What is swelling — edema — actually made of? Edema is a phenomenon of stagnant water and fluid; more precisely, it is fluid such as lymph leaking out of the blood vessels into the surrounding tissue. The reasons lymph escapes the vessels are varied, but they are usually bound up with inflammation. In Korean Traditional […]
Which Constitutions Get Diabetes? All of Them — but by Different Roads
New to ECM? Start with What Is Eight Constitution Medicine? for the basics of the eight body types. Which constitution is most prone to diabetes? The short answer is that diabetes can arise in every constitution. What differs is the road each type takes to get there. In Korean Traditional Medicine (KTM), the traditional healing […]
Can You Replace Meals with Herbal Medicine? Only If You Have Dameum
A question I am often asked runs like this: “I have no appetite and my stomach feels bloated — can I just take herbal medicine instead of meals?” Or: “I’m too busy to eat properly — can I get by on pills instead?” To answer it, we first need to understand one of the important […]
Why You Can Gain Weight Even on a Constitutional Diet: The Elephant Lesson
New to ECM? Start with What Is Eight Constitution Medicine? for the basics of the eight body types. Some people eat only the foods that suit their constitution and still cannot lose weight. That is not strange at all. In Korean Traditional Medicine (KTM), the traditional healing system of Korea also known as Hanbang (한방), […]
Dieting as a Gastrotonia: The Rarest Type, Where How You Eat Beats What You Eat
New to ECM? Start with What Is Eight Constitution Medicine? for the basics of the eight body types. Why does eating for your constitution help with dieting? The point is not calorie counting. Food that does not suit your type burdens digestion and metabolism, holds water, and manufactures false hunger — so weight creeps on […]
Dieting as a Colonotonia: A Plant-and-Sea Diet, and Why the Gold Types Cut Meat When Unwell
New to ECM? Start with What Is Eight Constitution Medicine? for the basics of the eight body types. Why does eating for your constitution help with dieting at all? The point is not calorie counting. Food that does not suit your type burdens digestion and metabolism, holds water, and manufactures false hunger — so weight […]
Dieting as a Pulmotonia: The Longest List of Foods to Avoid — and Two Rules That Matter Most
Pulmotonia’s food list is the most restrictive of the eight, which can be dispiriting to look at. But two points do most of the work for weight: root vegetables are better than meat yet still not to be eaten freely, and forcing a sweat neither helps your health nor curbs your appetite.
Dieting as a Cholecystonia: Meat Suits You, but the Emperor Diet Does Not
Cholecystonia shares the Taeeumin tendency to store rather than release, so weight gathers easily. Meat does suit this type — but not the way it suits Hepatonia. Build the plate around root vegetables instead, and above all, stop eating things cold.
Dieting as a Renotonia: Weight Comes On More Easily Than You’d Expect — and Constipation Is the Thing to Watch
Renotonia is often assumed to be a naturally lean type because it is a Soeumin. In practice, obesity is fairly common here — it is Vesicotonia that holds more of the genuinely thin. What Renotonia really has to manage is a constitutional tendency to constipation.
Dieting as a Vesicotonia: The Small Eater Who Can Still Become Skinny-Fat
Vesicotonia eats little, so obesity rarely arrives the usual way. But modern food and modern inactivity have opened a side door: skinny-fat. And for this type there is one rule that overrides the rest — do not chase a sweat, because sweating weakens the stomach itself.