Department of Sasang Constitutional Medicine, College of Oriental Medicine, Kyung Hee University.
BMC Complement Altern Med. 2012 Aug 13;12:122. doi: 10.1186/1472-6882-12-122.
Appetite is intricately connected to eating behaviors and shows a high individual variability. In an attempt to approach the problem of gut hormone profiles, appetite, and eating behaviors at the individual level, we have adopted a constitutional typing system widely used in traditional East-Asian medicine, the Sasang constitutional typology, in order to determine the individual variations in appetite, eating behavior, and weight change.
This pilot study was designed to investigate the variability of appetite among individuals by tracking the gut hormone patterns across different constitutional types. Pre- and post-prandial concentrations of anorectic (peptide YY (PYY), glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1)) and orexigenic (active ghrelin) gut hormones were measured in healthy, normal-weight (18.5 kg/m2 ≤BMI <23 kg/m2) male subjects aged 20-35 (Soyang (SY) (n = 9), Taeeum (TE) (n = 9), and Soeum (SE) (n = 10) constitutional types).
Significant differences were found only in the PYY concentrations across the three groups (p = 0.031). The PYY concentration peaked at 30-min post-prandial in the SE group and was significantly higher compared to the other two groups (p = 0.004). The GLP-1 concentration peaked at 15-min post-prandial in the SE group (not significant). The ghrelin levels at 30-min pre-prandial were relatively lower in the TE group compared to the other groups (not significant).
In conclusion, although with weak statistical power, meaningful gut hormone patterns specific to each constitutional type were discovered in this pilot study, which could offer a new method of approaching the problem of appetite and eating behavior from the angle of individual variability in appetite.
食欲与进食行为密切相关，表现出高度的个体变异性。为了在个体水平上探讨肠道激素谱、食欲和进食行为的问题，我们采用了广泛应用于传统东亚医学的体质分型系统——四象体质分型学，以确定食欲、进食行为和体重变化的个体差异。
本研究旨在通过跟踪不同体质类型的肠道激素模式来研究个体食欲的可变性。在 20-35 岁健康、体重正常（18.5kg/m2≤BMI<23kg/m2）的男性受试者中，测量餐前和餐后的食欲抑制（肽 YY（PYY）、胰高血糖素样肽 1（GLP-1））和食欲刺激（活性胃饥饿素）肠道激素。受试者分为三个体质类型：双阳型（SY）（n=9）、少阳型（TE）（n=9）和阴阳和平型（SE）（n=10）。
仅在三组之间发现 PYY 浓度存在显著差异（p=0.031）。SE 组的 PYY 浓度在餐后 30 分钟达到峰值，明显高于其他两组（p=0.004）。SE 组的 GLP-1 浓度在餐后 15 分钟达到峰值（无统计学意义）。TE 组的餐前 30 分钟的 ghrelin 水平相对较低（无统计学意义）。
尽管统计效能较弱，但本研究发现了每个体质类型特有的有意义的肠道激素模式，这为从个体食欲变异性的角度探讨食欲和进食行为问题提供了一种新方法。
