Modern TCM identifies four categories of imbalance:

1. Gan yang shang kang (liver yang energy over active)

2. Tan shi nei zu (phlegm-dampness that blocks energy)

3. Yin xu yang kang (yang hyperactive, yin deficient)

4. Yin yang liang xu (deficient yin and yang.)

Dizziness and headaches are common to all four kinds of hypertension, but they also have different characteristics:

1. Over-active yang liver energy. Patients typically have flushed faces and red tongues. They are easily irritated and angered. Their pulse is strong.

2. Phlegm-dampness blocked energy. Patients often feel that their heads are heavy. Other symptoms include chest pain, flatulence, poor appetite, numb legs and chronic fatigue. Patients usually have a thick white coating on the tongue. Many overweight people fall into this category.

3. Hyperactive yang energy, deficient yin energy. Patients often complain of ringing in their ears, poor memory, sleep problems and/or heart palpitations. They are often irritable and frequently feel hot and thirsty.

4. Deficient yin and yang energy. Patients feel dizzy and experience vision problems; they feel weak and often have palpitations, shortness of breath; stools may be semi-liquid stools.

Patients faces and tongue are pale and they feel cold.

Of course, these different unbalanced energy situations require different adjustments to lower blood pressure, according to Dr He Yan, director of the Cardiology Department of Longhua Hospital attached to the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine.