Traditional theory, careful boundaries

Choose the right TCM body type, quiz, food, or safety page.

Start with the nine constitution tendencies, use the quiz only for reading order, and keep food culture separate from diagnosis, treatment, dosage, or personal health decisions.

Start the quiz Compare body types

Mixed patterns are normal.The quiz and pages sort language for learning; they do not identify a medical condition.

Practical learning guides

Find a specific question and a usable record

Open the library for traditional terms, questionnaires, product-label reading and evidence checks. If you are preparing an Australian appointment, the three service guides below address registration, consent and access to records.

Browse practical guides

Choose the part of the guide you need

Start by task: body type, daily sign, food language, comparison, or safety boundary.

Body Types

Start with the nine tendencies

Use this when you want to know what Qi Deficiency, Yang Deficiency, Damp-Heat, and the other body types mean.

Daily Signs

When Fatigue Is the Question: Reader Path

Use this when fatigue, cold hands, dryness, heaviness, stress, or sensitivity brought you here.

Food Therapy

Read food language safely

Use this for warming, cooling, congee, soup, tea, ingredient, and body-type food direction language.

Compare

Check similar tendencies

Use this when two body types sound close or a quiz result feels mixed.

Safety

Know when to stop self-reading

Use this before applying any body-type, food, tea, herb, supplement, or symptom-related idea personally.

Start With the Real Question

Choose the closest reading path before opening a body type, food note, or concept page.

Compare a tendency

Qi Deficiency and Yang Deficiency: How to Compare the Language

For mixed quiz results, overlapping signs, or one word that feels too certain.

Understand food language

Breakfast Warmth: Food Culture Reading Note

For warming, cooling, congee, tea, ingredient, and household cooking terms.

Prepare questions

Questions Before a TCM Visit: Reader Path

For notes that belong in a professional conversation rather than self-advice.

Check safety first

When to See a Doctor or Licensed TCM Practitioner

For medication, pregnancy, children, chronic conditions, allergies, or urgent concerns.

Guided Reading Paths

Use these when the question is already specific enough to need a sequence, not a single article.

If fatigue brought you here

For readers comparing low stamina, slow recovery, short breath with light effort, cold signs, and heaviness.

Name the fatigue questionSeparate ordinary tiredness, safety stop-points, and TCM vocabulary before choosing a body type.
Start with Qi DeficiencyRead the low-stamina language without making fatigue into one cause.
Compare warmth cluesCheck whether cold hands, cold foods, and preference for warmth change the reading.
Compare heaviness cluesSeparate low stamina from heavy, sticky, rich-food discomfort language.
Check the stop pointPersistent, severe, chest, breath, fainting, anemia, or unusual fatigue belongs with qualified care.

If food lists conflict

For readers who see one page mention warming food while another warns about cooling, rich, raw, or greasy language.

Name the conflictTurn the contradiction into notes instead of choosing a food rule.
Read food nature firstKeep warming, cooling, and neutral language cultural and relative.
Compare by tendencyUse the chart as a map, not a meal plan.
Check review limitsMedication, pregnancy, children, allergy, and chronic conditions need real review, not a website answer.

If your quiz result feels mixed

For readers whose top tendencies are close together or whose answers feel split across energy, warmth, digestion, and stress.

Start with mixed-result guidanceTreat the quiz as reading order rather than an assessment.
Open the directoryCompare all nine tendencies before trusting one label or letting a close quiz result feel certain.
Use grouped resourcesChoose comparison, reader path, or practitioner questions based on the real problem.
Prepare questionsBring observations into a professional conversation if the topic is personal.

Before trying a tea or culinary herb

For readers who see a familiar kitchen word and wonder whether it is still ordinary food, tea culture, supplement language, or a professional safety question.

Name the tea questionSeparate taste, culture, product claims, and personal safety before choosing what to read next.
Read the culture pageKeep tea and culinary herb language in an education-only frame.
Prepare supplement questionsUse this when the topic moves from food or tea into products, extracts, interactions, or routines.
Study one caution exampleLicorice shows why familiar food words can still require medication, pregnancy, chronic-condition, and product boundaries.
Stop at safetyMedication, pregnancy, children, chronic conditions, allergy, or unusual symptoms belong outside self-guided tea decisions.

