* School of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, Beijing 100029, P. R. China.
† Tang Center for Herbal Medicine Research and Department of Anesthesia & Critical Care, Pritzker School of Medicine, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
Am J Chin Med. 2019;47(3):495-506. doi: 10.1142/S0192415X19500253. Epub 2019 Apr 25.
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has guided health maintenance and disease treatment for thousands of years and has been widely used in many countries around the world. TCM regards each individual as unique so all corresponding therapeutic and preventive approaches in TCM are personalized. Personalized medicine, also referred to as precision medicine, is an emerging medical paradigm that points toward a new direction for future medical development. TCM constitution studies the holistic body condition, which is affected by both inborn and acquired factors. Body constitution lays the foundation for disease diagnosis, prevention and treatment. Different constitution types predispose individuals to different disease susceptibilities. Examining an individual's unique body constitution can promote effective health management and benefit the application of personalized medicine significantly. This review will introduce and discuss the application of the TCM constitution for health maintenance and disease prevention. In last decade, a number of modern techniques have been employed in the constitution research to evaluate the health status of individuals. The TCM constitution reflects the current status and future trends of human health in four aspects, i.e., individual differences, life processes, psychological condition and adaptability to natural and social environments. This TCM constitution theory has already been applied in the Chinese public health management at different levels with promising outcome. The constitution theory and practice provide a new approach for health maintenance and disease prevention.
中医（TCM）几千年来一直指导着人们的健康维护和疾病治疗，并在世界许多国家得到广泛应用。中医将每个人视为独特的个体，因此中医的所有相应治疗和预防方法都是个性化的。个性化医学，也称为精准医学，是一种新兴的医学模式，为未来医学的发展指明了新的方向。中医体质学研究整体的身体状况，它受到先天和后天因素的影响。体质为疾病的诊断、预防和治疗奠定了基础。不同的体质类型使个体容易患上不同的疾病。检查个体独特的体质可以促进有效的健康管理，并极大地受益于个性化医学的应用。这篇综述将介绍和讨论中医体质在健康维护和疾病预防中的应用。在过去的十年中，许多现代技术已被用于体质研究，以评估个体的健康状况。中医体质在四个方面反映了人类健康的现状和未来趋势，即个体差异、生命过程、心理状况以及对自然和社会环境的适应能力。中医体质理论已经在不同层次的中国公共卫生管理中得到了应用，取得了良好的效果。体质理论和实践为健康维护和疾病预防提供了新的方法。
