People have different hobbies and tastes. Some people might enjoy and benefit from taking a cold bath or sponge-bathing with cold water, whereas others enjoy going to a spa or a sauna.
For a long time, mineral water, or acidic water, has been known to be good for curing stomach troubles and skin diseases. People would travel long distances to find mineral water, and they would drink it or bathe in it. But these days, people say that alkalinic water is healthier, so they electrolyze water to separate the alkalinic water from the acidic water and drink only the alkalinic water while discarding the acidic water.
There were people who claimed that Asians should eat more meat, since their average physical stature is smaller than that of Western people, who are accustomed to eating meat. These days, people also say that eating vegetables helps prevent and cure diseases.
When people started to hear about vitamins, they thought that vitamins were organic substances. They also considered that the more vitamins they took, the better. But later, they began to see problems from an excessive intake of vitamins, and they also realized that taking vitamins could be harmful to people.
The traditional way to practice abdominal breathing is to hold breath in the abdomen and breathe it out quickly. But now there are people who claim that the exhaling should be longer while the inhaling should be shorter.
A few years ago, I had an opportunity to give a lecture at Ko-ryo University, and I mentioned some breathing methods. After the lecture, some students came up to me and told me that even though they had tried breathing in the way they had learned (long inhalation and short exhalation), it was painful for them. When they tried the other way (short inhalation and long exhalation), they felt more comfortable. So I had to explain the reason to them based on the Eight Constitutions Medicine.
As we have seen above, there are various items that can be both medicinal to some people and, at the same time, poisonous to others. These items are dextrose, antibiotics, aspirin, and gold. However, the reason for this has not yet been proven scientifically. Frequently, people promote the way of eating that works for themselves, not realizing that what works for them could be deadly for other people. Since this is the case, it would be better to maintain a balanced diet, as recommended by modern dieticians.
The Reason People Have Different Constitutions
How can we explain the reason for the various examples described above? We cannot explain it if we hold on to the thought that everyone has the same constitution. However, the Eight Constitutions Medicine, which claims that there are eight types of constitutions among human beings, can provide the reason. This medical practice says that depending on the constitutional organ mechanism, something that is good for one individual could be harmful to another individual, and that something that is beneficial to one individual could be poisonous to another individual.
The eight constitutions refer to the eight arrangements of the internal organs according to their strength and weakness; these organs include the heart, lungs, pancreas, liver, kidneys, small intestines, large intestines, stomach, gallbladder, urinary bladder, and the sympathetic nerve system and parasympathetic nerve system of the autonomic nerve system. A ninth constitution does not exist. We should realize that the eight constitutions are complete individual arrangements and are not a product of mere human imagination. Some may consider the eight constitutions to be merely a further step of division from the theory of four body types, which is also called Sasanguihak (a theory concerning four body types, which was originally designed by Lee Che-ma, a prestigious doctor of the late Choson period), or they may suppose that body types could be even further divided into 16 constitutions. But this is an irrational conclusion stemming from ignorance regarding what a constitution is.
The only way to determine each of the eight constitutions is through a pulse-examining method, which can be done on the radius arteries located on the wrists. Through this method we can identify any one of the eight pulse formations; an individuals pulse formation will never change throughout his lifetime.
We cannot help but admire the law of creation, in which the degree of vitality of different organs can be discovered only though the radius arteries. Those who have the same pulse formation have the same physical and mental expression, the same pathology, the same response to food and medicines, and they can also be healed of the same diseases through the same treatment.
In order to find a ninth constitution, I spent an even longer time than I needed to find the eight constitutions, but I could not find it. There must be only eight human constitutions, and all areas in human life can also be classified into eight categories. Every individual should know what constitution he has, and as of now, the only way to determine this is by conducting a pulse examination. The examination can be done only by those who pass through a certain kind of training.
However, any individual can also attempt to identify their constitution through self-examination: by making comparisons between themselves and the following characteristics of each constitution.
