Six Body Types
TYPE S (FIGURE 5.6) Quick Tips
• Are you taking medications for blood pressure, diabetes, birth control, or hormonal therapy?
• Have you been overweight for a long time, or did you gradually change your size within five years?
• Have you been struggling to lose weight for at least five years? Are diet and exercise not working for losing weight? Do they sometimes make it worse?
• Before the change in body shape, were there severe digestive issues, chronic
cold symptoms with immune defi-ciency, and long-term antibiotic use?
• Does fat deposit in specific areas, such as the shoulder and abdomen, but the condition is not bothersome to daily life? Do you sometimes have distend-ing pain in your lower back and knee?
• Have you ever had major surgeries in your trunk area or lower abdomen?
• Do you take sleeping pills or antide-pressant medication or herbs?
• Have you ever been diagnosed with a heart problem, kidney problem, or stroke?
• Has any trauma or accident occurred that needed a long recovery time?
Related Conditions
• Depression, anger, frustration, nega-tive feeling
• Seems that exercise and diet do not help to lose weight and change lifestyle
• Feeling very tired, hard to control emotional outbursts
• Taking multivitamins and nutritional supplements due to fatigue, dizziness, pain, and sleep disorder
• Women: Hormone imbalance, infer-tility, irregular menstruation
• Lipedema: Hip, thigh, legs and arms, lower abdomen
• Arthritic pain on wrist and ankle:
Possible start of rheumatoid arthritis symptoms on finger or toe
• Lower back pain from sitting; painful and swollen wrists and ankles when walking and using arms
• Postpartum depression and weight gain in the past
• Postsurgery and old scar tissue on trunk area
FIGURE 5.6 Type S.
• Metabolic syndrome
• Hypothalamic disorder
• Thyroid disorder and taking thyroid medication
• Drink alcohol frequently and shoul-der pain next day
Clinical Syndrome
As the imbalance in metabolic homeostasis progresses, type P is related to auto nomic nervous system rhythm, and it is repre-sented as excess (hyper) and deficiency (hypo) and rest–digest and flight–fight.
Type T is related with the metabolic homeo-stasis imbalance stage that is not stable and changes rapidly. It affects the body’s immune system and shows as inflamma-tory responses and body fluid congestion.
It is represented as hot (inflammation or fast acting) and cold (body fluid congestion, slow acting, or blocking). Regarding the type M group, types P, T, and S are distin-guished as exterior conditions for type M, which is mostly considered to be related to posture, muscle, and skin parts. Moreover, types P, T, and S are explained by internal body condition.
Type S is the state in which the body has already adapted to the chronic imbalance condition.
This group of patients visits the clinic for weight loss rather than other issues.
Unlike type T, type S patients start to talk about the other issues after several ses-sions. Both male and female patients have digestive issues and reproductive system issues.
Type S can be developed from types P and T, but if patients take medications, have experienced traumatic incidents, or have a
genetic hormonal disorder, they show simi-lar symptoms and signs.
Since types M1, M2, and M3 can be diag-nosed at the same time as type S, and type P and type T are included in some patterns and ruled out in others, when taking the medical history and palpating, it is difficult to decide or diagnose the etiology in type S in the initial assessment. For this reason, I separate the subpatterns in clinical treat-ment assesstreat-ment.
There are four different patterns in type S, which are differentiated by the etiology in symptomatic appearances. The name is from the eighth extraordinary meridian (vessel, Mai), which is the guideline and map of treatment.
1. Chong and yin Wei type (heart and digestive system)
2. Dai and yang Wei type (liver and immune system)
3. Ren and yin Qiao type (lung and cir-culatory system)
4. Du and yang Qiao type (kidney and nervous system)
Chong and Yin Wei Type (Heart and Digestive System) (Figure 5.7) Characteristics
• Thoracic rib cage is wider and larger looking
• Weak and lean extremities
• Abdominal area tight
• Chest, neck, and face swollen
This condition is usually related to inter-nal scar tissue blocking the blood vessel, or a structural problem that hinders blood cir-culation. Some cases have chronic digestive
system issues and subsequent malnutrition.
Type P and Type M1 yin are involved in this condition.