If cold hands or cold foods are the question

For readers comparing cold sensitivity, warm-food preference, low energy, digestion heaviness, and seasonal cold language.

Start with the cold questionKeep circulation, thyroid, severe cold intolerance, dizziness, or chest concerns outside the body type page.
Read Yang DeficiencyUse warmth language as traditional pattern vocabulary, not as a cause of cold symptoms.
Compare low-energy overlapSeparate cold clues from stamina and recovery language before choosing which body type page to keep reading.
Read food nature carefullyKeep warming and cooling examples cultural rather than turning them into required foods.
Check escalationSevere, sudden, persistent, medication-related, or circulation concerns need qualified care.

If pregnancy, children, medication, or chronic conditions are involved

For readers whose question is not just culture reading because personal risk, medication, allergy, pregnancy, pediatric, or chronic-condition context is present.

Start with sensitive contextDo not use food, tea, or body type pages as a decision tool for children, pregnancy, or nursing.
Add medication questionsWrite down medications, supplements, teas, and products before asking a qualified professional.
Read review limitsSee why source-guided editing is not the same as individual safety review.
Confirm what the site is notThe site does not diagnose, treat, prescribe, dose, or personalize food and herb choices.
Move to careUse qualified care for personal decisions, urgent issues, or anything that would change what someone eats, takes, delays, or stops.

Nine Constitution Tendencies

Each page separates traditional signs, food culture direction, lifestyle reflection, and red flags.

平和质

Balanced Constitution

A steady baseline in TCM language, with relatively even sleep, appetite, energy, digestion, and recovery.

气虚质

Qi Deficiency

A traditional pattern tendency often described around low stamina, easy fatigue, slow recovery, and shortness of breath with light effort.

阳虚质

Yang Deficiency

A traditional cold and low-warmth tendency, often described around cold hands or feet, preference for warmth, and low energy.

阴虚质

Yin Deficiency

A traditional dryness and warmth tendency, often described around dry mouth, night warmth, restlessness, or light sleep.

痰湿质

Phlegm-Dampness

A traditional heaviness and sluggishness tendency, often described around heavy body feeling, sticky sensations, and rich-food discomfort.

湿热质

Damp-Heat

A traditional sticky-warm tendency, often described around oily skin, bitter taste, irritability, and discomfort in humid heat.

血瘀质

Blood Stasis

A traditional circulation-stagnation tendency, often described around fixed discomfort, dull complexion, or easy bruising.

气郁质

Qi Stagnation

A traditional stuck-flow tendency, often described around stress-linked tightness, sighing, mood pressure, and digestion changes.

特禀质

Special Constitution

A traditional sensitivity tendency, often described around stronger reactions to pollen, foods, weather, dust, or environmental changes.

Start With Concepts

Read the language before comparing food or lifestyle direction.

What Is Qi in Traditional Chinese Medicine?Qi is presented as a traditional functional concept, not a modern biomedical substance.Yin and Yang in TCM: A Practical ExplanationYin and Yang describe relative cooling, warming, nourishing, activating, and balancing language in TCM theory.What Does Dampness Mean in Chinese Medicine?Dampness is a traditional heaviness and sluggishness metaphor, not a direct diagnosis of swelling or disease.Heat and Cold in TCM Pattern LanguageHeat and Cold describe traditional pattern qualities and should not replace care for fever, infection, or circulation concerns.

Education-only boundary

Seek qualified healthcare or a licensed TCM practitioner for severe, sudden, persistent, unusual, pregnancy-related, pediatric, chronic-condition, medication, allergy, or emergency concerns.

Sources and reading limits

Use the source and editorial policies to check how this guide frames its material. Follow the citations on the page that addresses your question. A reference can explain traditional terminology without establishing a personal health conclusion.