New to ECM? Start with What Is Eight Constitution Medicine? for the basics of the eight body types.
An earlier article dealt with managing dameum in the Pulmotonia and Colonotonia constitutions. Today I want to take up something important about the types at the opposite pole: Cholecystonia and Hepatonia (목음·목양체질, the Taeumin types).
If you have given up meat and eat mostly plants, yet your cholesterol refuses to fall — or has actually risen — and you have found yourself frowning at a health-screening report, this one is for you.
In Summary
- Dameum does not stop at indigestion. It travels through the vessels and blocks the body in many places, and in modern terms it is the root cause of metabolic syndrome — hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia. Recent research also links waste accumulating in the brain to dementia.
- Cholecystonia and Hepatonia have a strong liver and gallbladder and a weak lung, and are traditionally classified as types for whom meat is beneficial.
- When cholesterol rises in these types, the likely reason is not that they ate meat but that they ate too much overall for their metabolism to handle. Cutting meat out altogether can even push the numbers higher.
- Avoiding meat and eating mostly carbohydrate means the body burns energy less efficiently; and to make up the missing satiety, carbohydrate intake climbs. Surplus carbohydrate is synthesised in the liver into triglycerides and cholesterol and poured into the blood. It is dameum produced by not eating meat.
- Hepatonia in particular eats less overall when it eats meat, because quality protein and fat sustain fullness for longer.
- Exercise matters as much as diet here. These types circulate by discharging interior heat as sweat, so moderate, frequent sweat-raising exercise is essential.
Why Dameum Is Genuinely Serious
The dameum (痛飲) I keep returning to does not stop at poor digestion and a heavy body. As waste that has failed to be metabolised and has accumulated, dameum travels through the blood vessels and obstructs the body in place after place.
In the terms of modern medicine, this is precisely the root cause of metabolic syndrome — hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia. Further, recent studies have been finding that waste accumulating in the brain, which is to say dameum, is deeply connected with the direct causes of dementia. It is a real entity that goes beyond eroding quality of life to threatening it.
The Misunderstanding About Cholesterol in the Wood Types
With a strong liver and gallbladder and a weak lung, Cholecystonia and Hepatonia are traditionally classified as constitutions for whom meat is beneficial. Yet when a health screening returns a high cholesterol figure, most take fright and cut out meat first.
Here is what people of these types must know. Your cholesterol is rising most probably not because you ate meat, but because you ate too much in total for your metabolic capacity to handle. If anything, cutting meat out entirely may drive the number higher still.
The Vegetarian’s Hyperlipidemia Mystery
Look around and you will find, not infrequently, people who have never gone near meat in their lives and live on greens and rice, yet whose cholesterol or triglycerides run high. When they go to a clinic they are told, “Stay off the greasy food and cut down on meat.” From the patient’s side it is simply unfair. But I don’t eat meat.
When a Wood type keeps meat at a distance and eats mostly plants — and above all mostly carbohydrate — the body cannot burn energy efficiently. And as carbohydrate intake climbs to make up the satiety that is missing, the surplus is synthesised in the liver into triglycerides and cholesterol and poured out into the blood. This, in other words, is dameum brought on by not eating meat.
The Eating Attitude These Types Need
For Cholecystonia and Hepatonia, it is by taking a moderate amount of meat that dameum falls and blood lipids return to normal.
Meat is not the culprit. Hyperlipidemia and high blood sugar come less from meat itself than from overall caloric excess, lack of exercise, and nutritional imbalance. Do not let an indiscriminate avoidance of meat make the problem worse.
Hepatonia especially eats less overall when it eats meat. Meat carrying quality protein and fat sustains fullness for a long time. Eat meat in moderation and you head off the excess intake of carbohydrate — rice, bread, fruit — and so reduce the total volume of food, which in turn prevents dameum from forming.
You have to sweat. In managing dameum for these types, exercise is as important as diet. This constitution circulates by discharging its interior heat as sweat, so moderate, reasonably frequent sweat-raising exercise has to accompany any dietary change.
In Summary
For any constitution, trying to bring numbers back to normal by eating nothing but greens ignores the body’s physiology — and for the Wood types, extreme vegetarianism is certainly not the answer. Keep a varied, healthy pattern of eating as a baseline. If the numbers do need correcting, the move is not to remove the meat but to keep a balanced diet including meat while reducing the overall amount. That is the wisest way for a Wood type to keep the vessels clear of dameum.
Related reading: The Small Eater’s High Cholesterol · The Meat-Based Diet Belongs to Hepatonia
This article reflects the teaching and research of Professor Seungho Baek, Professor of Korean Medicine at Dongguk University College of Korean Medicine, specializing in Pathology and Oncology.
