The Significance of Physical Appearance in Traditional Oriental Medicine (Physiognomy Medicine)

 

There appears to be a mixture of wonder and skepticism about how Oriental doctors treat patients without radiological examinations or blood tests." Almost everyone has had at least one or two encounters with Oriental medicine. When a patient visits a doctor, they discuss their symptoms as well as their medical history. Based on this, a typical therapeutic strategy is to employ pulse diagnostics to determine the origin of the ailment.

Unbeknownst to the patients, Oriental doctors examine the patient's physical appearance and color in order to determine the etiology and progression of the sickness. They look at things like height, nose shape, mouth shape, ear size, facial form, and general skin tone. This technique is known as "望診 inspection" and is made up of four components: form, color, pulse, and symptoms. Doctors can discover the source of the ailment and develop a treatment strategy by integrating these elements. Precise treatment is only possible when all four elements are considered. therapy that is purely based on pulse diagnosis or visual analysis is insufficient and may result in a sluggish recovery or recurrence following therapy.

During the Warring States period, the famed doctor Bian Que even argued that modest bodily symptoms can signal long-term prognosis, because disease reflects internal reactions that emerge physically. The Donguibogam, an Eastern Doctor's Guide, also contains useful information. Uplifted lips, for example, suggest a powerful spleen, whereas drooping lips indicate a weak spleen. Firm lips suggest a strong spleen, whereas large yet soft lips indicate a weak spleen. Among the five and six organs, the mouth, as one of the oral organs, indicates the status of the spleen. The eyes mirror the liver, the mouth the stomach, the nose the lungs, and the tongue the heart. While it is not as simple as evaluating form and color to treat a sickness, the basic formula given in medical publications provides for some assessment of the organ's state. As a result, doctors can deduce the patient's health to some extent without doing examinations or listening to their story.

Physiognomy medicine should be emphasized not only in illness treatment but also in preventative medicine. In essence, physiognomy medicine is characterized by the fact that "disease comes as it appears," which indicates that it encompasses more than simply exterior appearance. It comprises fundamental personality qualities as well as lifestyle behaviors. Carnivorous animals, for example, eat meat and engage in spinal exercises, therefore their ailments are caused by these factors. Diseases can develop as a result of eating bad meat or overeating, and their spinal mobility leaves them vulnerable to spinal problems known as carnivorous animal diseases. Herbivores, on the other hand, such as cows, are susceptible to diseases associated with grass-eating. Similarly, overweight people become unwell as a result of their weight, whereas thin people become ill as a result of their thinness. To summarize, we become ill as a result of how we live and appear. As a result, overweight people have different lifestyle patterns than slender ones, and thus require various means of health maintenance. The ultimate goal of morphological medicine is to prevent diseases by matching one's physical traits. As the expression goes, "protect your health when you are healthy.