Disease is understood as external, internal and inherited or congenital - what you’re born with. External causes are attributed to the five element environmental factors: wind, cold, damp, dryness and heat/ summer heat. Internal causes are related to food and diet – with Chinese Medicine seeing all foods as fitting within the five element theory of flavours; sweet, sour, salty, bitter and pungent. So a food craving is an important diagnostic tool to an acupuncturist. The “congenital causes of disease” can be understood as your genetic make-up or the constitutional energy you inherited from your parents at conception. While you can’t alter this, good diet, moderate exercise and healthy living can help you to make the most of what you were born with.