Associations between Traditional Chinese Medicine Body Constitution and Cardiovascular Disease Risk in a White population

Introduction Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has guided generations of practice on disease treatment and health maintenance. The TCM principles include the framework of body constitution (BC). In essence, it represents one of the first attempts at applying the principle of personalized, precision medicine. Major limitations to broad implementation of the body constitution (BC) framework, and perhaps TCM as a whole, include not only a lack of empirical study about its relation to other models of health maintenance but also a poor understanding of its applicability outside of Chinese population. Methods We conducted a study using baseline data from the Personalized Prevention of Colorectal Cancer Trial. 191 participants from an almost entirely White population were evaluated for BC type. Results Fifty-seven (29.8%) were identified as neutral BC, while Blood-stasis (17.3%), Qi-deficient (13.6%), and Special diathesis (10.5%) were the pre-eminent pathologic subtypes. We also found there are substantial differences in proportions of TCM BC types in our study of white Americans conducted in US from previous studies conducted in Chinese populations. Additional analyses investigated the relationship between cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and BC subtypes. Among them, Yang-deficiency, Yin-deficiency, and Blood stasis carried a lower risk of CVD. Conclusions It is important to understand the underlying mechanisms contributing to these differences, which may not only help to understand the underlying mechanism for TCM, but also help to identify novel factors or mechanisms for CVD risk, prevention and treatment. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Clinical Trial NCT01105169 ### Funding Statement This study was supported by R01 CA149633 from the National Cancer Institute, R01DK110166 from National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Department of Health and Human Services as well as the Ingram Cancer Center Endowment Fund. Data collection, sample storage, and processing for this study were partially conducted by the Survey and Biospecimen Shared Resource, which is supported in part by P30CA68485. Clinical visits to the Vanderbilt at the Clinical Research Center were supported in part by the Vanderbilt CTSA grant UL1 RR024975 from NCRR/NIH. The parent study data were stored in Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap), and data analyses (VR12960) were supported in part by the Vanderbilt Institute for Clinical and Translational Research (UL1TR000445). ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: Vanderbilt Institutional Review Board gave ethical approval for this work. I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable. Yes The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request. * ACS : acute coronary syndrome BC : body constitutions BMI : Body mass index CAD : coronary artery disease CVD : cardiovascular disease CRP : c-reactive protein eGFR : estimated glomerular filtration rate GCRS : General cardiovascular risk score HDL-C : high-density lipoproteins cholesterol LDL-C : low-density lipoproteins cholesterol MDRD : Modification of Diet in Renal Disease MI : myocardial infarction TC : total cholesterol TCM : Traditional Chinese Medicine WHR : waist hip ratio