 So it might sound weird that I am a professional with a doctorate and I'm about to sit on a toilet and talk to you, but that's because we're talking about poop today. So three kinds of poop, what they mean, and what it says about your health. What's up you guys? Dr. Alex Hine, doctor of acupuncture and Chinese medicine. Now before we jump in today's video about poop, check out the two links right below this video because number one, the first link is to contact me in my private practice if you'd like to become a patient locally in Los Angeles or virtually via telemedicine and the second is for a free download which is four daily rituals that could potentially help you add years to your life with Chinese medicine. Let's get back to poo. So Chinese medicine point of view often is that there are very specific constitutional types prone to certain let's say organ imbalances and you see this within families. You have people that have asthma, allergies and eczema, that trifecta that runs in families. You have families that run with digestive problems. It's almost like the familial myasms so to speak, a genetic tendency and there are all kinds of conditions in between. But when we talk about bowel movements in particular, remember in Chinese medicine there are these very different kinds of patterns that show up and I want to start with what we call the deficient and cold pattern. This is usually the taiyin pattern. So these are people that have issues with what Chinese medicine considers the spleen and the lung which is probably realistically the pancreas. This kind of pattern is someone who overall constitutionally runs cold. Their body temperature is cold. Generally they have lower no appetite but they can have the opposite as well but most of them have a lower appetite. They're more prone to bloating and in terms of bowel movements food sensitivities and loose stools or even prone to diarrhea if they food that's bad for them. So the taiyin type the reason why the stool is loose is because Chinese medicine considers this dampness. So the mucosa are very often too damp and one of the ways you know that this is true is that they are often very flummy. So this taiyin type will often have issues with clearing their throat, flem accumulation, seasonal allergies and a lot of just chronic rhinitis, this discharge, blowing their nose that sort of thing. So the first constitutional type is the damp cold type. Now for these kind of people what they need is more warming stimulant herbs or stimulating herbs that increase metabolism and we use herbs for example like ginseng, herbs like ginger and herbs like baju, attractor loaties that are said to drain damp and as well as a plant called or a fungus called poria which is fooling. So that's the cold and deficient type and we say it's prone to dampness. Way on the other side of the spectrum is the yangming type which is the hot type. Constitutionally these people tend to be bigger because they have strong digestion. They're more able to put on weight naturally without thinking about it. They tend to have generally robust digestion and they tend to be more prone to heat so they often have more color in the face. Whereas I'm this pale and cold constitution, if you've ever seen someone who has a lot of red and ruddiness in the face that is often this yangming constitution. This constitution has more heat and so what you see is more dryness. So the bowel movements can be hard and dry, they can alternate. In general they tend to have good digestion so they may not complain about their GI but they may have some GI issues but in general the bowel movements tend to run more warm. Warm meaning they're more dry. So Chinese medicine point of view is that these people who have issues with very often the gallbladder, the liver and what we call the triple warmer in the stomach, these people tend to do better with a more cooling diet. So whereas the last constitution would not do well with having lots of raw vegetables, the warming constitution, the warm one, typically is more well suited towards salads for example or a higher percentage of a vegetarian or vegetable-based diet to even out some of that heat and some of that fluid dryness that's happening. That's the two sides of the spectrum but of course like anything there's a hybrid type that is mixed. So these people tend to have mixed bowel movement patterns where they can alternate between wildly to diarrhea or all the way over to hard and dry little pebbles. Now this type is called Xiaoyang and Xiaoyang is basically a mixed type where there's very often some aspect of cold and very often some aspect of heat. The most defining characteristic is that they have alternating stools. These people can be cold, very often they have a warm body but cold extremities but the main difference is that the bowel movements alternate and that's the distinguishing characteristic. Very often these patients will say that the bowel movement starts hard and then ends soft and so that's the the confusing paradox. So that is what we call a hot stomach and a cold spleen. The spleen is the bloating and the appetite side and the loose stool side and the stomach is that liver gallbladder that heat which creates dryness and warmth. So there are a confusing mix of both of these patterns. The cold deficient pattern that constitution needs more warming foods like meat, warming spices, cooked foods. The hot type needs more cooling foods like vegetables and even salads. The mixed type needs a healthy balance of both and so that is generally the three main patterns I see when it comes to digestion is cold and loose, warm and dry and mixed. That makes up the bulk of the three most common constitutional types. Before we go don't forget check out that link right below this video if you're interested in becoming a patient locally in Los Angeles or virtually and there's also two related videos on poop and bowel movements right up there in the corner.