Dai and Yang Wei Type (Liver and Immune System) (Figure 5.8) Characteristics
• Pear-shaped body
• Love handles
• Square shape of body appearance if leg muscles are misaligned
• Lower abdomen and hip area fat deposits
This condition is related to types T and M2. It is in the chronic stage, and body structure changed after childbirth or because of a liver disorder or visceral fat deposit condition. This appearance is shown as a lower back, side, and abdominal
connection in a tube shape. The skin is usually stretched and irregular skin fat is present.
Ren and Yin Qiao Type (Lung and Circulatory System) (Figure 5.9) Characteristics
• Abdominal tension and upper abdo-men fat deposits
• Apple-shaped body
• X shape of legs
• Flat feet
• Shortness of breath
This type is related to types M2 and P. These types present with gynecologi-cal problems due to pelvic tilt, metabolic syndrome such as diabetes mellitus, and hypertension.
FIGURE 5.7
Chong and yin Wei type.
FIGURE 5.8
Dai and yang Wei type.
Du and Yang Qiao Type (Kidney and Nervous System) (Figure 5.10) Characteristics
• Round shoulders and upper back fat deposits
• Smaller hips than upper back
• Lower abdominal fat but not prominent
• O shape of legs (bow legs)
• Hyperplantar flexion
• Short neck
Types M3 and P are related to this con-dition and result from nervous system and nerve balance disorder. Patients suffer from multiple disorders and take several medi-cations and nutritional supplements for homeostatic dysfunction. During the initial visit, it is difficult to determine their type and how to approach treatment of their symptoms.
Male patients who are in type S show fat distribution on the lower abdomen and breast area. It is usually accompanied by childhood obesity. They have tried to lose weight with diet plans and exercise but can-not reduce the fat bulges. Female patients in type S are easily affected by emotional and physical distress from sudden environmen-tal changes, such as gynecological surgery and the experience of a life-threatening ail-ment. An extremely stressful situation can be the trigger to the start of type S.
There are interesting patterns in type S, and in the midst of all the different triggers, the common symptom is digestive prob-lems in early life or severe damage in the digestive system.
They avoid certain types of food, and dur-ing childhood, experienced food induced allergic reactions. Sometimes sleep disor-ders and hormonal imbalances are present.
FIGURE 5.9
Ren and yin Qiao type. FIGURE 5.10
Du and yang Qiao type.
Some patients have strong, chronic inflammatory symptoms.
Understanding the Mechanism
When a change occurs in an environment, an adjustment must be made in the body system. The receptors sense the changes in the environment and send a signal to the control center, which generates a response that is signaled to an effector. During the adaptation and feedback, the body expresses symptomatic changes such as inflammation and allergic reactions. Once the adaptation has settled down, the body begins to control the new homeostatic balance. Homeostasis is controlled by the nervous and endocrine systems in our body.
The hypothalamic regulation of anterior pituitary hormonal synthesis and release is integral to the regulation of stress, repro-duction, metabolism, growth, and lactation.
In brief, the integral function and target hormones are as follows:
• Stress: Cortisol
• Basal metabolism: Thyroid hormones
• Growth: Insulin-like growth factor
• Reproduction: Gonadal steroids Each system follows the hierarchical axis.
The hypothalamic– pituitary target organ axes are dependent on parallel regulatory systems. These axes have considerable cross talk with one another and can inter-act at multiple levels. This means that the hypothalamus gathers the complex infor-mation from the environment and reacts based on balance. Imbalance can also have an effect on other systems. For example, if you have taken birth control pills for many years, your basal temperature can be
changed and it can affect your thyroid hor-mone level. Or, during a stressful situation, when your elevated stress hormone feeds back to the brain, it affects the regulation of stress as well as reproductive hormone regulation.
Type S is involved with most major hor-mone regulatory systems that maintain homeostasis, even though it has not been within the normal range or status in the cyclic loop. Moreover, these processes have developed over a long time, and can affect body postural habits.
Most type S is accompanied with multiple types of body shapes, such as types M2 and P or types M3 and T due to the adaptation to the new environment in an anatomical and physiologic way.
Type S is usually from the long-term adaptation process of body homeostasis, but sometimes the sudden disruption or interferences can affect the symptoms. The possible variations of disruption in the met-abolic homeostatic cycle are hormone ther-apy, chemotherther-apy, sudden shock, intense emotional trauma, accidents, or surgery.
