Yang Deficiency Body Type

Yang deficiency people almost always feel cold and feel weak, especially in windy conditions. They have cold extremities, in addition to feeling cold at their core. (It is possible to have cold extremities with qi deficiency and yin deficiency as well). 

If this description fits you, keep reading to learn how to overcome your yang deficiency! You will find lots of practical tips to feel better!

Reading time: 9 minutes

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What is yang deficiency?

In Chinese medicine, when you have yang deficiency, you have a hard time generating enough energy to heat the body. For example, with yang deficiency, you cannot heat the liver and kidney, two organs that help heat the rest of your body.

Young children with yang deficiency are prone to wetting the bed until after 10 years of age. Older people will often sleep during the day and suffer from insomnia at night, weakening their immune systems. People with yang deficiency are also prone to depression.

Yang qi is considered to be the force of all life activities. It is also essential to have a healthy immune system. When you have deficient yang qi, you are at greater risk for illness and disease. With sufficient yang qi, you will look and feel healthy and vibrant.

What causes a yang deficiency constitution?

Firstly, yang deficiency can start at conception if the parents also have a deficiency.

Much like the concept of genetics in western medicine, according to TCM, at conception your parents set your foundational energetic nature. Wang Chong, a Chinese medicine practitioner in the 1^st century CE writes that:

Strength and long life, weakness and short life are connected with the copiousness and scarcity of the receive qi…When the qi is copious, the body becomes strong, and the body being strong, life lasts long.

On the other hand, when the vital force is scanty, the body is weak, and with a weak body, life is short…A short life is accompanied by much sickness.

Weak kidneys also play a role in yang deficiency. Your kidneys are weakened by drinking too many cold drinks, drinking too many beverages and eating too many foods with a cold energetic nature (e.g., green tea and seafood), or being on a weight-loss diet.

Other factors include frequently taking antibiotics (which are cold in nature) and exposing your body to cold temperatures without warm clothing.

Often times, people with a yang deficiency constitution are overweight, but not always. Warming up the body and generating just the right balance of internal heat are essential to balance this deficiency.

You can feel better

Here is the good news. If you currently have a yang deficiency body constitution, you have the power be healthier. You might have a predisposition to this body constitution, but lifestyle choices continue to weaken cause an imbalance of yin and yang in your body.

Changing your dietary, exercise, and emotional habits can radically shift you from yang deficiency to normal, the ideal, yin and yang balanced, healthy state.

Here are some general patterns associated with a yang deficiency body constitution. You may have overcome some of these tendencies with lifestyle choices you make. Well done! Read on to learn how to improve your health further.

How to off-set your yang deficiency constitution through diet

People with yang deficiency should eat foods warm in temperature and energetic nature. Eating on a fixed schedule to strengthen digestion is essential to provide the fuel your body needs.

Following the Chinese medicine body clock, you should eat a large breakfast between 7:00-9:00 AM, an even larger lunch between 11:00 AM-1:00 PM, and a light dinner between 5:00-7:00 PM.

Additionally, if you have a yang deficiency constitution, you should not snack between meals. Snacking take energy away from warming the body and can lead to weight gain. Eat enough at the three meals to energize your body.

How to strengthen your yang energy with lifestyle changes

Regulate your environment

With yang deficiency, your body cannot easily adjust to changing temperatures. You especially have a hard time regulating your body temperature in cold settings. Therefore, you should "avoid cold and approach warmth."

As an illustration for avoiding cold, avoid wind. Do not sit near a fan or air conditioning unit, even if you feel hot. Place yourself in the cool room but not in the path of the wind.

Also, avoid direct heat from a furnace blowing on you in the winter. Wind depletes yang and will further weaken your ability to maintain a stable body temperature.

Furthermore, if you do have to be in the cold, dress in enough layers to prevent feeling chilled. As soon as you feel a chill, add a layer.

Do not delay or you risk further weakening your yang energy. Especially make sure that your feet, lower abdomen, and lower back stay warm.

As an illustration to approach warmth, in the summer, imagine you are a lizard basking in the sun.

You should spend at least 15-20 minutes in the sun for at least 20 to 30 days in the summer. Ideally soak up the sun on your back, which replenishes yang energy. 

Improve your mood to help with yang deficiency

If you have yang deficiency, you may often be in a bad mood. For instance, people with yang deficiency are susceptible to fear and grief, depending on which organ is affected. You may also be more likely to feel depressed. 

To combat the tendency for a bad mood, avoid situations that enhance your negative emotions. Also, talk more with other people you trust, including a therapist if needed.

You can even talk to yourself. In Chinese medicine, you should speak at least 2,000 words each day. Talking to yourself, aloud, clears your lungs and your mind helping build yang energy. 

Listening to music you enjoy, that cheers your mood can also help. Dancing to the music helps even more because you get your qi and blood flowing.

How to exercise for your yang deficiency constitution

To balance out your yang deficiency, do not exercise to the point of sweating. Sweating loses qi and depletes yang energy. In the summer, you should not do intense exercises.

Your goal is to build up internal heat to keep you warm in the winter. Intense exercise allows the energy to burn up, leaving you depleted when the seasons change.

Ideally, exercise between 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM. These are the yang hours of the day. Exercising during these hours draws on the yang energy of nature to help power your workout.

Think of it like leaving money in your bank account. When you do not need to use yang energy, you have more left.

How acupressure massage and moxibustion can help

Firstly, you should add acupressure massage to your daily routine. It is a powerful tool for people struggling with yang deficiency.

When you massage the acupressure points listed below, you stimulate meridian points that can help replenish your yang energy and promote your body's defenses.

Secondly, for yang deficiency is moxibustion is a therapy. This method evolved along with acupuncture millennia ago. Moxa helps open up blocked energy channels and heal the body.

It can warm the meridians, invigorate the flow of qi and blood, strengthen the body’s resistance to disease, and help the body eliminate “evils” or harmful and toxic substances and energy.

When you have a yang deficiency condition, moxibustion therapy will bring your body back into balance and help expel pathogens.

Specifically, moxibustion involves using a specially prepared stick or cone made of mugwort and other herbal ingredients. The stick or cone is burned near specific meridian points to warm the organs and heal different conditions.

It is primarily used to help cold conditions. Sometimes moxa is performed on people with weak constitutions to boost the immune system and prevent illness.

Acupressure points for yang deficiency

Yang Deficiency Constitution References

Deadman, P. (2016). Live Well Live Long

Yanfu, Z. (2002). Life Cultivation & Rehabilitation of Traditional Chinese Medicine

Yao, H. & Guo, W. (2001). Chinese Food Life Care

Zhang, L. (2017) A TCM Way to be Healthy Inside and Out

http://www.shen-nong.com/eng/lifestyles/food_body_constitutions.html

https://www.smarterhealing.com/