Traditional Chinese Medicine for Metabolic Syndrome via TCM Pattern Differentiation: Tongue Diagnosis for Predictor

Metabolic syndrome is a morbid condition, which is manifested by central obesity, abnormal glucose tolerance, lipodystrophy, and hypertension. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) clarifies that obesity is classified as phlegm-dampness. It is often accompanied with qi stagnation and blood stasis. One hundred and two overweight adults, who did not receive lipid-lowering drugs, were enrolled for analysis. The exclusion criteria were adults having malignancy disease, DM, and renal disease or who were pregnant or lactating. The study was divided into two groups: metabolic syndrome group (MetS) and nonmetabolic syndrome group (nMetS). The modern tongue analysis and heart rate variability devices for data analysis and Council on Nutrition Appetite Questionnaire (CNAQ) for appetite evaluation were used. Obesity patients with metabolic syndrome obviously have lower CNAQ score. The 6 items of CNAQ between two groups have significant difference in variation (P < 0.001). The nMetS average was above 28 scores (96%) and the MetS was all in 17–28 scores. The tongue appearance showed that MetS group have white coating different from the nMetS group with white and yellow coating (P < 0.05). However the HRV is not different from nMetS group significantly. Our results try to explore the relationship between the TCM pattern, nutrition appetite, and heart rate variability in metabolic syndrome patients.