Perception of cold and heat pattern identification in diseases: a survey of Korean medicine doctors

Abstract

BackgroundThis study aimed to investigate the extent to which Korean Medicine doctors consider cold and heat pattern identification when prescribing herbal treatment for a disease.MethodsA survey was sent by e-mail to 15,841 members of the Association of Korean Medicine for whom member information was registered. Of these, 699 (4.4%) members participated in the survey. The survey included questions regarding the frequency of use of cold and heat pattern identification in deciding a herbal treatment prescription, the diseases for which cold and heat pattern identification-related herbal treatment was most efficacious, the type of herbal treatment prescribed, and the duration of the treatment.ResultsOf the 699 respondents, 591 (84.5%) reported that they considered cold and heat when prescribing herbal treatment. The diseases for which consideration of cold and heat patterns was effective were, in order, menopausal disorder (124, 18.3%), chronic rhinitis (98, 14.5%), dyspepsia (94, 13.9%), hwa-byung (92, 13.6%), diarrhea (83, 12.3%), dysmenorrhea (61, 9.0%), headache (59, 8.7%), inflammation in the digestive tract (58, 8.6%), coldness in hands and feet (58, 8.6%), and atopic dermatitis (55, 8.1%). The typical treatment duration differed widely for different diseases: atopic dermatitis was most frequently treated for >2 months (38, 34.5%), whereas diarrhea was most frequently treated for ≤ 10 days (73, 43.6%).ConclusionThese findings indicate that cold and heat pattern identification is a useful tool employed by Korean Medicine doctors. This study may provide a basis for clinical research investigating the effect of pattern identification-based treatment of diseases.

The association between cold hypersensitivity in the hands and feet and chronic disease: results of a multicentre study

“…CHHF is not only inconvenient for individuals in their daily life, but is important for pattern identification (such as the cold pattern and yang deficiency) in TEAM. In TEAM, pattern identification is an important factor to consider during disease diagnosis when prescribing herbal medicine, so it is important that both be identified [ 23 ]. Moreover, while many people experience CHHF and it has been considered a serious symptom in East Asia for a long time, it is not well-known if CHHF is associated with various diseases [ 2 , 24 ].…”

Biopsychological and pathophysiological features of Cold-Heat subgroup of Sasang typology with Sasang Digestive Function Inventory, Sasang Personality Questionnaire and Body Mass Index

“…This study focused on pattern identification of Cold-Heat subgroup along with Sasang type classification using objective pathophysiological and biopsychological measures. The Cold-Heat subgroup is the most widely used diagnosis of East-Asian traditional medical doctors examining clinical symptoms of patients 26 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 . It was first appeared in the Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine , used as major clinical procedure in the Discussion on Cold-induced Disease , and polished as pivotal clinical diagnosis by great East-Asian clinicians for thousands years.…”

“…Second, the participants were consist of patients received various diagnoses of Western medicine, which might cause bias by aggregating specific Cold or Heat patterns in certain subgroups. However, since this study used the Cold-Heat subgroup pattern identification of traditional medicine 26 listed in the Korean Standard Classification of Diseases (KCD) code ( Table 1 ) 43 , the reliability of Cold-Heat subgroup classification might be acceptable. A prospective clinical study of individuals with specific cardiovascular or digestive diseases using a larger sample size to replicate the results in this study would be needed to prevent possible sampling bias.…”

“…However, these previous studies have only focused on the clinical features of four Sasang types, and have not provided insights into the Cold-Heat subgroup of Sasang typology, which is pivotal for the detailed and carefully guided clinical interventions to treat medical problems 4 , 25 , 26 . The Cold-Heat subgroup of Sasang typology ( Table 1 ) refers to intrinsic and innate pathophysiological predispositions, even with identical clinical symptoms 4 , 12 , 17 , when compared to the Cold-Heat pattern of conventional traditional East-Asian medicine focusing on the current and momentary clinical manifestations in prognosis.…”

Association between Resting Energy Expenditure and Heat Pattern in Traditional Medicine

“…ey also mentioned that consideration of heat and cold patterns was effective in a wide range of diseases including menopausal disorders, chronic rhinitis, dyspepsia, hwa-byung, diarrhea, dysmenorrhea, headache, inflammation in the digestive tract, coldness in the hands and feet, and atopic dermatitis [4]. It has also been published that identification of HP in rheumatoid arthritis could improve the successful treatment outcome rate when used with conventional biomedicinebased treatment [5,6].…”