Table 1.

General characteristics of the nine traditional Chinese medicine ( TCM) constitutional types [3,13,14]

	General characteristics	Physical characteristics	Psychological characteristics	Sign of health	Sign of illness
Gentleness	Yin-Yang balanced	Full of vitality and well-proportioned	Mild character	Good cold and hot tolerance, sleep well, good appetite and no fatigue	Less disease
Type A
Qi-deficiency*	Insufficiency of primordial Qi	Weakened muscle*	No desire to speak	Short of breath, listless and low voice and easy to sweat and fatigue	Palpitations and influenza
Type B
Yang-deficiency	More insufficiency of primordial Qi	Slightly muscle atrophy	More quiet and introverted	Intolerance of cold, loose stool, clear abundant urine and easy to catch a cold	Diarrhea
Type C
Yin-deficiency*	Yin-fluid deficiency	Slim body	Quick-tempered	Feverish palms and soles, dry mouth and throat, dry eyes, flushing cheek, and dry skin is usual	Fatigue syndrome, muscle fatigue* and insomnia
Type D
Phlegm-wetness	Body fluid stasis and phlegm-wetness aggregation	Obese body with accumulate fat around abdomen	Prudent	Feeling body heaviness, chest distress and excessive phlegm, sticky mouth, and sticky sweating in usual	Stroke and Diabetes
Type E
Wet-heat	Internal accumulation of damp-heat	Slim body	Tend to be irritable	likely to suffer from acne, thirsty, bad breath, bitter taste in the mouth in usual	Constipation, scabies and jaundice
Type F
Blood-stasis*	Poor blood circulation	All body types	Tend to be annoying and forgetful	Frequent pain* and ecchymosis and gloomy complexion	Chronic pain*
Type G
Qi-depression	Depression and stagnation of Qi	Slim body	Depressive, sensitive and suspicious	Frequently sigh, distention and pain in chest	hypochondria
Type H
Special diathesis	Special diathesis	All body types	All types	Hypersensitiveness	Asthma and urticaria
Type I

*The three TCM constitutional types (Qi-deficiency, Yin-deficiency and Blood-stasis) have been selected in this trial.