Abstract:

The Yang-deficiency constitution has been a hot topic of interest in recent years. Important research progress has been made in quantitative diagnostic criteria and auxiliary identification technologies, modern biological inter-pretations of the constitution characteristics, the association between the Yang-deficiency constitution and diseases, as well as the mechanisms of regulating the constitution. Yet, there are still some deficiencies and limitations. Herein, we systematically reviewed the research progress on the Yang-deficiency constitution by searching articles published in China National Knowledge Infrastructure Database, China Science and Technology Journal Database, Wanfang Database, PubMed, and Embase. The future development direction of the Yang-deficiency constitution should focus on developing objective constitution identification techniques, establishing animal models of Yang-deficiency constitution, conducting constitutional and disease-related research with a high level of evidence, combined with research on the full chain of the nine constitutions so as to obtain more scientific and objective conclusions.

Key words: Yang-deficiency constitution, research progress, TCM constitution, research directions, review