Hepatonia
Most hepatonia individuals have a large body frame. Like a snowman, they have narrow shoulders and the lower body is larger; their waist is the biggest part of their body. Sweating indicates good body condition, and when they are sick, sweating makes them feel better. A higher-than-average blood pressure is a sign of health for them.
They usually do not talk much, and they get tired from talking. Because they experience fatigue easily, many individuals with the hepatonia constitution are tone-deaf. They easily sprain their left ankle and experience having more disorders on the left side of their body than the right side. When they eat too many vegetables or too much fish, they feel fatigued, their eyes hurt, or their feet feel heavy.
Their skin color lightens from eating meat and from taking hot baths, and it darkens from eating vegetables and fish and from taking cold baths.
Cholecystonia
Cholecystonia individuals have bowel movements frequently, but this symptom has nothing to do with the condition of their health. When they are not healthy, they experience certain conditions such as an uneasy feeling around their navel, low body temperature, and sleeping problems.
Because they have weak emotions, they are easily affected by other people’s words. They are quick-tempered but not stubborn. The right side of their body is relatively weak. Their stomach feels upset when they eat vegetables and fish.
Pancreotonia
Pancreotonia individuals are quick-tempered. They always blurt things out before they think about it. They do not like being at the same place for long, and they enjoy being active and finding things to do. They are good at taking the lead to arrange things for others, but they are poor at completing tasks.
They also have a strong digestive capacity, and many of them are painters, because they have sound visual skills. Many of those who practice celibacy are pancreotonia individuals. They get gray hairs earlier than others. They usually have a low blood pressure, and they feel sick with even a slight increase in their blood pressure. They tend to have diseases on the left side of their body and become an easy target of vitiligo. They go to bed early and wake up early.
Gastrotonia
Gastrotonia individuals are rare. These are the individuals who go into shock from ingesting penicillin. They do not get minor ailments and hate going to the doctor. The right side of their body is relatively weak.
Gastrotonia individuals are characterized by the symptom of constipation. They usually have bowel movement every two days, but some of them have bowel movement only once every three to seven days, but they do not experience pain from constipation. When they are in good health, they do not sweat much, but when they are not healthy, they sweat excessively.
Gastrotonia individuals become weak in the spring and summer, and they tend to be healthy in fall and winter. Children who suffer from sunstroke are gastrotonia individuals. They usually have a good body shape with broad shoulders, a slender waist and nicely shaped buttocks. They are very meticulous and organized, and are skeptical about other people. Swimming and taking sponge baths with cold water are good for them. They are very athletic and are good at any kind of sports. They usually contract ailments on the left side of their body.
Vesicotonia
Vesicotonia individuals are susceptible to gastric atony and gastroptosis. They remain healthy if they eat a small amount at each meal; even a normal amount of food for others can be excess for them. For these individuals, the first sign of an unhealthy condition is an uneasy feeling in the stomach. Their feces tend to be mushy, and they are easily exhausted after having diarrhea. All the diseases that are contracted by these individuals start from the right side of their body. Barley and pork are poisonous to them.
Pulmotonia
The lower part of their head tends to stick out more than the upper part. They do not like to attract attention, and they prefer being creative rather than imitative. They will always suffer from allergies unless they avoid eating meat. Atopic dermatitis is one of the peculiar diseases that these individuals can contract due to eating meat. Gold teeth are poisonous for them, and they easily experience static from synthetic fibers. All sorts of medicine are harmful for them. These individuals contract diseases more in the left side of their body than the right side.
Colonotonia
Colonotonia individuals are quick-tempered and experience inertia on the right side of their body when they get angry. They may contract rare diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease, from eating too much meat. Their feces are very thin and their bowel movements are generally dissatisfying. Medications, sunbaths, and saunas are not beneficial to them. Swimming is recommended for them.
These are the most outstanding features of each constitution, but one cannot determine what constitution he has merely by referring to these guidelines. But I hope this guideline will help you to better comprehend that there are eight different constitutions among human beings.
〔Light and Salt, Oct. 94〕
Dr. Do Won Kwon, Director of Dawnting Cancer Research Institute
Baguio Pindoctor 