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It has been suggested that Tae-Eum peoples are prone to obesity. Although extensive clinical observations have shown this tendency in Sasang Constitutional Medicine (SCM), no scientific hypothesis has been proposed to delineate its mechanism. According to SCM theory, Tae-Eum peoples have a hypoactive lung system and a hyperactive liver system. In this paper we propose a new hypothesis explaining the tendency of obesity in Tae-Eum people in the viewpoint of cell physiology. The hypoactive lung system might imply an attenuated 'respiration' at the cell/subcell level, namely mitochondrial oxygen consumption. Because a functional weakness in mitochondria energy metabolism indicates intrinsic hypo-activity in the consumption (or production) of metabolic energy, we deduced that the tendency can easily induce body weight gain via an increase in anabolism. This relation is also introduced in the graph of cellular metabolic power against body weight. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed the clinical data with 863 subjects. Statistical analysis of the data showed that Tae-Eum peoples had relatively a lower cellular metabolic power, and that the percentage of peoples with BMI>25 was significantly higher than that of the other constitutional types. |
