TCM expert Ms. Lili Tu shares ways of weight management based on TCM theories
Under the guidance of TCM theory, TCM health and beauty care aims to nourish the mind through psychological practices and exercise; improve the body shape through medicinal diets; and improve the appearance with high-tech beauty products and devices, so as to achieve the beauty of life in both body and mind.
There are many complex factors that influence one’s health and appearance. In addition to external factors, the internal factors such as mental attitude, lifestyle, diet and rest pattern also play important roles. What we do is, based on TCM theory, to find out the internal causes of the patient’s problems and treat them in an individualized way according to each one’s body characters and symptoms. We normally use the four ways of diagnosis in TCM, namely to look, listen, question and feel the pulse of the patient.
Why are people different in their height, weight and voice? Western medicine explains it with genes. However, in TCM, we relate it to one’s body constitution. Body constitution means the relatively stable individualized characteristics of morphological structure, physiological function, and mental state.
In simple terms, body constitution is decided by both congenital and acquired factors. Congenital factors include parental endowment and gender differences while acquired factors include age, diet, labor and injury, emotional factors, geographical factors, diseases and others. The differences on the things above will result in different kinds of body constitutions. Roughly, there are nine types of body constitutions: balanced constitution, Yin deficiency constitution, Yang deficiency constitution, Qi deficiency constitution, phlegm-dampness constitution, dampness-heat constitution, Qi stagnation constitution, blood stasis constitution, and inherited special constitution. The beauty problems, head problems, and body problems of the individuals vary from others based on their own body constitutions, and thus requiring different methods of treatment and ways to regulate lifestyles, exercise and moods.
TCM emphasizes symptomatic treatment. For example, obesity is very common nowadays regardless of people’s ages. Many people think that to eat less and do exercise more is the golden rule for everyone. It is true that this can help burn the calories and then lose weight. But what if you fail to adhere to it? So many fat people are quite frustrated because once they fail to adhere, the lost weight are regained right away. The problem is that the root cause is not identified.
In more than ten years of practice, I found that the core factor of obesity is the deficiency of spleen function. Spleen’s main function is to absorb and transport liquid inside the body. When the spleen is weak and fails to transport the liquid well, dampness will be formed. TCM regards “dampness” as “the evil of all evils”, and “the source of all diseases”. TCM believes that dampness will lead to many diseases and if the dampness is not removed, the consequences are serious. Dampness flows throughout the body with the meridians, breeding a variety of chronic diseases, including obesity. In addition, there are acquired factors. Young people today have irregular work and rest pattern, and they like to eat cold food, which aggravates the spleen deficiency, making obesity more and more common.
Over the years of practice, we discovered that there are five main types of body constitutions found in overweight customers: Yang deficiency constitution, phlegm-damp constitution, damp-heat constitution, qi-stagnation constitution, and blood stasis constitution. Such body constitutions are resulted from spleen deficiency and its inability to transport the liquid. As the dampness flows throughout the body with the meridians, it makes the whole body or certain parts of the body overweight.
So according to TCM theory, what we need to tackle is not the outward obesity, but the problem of spleen deficiency. If we enhance the spleen’s functions, we can naturally solve the problem of obesity. So overweight people need to enhance their spleen function and improve the body’s metabolic ability in order to lose weight.
The accumulation of dampness caused by spleen deficiency also causes many other physical sub health conditions. Dampness in the face causes acne, spots, large pores, too much oil, and sagging and rough skin. Dampness in the body causes local obesity, general obesity, high visceral fat, weakness, sleepiness, lack of energy, lack of concentration, etc.
We believe that obese people need to remove dampness first. We eliminate dampness through thermal therapy. We recommend the consumption of “Jianzifu Complex Nutritional Powder” to remove dampness and cold, strengthen the spleen and benefit qi, improve intestinal dynamics and enhance spleen function and metabolism, so as to improve health and lose weight. Many cases show that after the dampness elimination treatment, the customer’s tongue is not as thick and greasy as before, the shape of the tongue is much slimmer, and cracks in the tongue are gone. In terms of facial contour, the neck appears obviously longer, the jawline is much clearer and tighter, and the skin is brighter. In terms of body shape, the cellulite at the root of the thighs is significantly reduced and the leg shape is clearer. These changes come from inside out and will not easily rebound. The “superior doctor treats the disease before it occurs”. To identify the root cause and carry out comprehensive treatment based on different types of body constitution with “diagnosis, intervention, evaluation, and maintenance” is the best way to help customers improve their body conditions and improve their overall immunity instead of only treating the outward problems.
