Suggestion of new possibilities in approaching individual variability in appetite through constitutional typology: a pilot study

Abstract

Background: Appetite is intricately connected to eating behaviors and shows a high individual variability. In an attempt to approach the problem of gut hormone profiles, appetite, and eating behaviors at the individual level, we have adopted a constitutional typing system widely used in traditional East-Asian medicine, the Sasang constitutional typology, in order to determine the individual variations in appetite, eating behavior, and weight change.

Methods: This pilot study was designed to investigate the variability of appetite among individuals by tracking the gut hormone patterns across different constitutional types. Pre- and post-prandial concentrations of anorectic (peptide YY (PYY), glucagon-like peptide 1 (GLP-1)) and orexigenic (active ghrelin) gut hormones were measured in healthy, normal-weight (18.5 kg/m2 ≤BMI <23 kg/m2) male subjects aged 20-35 (Soyang (SY) (n = 9), Taeeum (TE) (n = 9), and Soeum (SE) (n = 10) constitutional types).

Results: Significant differences were found only in the PYY concentrations across the three groups (p = 0.031). The PYY concentration peaked at 30-min post-prandial in the SE group and was significantly higher compared to the other two groups (p = 0.004). The GLP-1 concentration peaked at 15-min post-prandial in the SE group (not significant). The ghrelin levels at 30-min pre-prandial were relatively lower in the TE group compared to the other groups (not significant).

Conclusions: In conclusion, although with weak statistical power, meaningful gut hormone patterns specific to each constitutional type were discovered in this pilot study, which could offer a new method of approaching the problem of appetite and eating behavior from the angle of individual variability in appetite.

Figure 1

Distributions of pre- and post-prandial gut hormone levels. The horizontal lines in each figure are means.

Figure 2

Pre- and post-prandial plasma levels of gut hormones across different Sasang constitutional types. Plotted in each figure are means and standard error of mean (SEM). (A) Glucagon-like peptide (GLP-1) (B) Peptide YY (PYY) (C) Ghrelin. Asterisk (*) denotes significant difference between different Sasang constitutional types at each time-point (p <0.017).