Investigation of Pulse Waves, Channel Entries, and Food Attributes in Healthy Subjects With Different Constitutions

National Taiwan University

Status: Unknown

Conditions: Healthy Subjects With Different Constitutions

Treatments: Dietary Supplement: Coconut water; Dietary Supplement: ginger tea

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02079571

201301076RINB

Details and patient eligibility

About

In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), hot- and cold-attribute of food ingredients are a major part of dietary therapy. "Eight Principles" including cold/hot, repletion/vacuity, yin/yang and exterior/interior are used for diagnose by Chinese medical doctors. From the perspective of TCM, all constitutions, diseases, herbal medicine and foods can be divided into these two major categories, i.e., cold and hot. Therefore, dietary therapy claims that the attributes of foods should be used to oppose our constitutions in order to harmonize organ functions and maintain human vitality. The true benefit of dietary therapy is considered to be the reestablishment of a harmonious balance between cold and hot, or repletion and vacuity, within the human body.

Previous studies reported that the capillary red blood cell (RBC) velocity in nail fold microcirculation (NFM) of the subjects with hot constitution accelerated significantly after taking the hot attribute aged ginger tea, which might be the result of elevated vagal activity leading to arteriole dilation in these subjects. In contrast, in subjects with cold constitution, capillary RBC velocity decelerated significantly and skin temperature decreased markedly after taking the cold-attribute coconut water, which might have been induced by sympathetic nerve activation causing the arteriole to be constricted. As a result, the use of capillary RBC velocity of NFM measured by laser Doppler anemometer may be a promising way to classify attributes of food ingredients commonly used in Chinese medicine dietary therapy in accordance with different personal constitutions.

Accordingly, it will be a worthwhile task to establish a modern scientific methodology to define the attributes of food ingredients. The aim of this project is to investigate the relationship between food attributes and the physiological signals produced in healthy young subjects with different constitutions. In the first year of this project, investigators are starting to determine the pulse waves produced in healthy subjects with different constitutions by a Smart Pulse Wave Health Evaluation System (S-PULSE). Then, investigators will investigate the relationship between food attributes, channel entries and the physiological signals. Hopefully, the results will have a leverage on the powerful integration capacity within National Taiwan University (NTU) campus to build a hub for global TCM cloud.

Enrollment: 240 estimated patients

Sex: All

Ages: 20 to 65 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Healthy adult over twenty years old

Exclusion criteria

• Severe hypertension
• Cardiovascular diseases

Trial design

Primary purpose: Basic Science

Allocation: Non-Randomized

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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240 participants in 2 patient groups

water+ Coconut water

Experimental group

Description:

forty subjects

Treatment:

Dietary Supplement: Coconut water

ginger tea +water

Experimental group

Treatment:

Dietary Supplement: ginger tea