such as food or pollen?
Do you sneeze easily?
These are both questions and the defining features of the body type.
So it gave me the impression that the test was simply just labeling these traits, essentially giving a name to that kind of symptoms that I had already described.
And that name is actually important because we mentioned the fact that this standard is not only for regular people like us to understand ourselves a little bit better, but also to TCM doctors.
So the doctors would be able to identify you and then accordingly, give you treatment and suggestions, which is why this makes a lot of sense.
Like it gives me a label or an identity card for the traditional Chinese medicine doctors.
Like an outline.
Yeah.
And then they will know what to do with me later maybe or a further investigation.
And more importantly, you know what to do with you later.
Yes.
Based on that information.
What about you, Steve?
Oh, geez.
So they gave me the test yesterday.
Right.
And this is like a 40 question thing.
And it's all in Chinese.
So I went to AI and I translated it and then I went back and I filled in my answers.
And then you're supposed to like it's like an Excel sheet.
So you fill in your, your answers, like the number, like not often or never or always, things like that.
And then I got to the bottom and it didn't give me a score.
And I said, Yuxin, who is our computer expert, I said, hey, come here.
What did I do wrong?
And he goes, oh, yeah, you didn't get a score.
I guess it's just you're not Chinese.
And I said, I didn't need a test for that.
I just need a mirror for that.
I don't remember the name.
So I don't know what my answer is.
I'm Steve.
That's all I know.
There are some things that you need to take care of.
You press that button or you put in that single number and it will have a formula to come out with a total number or something.
It was all for fun, of course.
But I do have a little bit of a takeaway from this test.
It's reminiscent to me of the MBTI.
Are those the right letters?
MBTI?
I was just thinking about this as well.
Myers-Briggs test right, the personality test in.
You know, young people in the West really and actually when I was in Korea to people loved to talk about their results with each other where you answer kind of some vague-ish questions and then it gives you your personality type.
I kind of felt that about this test as well.
For example, one of the questions was, do you feel quiet and feel reluctant to talk?
And it was always down to the scale of never.
And I thought, oh, well, how do I answer that?
Because I'm an announcer.
I love talking.
I do it for a living.
But at other times I enjoy being quiet.
So these are kind of subjective and it depends on the context.
So it's a little bit vague, but it will give you kind of an outline, i guess, just like it nailed it for you right prone to allergies, and that that was exactly right.
And also we talked about the fact that this is not all that or that accurate, not only because steve has already mentioned that you as a regular person do not really know how to answer the question from always to never.
But also because I think there are other elements here.
For example, for women, like male and female would be a bit different.
Based on your age, it would be a little bit different.
So if you are really looking for a diagnosis, maybe a better way is to find a doctor and have the doctor guide you through the test.
But that being said, it started Quite a popular moment in our office.
Everyone was doing the test.
Everyone was discussing with each other about their type, about what they should and should not do, should and should not eat.
What are some habits that they will have, apparently?
If you do not sleep enough, it's bad for you from all around, no matter what type of body constitutions you have or what are the body constitutions of yours.
So that's there.
So I think, with the social element there, it's definitely something fun to do and it's quite healthy to do it.
What was yours, by the way?
Well, my is very correct.
And I think accurate to my situation.
I have got a in deficiency constitution mainly.
And it's results from a lack of in fluids leading to internal heat.
And that's true.
And I would say probably that's the situation of my son as well, because at home he's always the one who's wearing clothes.
The less clothes and running around and sweating a lot.
So knowing a little bit is good.
Like I said, I mean, I took the test and it told me you're not Chinese.
And that is 100% true.
Very much accurate.
And when you actually find out about your body constitutions, naturally you would want to know what are more suitable for you.
What are some things that you can do to improve the health situation?
So for this, our reporter Yang Yang has talked to Mr Liu and he has given some professional advice.
The real value of understanding your body type is that it helps you manage your health proactively, not just react when something goes wrong.
If you don't know your body type, health management becomes passive.
You wait until you feel sick, then you go see a doctor.
Even if the symptoms improve, that usually treats the surface problem, not the root cause.
The root issue is the underlying body imbalance, along with the lifestyle habits that slowly push it towards illness.
Things like sleep patterns, diets, exercise, and even personal habits all play a role.
Once you understand your body type, you can start preventing problems instead of being chased by them.
And it's not just about the body.
It also involves mental and emotional health.
That's why we'll look at everything together medication when needed diet, daily routine and exercise.
So there are so many key words here in this paragraph.
Yeah, and I love the reminder because I think it's kind of common knowledge, but we still need these types of reminders about being proactive in our lives, about our health, instead of reactive.
Ooh, and also making small changes in your life.
Yeah, it's connected to full circle.
Yes, yes, yes.
It really absolutely is, yeah.
And the reason I said I love that you know talking about taking active steps to prevent becoming sick.
That's a really wise thing to do.
But when we get reminded of it, then maybe we can take some of those small actions to to help ourselves out, instead of just waiting and say oops, I'm sick now.
And I guess I have to go to the hospital.
No, try to do things to prevent yourself from getting sick in the first place.
If you can.
There is a department in in a lot of these hospitals.
It's called um.
I don't know the exact professional name of it, but it's.
But the sense is that Treat the un-illness.
Yes.
How do you know?
What's it called?
It's like... The treatment for un-illness.
Un-illness.
Yes.
Or yet to be ill.
Preventative medicine.
Yes.
And a lot of these departments are using traditional Chinese medicine because...
The essence of Chinese traditional medicine is to strike a balance in your body.
So we talked about this Qi, your blood, your fluid, everything.
It is just to having that kind of balance to make you understand your body.
Maybe you're that type and then there's another opposite.
So when we are having this kind of conversation, it is also showing that yeah, people are talking about it, just like talking about MBTI.
We, I have my kind of name card for, for, for that constitution.
And then it is also about we understand that kind of feeling and we have the like common sense on having this discussion and having conversation like when you having these kind of symptoms, then you are this kind of body type.
And it's just really interesting to have that kind of conversation.
It is interesting.
And that's why I said I think this is kind of like the equivalent of the MBTI, because the MBTI, the personality test, it satisfied that little narcissistic thing that lives in all of us where it's like let's talk about me.
Well, this is the same thing, except let's talk about my body.
So when you understand a little bit more about your personality and you understand a little bit more about your body which, of course, is not only just fun knowledge, but it's useful knowledge as well.
And that same little narcissistic thing that lives inside all of us.
Ooh, tell me more about me.
That gets satisfied as well.
I think it's kind of cool.
And another thing that kind of reflects to me is that I never realized that people around me know so much about Chinese traditional medicine.
When I was saying, I am that kind of type, and they're saying are you blah blah, blah?
Are you blah, blah?
Yes, that's so true.
And they just all know the characteristic all of these times.
Be careful with how much you share.
And we hope that in the future, when we do or when we have another Becoming Chinese moment, they would be able to identify their body constitutions as well, so that they know that maybe exercising at all the time during the day is not a good thing, knowing that maybe they should put one more layer of when the temperature drop because of their body constitutions and because, at the end of the day, do you just want everyone to live a bit healthier and a bit more customized, even from the health governance kind of view?
And that brings us to the end of today's roundtable.
Deep dives and nuanced views.
We are clearing the table for now, but may the ideas stay with you.
I'm Niu Honglin with Steve and Yushun.
Thanks for listening.
Bye-bye.