Lipedema
Most type S people are concerned about the fat deposits on their thighs, arms, hips, and lower legs, as lipedema starts on the lower extremities and upper arms. It results from lymph edema. If lymph edema is not resolved, skin flexibility is lost and expands with peripheral blood pressure, which is painful to touch or when applying exterior pressure.
Lipedema is a long-term (chronic) condition typically involving an abnormal buildup of fat cells in the legs, thighs, and buttocks.
The condition occurs almost exclusively in women, although there have been rare
cases reported in men, because woman have a special body fluids cycle. The wom-an’s menstrual cycle affects her body’s entire hormonal systems. Estrogen acts on osmotic regulation of arginine vasopressin (AVP), antidiuretic hormone (ADH), and body fluids.
In my clinical experience, patients with lipedema have a disturbed metabolic system (digestive issues may have been a problem for a long time), are taking hormonal medica-tion, and are highly stressed, whether physi-cally or mentally. More than two hormone disturbances are shown at the same time.
The postural misalignment has occurred and pain symptoms are the main complaint.
Lipedema is not a single phenomenon in local fat deposition or congestion. It is involved with skin weakness, peripheral blood vessel pressure, subcutaneous con-gestion and scarring, muscle tightness, stretched tendon, and bone structure mis-alignment with metabolic homeostasis imbalances. This appearance affects physical activity and leads to emotional depression.
I have treated this condition as a sequen-tial treatment plan based on major homeo-static balance. The systemic whole-body treatments help the circulation, breathing, and temperature, and reduce local conges-tion and excreconges-tions.
Pain
Mechanical Joint Pain
Most joint pain is related to the sympa-thetic nervous system, and the pain nerve is directly connected to the central nervous system. Except in the case of external trau-mas, joint pain is expected with muscles and tendon and ligament alignments. Chronic
contracted muscles add stress to tendons and limit the range of motion, which results in poor circulation and misaligned bone structures.
Once the joint has been affected by fail-ure to repair joint damage, it is diagnosed as osteoarthritis, a degenerative disorder breaking down cartilage and bone, leading to symptoms of pain, stiffness, and func-tional disability. The joint is surrounded by muscles, blood vessels, nerves, bursa, and soft tissues. Usually, joint movements are decided by the bone connecting muscles such as the biceps, and gastrocnemius. If muscles tighten, joint motion is limited.
The limitation of motion results in poor circulation and congestion in the area. Poor circulation results in weakness of immune functions. It makes the joint area skin and other tissues sensitive to pathogens.
These processing of ailments has been observed and explained as bi syndrome in traditional Chinese medicine. Joint pain, a characteristic of bi syndrome, is caused by obstruction of Qi and blood in meridians and collaterals—due to invasion of patho-genic wind, cold, and damp. Furthermore, bi syndrome has a close relationship with the weather, body constitution, and skin defensive conditions. There are four major different syndromes according to symp-toms and etiology: wind bi, cold bi, damp bi, and heat bi.
Chronic swelling on the body and heavy weight strain the joints, which can gener-ate widespread pain through spinal pain receptors. Knee pain and ankle pain are common symptoms in type S. For prevent-ing tightness of joint area, mild movement and a gentle range of motion are recom-mended, as well as the relaxation of muscle and tendons.
Metabolic Joint Pain
Another joint pain, such as gout, is possible in type S. Gout often accompanies metabolic syndrome, so it is known as metabolic joint pain. It is usually found in male patients and postmenopausal women. Gout, or monoso-dium urate crystal deposition disease, is the most common inflammatory arthritis. Uric acid is the by-product of purine metabolism in humans. Hyperuricemia predisposes affected persons to urate crystal formation and deposition, which lead to the inflam-matory responses underlying the symptoms of gout.
Risk factors for hyperuricemia include obesity, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, insu-lin resistance, renal insufficiency, and use of diuretics. Diets rich in certain foods are also associated with increased risk for gout. Although gout symptoms show as a heat sign, high-quality moxa is used as the treatment method. Because most metabolic syndromes depend on blood circulation and volume, the severe pain and inflamma-tory heat signs are due to a delay in the cir-culation of Qi and blood in the meridians and collaterals caused by excessive cold.
Moreover, cold causes the stagnation of blood and aggravates the pain.
In my experience, only the high quality of moxa can reduce the symptoms of gout with a broad treatment throughout the body’s circulation and respiration.
POSTURAL CHARACTERISTICS