Physiome and sasang constitutional medicine

Abstract

Sasang Constitutional Medicine (SCM) is a traditional Korean form of medicine widely used in the clinical diagnosis and treatment of disease. This paper reviews the main aspects of SCM and "physiome" with emphasis on integrative and holistic characteristics. Methodological and physiological aspects of SCM are summarized with reference to existing studies. The main characteristics of SCM, such as the four physical constitutions and diagnostic methods, are introduced. Moreover, physiome and systems medicine are introduced as plausible candidates for integrative medicine and are compared to reductionism-based molecular biology. We also discuss the conceptual similarity of SCM with predictive, preventive, personalized, and participative (P4) medicine. It is emphasized that the integrative and creative combination of SCM and physiome will unlock a new era of holistic medicine.