Here your tongue references your health and TCM, not kissing please XD
In TCM or Traditional Chinese Medicine, there are several ways to analyze and diagnose a person’s body condition
The 4 examinations are inquiry, inspection, listening and palpitation
And of which, two of the most important (to me anyway) is tongue diagnosis (under inspection) and pulse taking (palpitation)
However, I have to admit I don’t have much experience with pulse taking
I’m only pretty decent with tongue diagnosis
Now of course, listening to the person’s voice, and asking questions about where they been and what they ate is also rather important
As it might allow you to understand their possible imbalances that might have occurred
The best time to diagnose a tongue is in the morning when one wakes up
When one does not brush the coating off, or take any food or drink that might change the color of the coating
Of course, you can still read someone’s tongue throughout the day if they don’t brush the coating away, or took any food or drink to change the color
Another thing is note is to analyze from the front, not the side
More importantly, learning about the tongue can help you and/or your family better
Because if you want to help diagnose your friends, then I suggest you learn Traditional Chinese Medicine
I learnt through Coursera, under The Chinese University of Hong Kong
So do check them out if you are interested!
But if you don’t want to take up a full course on TCM, you can read a couple of articles where I share some basic information
Like the functions of each organ and how they relate to sickness and pathogens in general
But for now, let’s look at the tongue
How does the tongue work?
Now as you can see in the picture above, the tip represents the heart and directly behind is the lungs
The centre of the tongue is the stomach and spleen
At the sides is the liver and gallbladder
And finally at the back is the kidneys, bladder, small and large intestines
A simple way to look at it, is that the tongue is an upside-down representation of the organs in the human body
The tip represents the heart followed by the lungs is in the upper chest area
In the middle portion we got the organs like stomach and spleen, and the sides we have the liver and gallbladder, all in the middle area of the human body
And finally the back of the tongue is all the bottom organs, consisting of kidneys, bladder, small and large intestines
Well, that’s how I remember it anyway hahaha
A healthy or normal tongue is pink in color with a thin white coating, presented in a relaxed manner
And yes, you got to look at the tongue color as well the coating, whether it is thin or thick, as well as the color of the coating
On top of that, any abnormalities in their respective areas might correlate to the respective organs and their possible imbalances
We might not be able to cover all possibilities (since I am a learner too)
However, any photos of the tongue later on, might help to illustrate and assist in your learning
And yes, these following photos are given with permission
Tongue Color
We shall split into tongue color and the coating, hopefully that will be easier to share and learn
As mentioned above, a pink tongue (as seen in A1) is the normal color and this denotes a healthy or balanced state
However, a pale tongue (like in A2) might suggest blood or qi deficiency, yang deficiency, or cold syndrome
A red tongue (like in A3) indicate a heat syndrome or yin deficiency, and the redder the tongue, the more severe the intensity
Finally, a dark red or purple tongue (I don’t have this picture) indicates blood stasis or blood stagnation
Now you might be wondering, one color might mean a few things, how to diagnose?
That is where you need to combine with the tongue coating, as well as checking with the person what symptoms they are experiencing in order to figure out
To allow it to make sense, let’s continue into the coating portion, before looking at a couple of examples
Tongue Coating
As mentioned earlier, a thin white coating is a normal healthy state so anything other than this indicate an imbalance in the body and thus, increases chance for sickness to occur
No tongue coating (like in B1) can indicate yin deficiency or dryness syndrome
A thick and white coating (as seen in B2) can indicate the presence of cold syndrome, cold-wind syndrome, yang deficiency, or dampness
A thin and yellow coating (like in B3) is usually indicative of a heat syndrome
While a thick and yellow coating indicate a heat syndrome that is accompanied with phlegm or dampness
And yes, it is possible to have no coating in an area say the middle of the tongue, which can indicate yin deficiency or dryness, and yet have a yellow coating at the back of the tongue which is indicative of heat syndrome
This will mean the stomach and spleen has yin deficiency or dryness, while the kidneys, bladder, small and large intestines have excess heat
Naturally, we got to look at the tongue color to combine with the coating, as well as the symptoms that the person is experiencing to be more accurate in the diagnosis
Other Interesting Features
Besides the tongue color and coating, there are some other interesting features which I decide to section on its own
This is because online, people share the standard look of someone with heat syndrome or damp-heat, but often time, we might not get such classic look
The standard for yin deficiency is a bright red tongue with cracks and no coating, but what if I see a normal pink tongue with a normal white thin coating yet there are cracks?
Personally, I will say the cracks indicate yin deficiency, and it is best to catch it now and take the right actions to resolve it before it gets to the standard look, which is by then very bad
Hope that makes sense!
Cracks (like in C1) indicate yin deficiency or dryness in the body
Bruises (seen in tip of tongue in C2) might indicate blood stasis, blood stagnation or poor blood circulation
Swollen tongue with teeth marks (like in C3) around the edge indicate spleen qi deficiency and dampness
Lack of saliva in the mouth can indicate dryness or yin deficiency, or a spleen dysfunction caused by anxiety or dampness
Now when you want to read your own tongue, you can mix and match based on the above color, coating, features, and placement to figure out which organs in your body is ok and which is not ok
In fact, before we move onto the case studies, you could relook at the above examples and with your improved knowledge, analyze those tongues!
For example, B1 has a bright red tongue and no coating, except for a thick white coating at the back
This can indicate yin deficiency with excess heat syndrome, with excess wind or cold affecting kidneys, bladder, small or large intestines
Practice is important~
Let’s have a look at Case Study 1
Now if you want to play, then stop scrolling and reading and just focus on the picture
Have a few thoughts about what you learnt thus far (yes you can scroll up to recap hehe)
And then see how you can analyze this case study 1
What might be the body’s conditions or imbalances?
What organs might be affected?
There is no right or wrong answer
Learning is a process after all 🙂
Now if you are going to continue reading past this
I will share the analysis in 3 dots
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Ok you can approach in however you like, in how you analyze a tongue
In this case, I start with that huge crack from the back down the middle, which could mean dryness or yin deficiency
And is quite possibly affecting at least one of those organs in those areas as well
It might be a bit hard for you to see from this picture, but the tongue doesn’t seem to have any saliva, so that further supports dryness or yin deficiency
However, we can see something interesting, moving inside out, there appears to be an absence of coating, followed by thick coating at the side of the tongue
This can represent wind or cold, or cold-wind symptoms affecting the liver
Since it is dry, it is unlikely to be dampness condition
Hopefully you read my previous articles to understand more about the organs and the various possible imbalances
Anyway, we can ask simple questions such as whether they sleep late, or drink alcohol and whether they have more burping, farting, or feeling bloated etc as this might indicate an overworking liver that produces excess wind
Also considering Singapore is rather warm, people might work in an aircon environment, and even sleep in it, which can produce cold, dry, wind related symptoms
We can also ask if there is lower backache as a possible sign of cold affecting the kidneys
To further add on missing information for you, this was during the durian season!
Naturally, eating too much durian might be too heaty and thus possibly affecting the stomach to have yin deficiency
And yes, the person confirms farting and burping more than usual, overloading on durian feasts, sleeping super late in an aircon room
This combination of factors shows as cold in the kidneys, wind in the liver, and heat drying up the yin in the spleen which also affects the lungs
Here’s Case Study 2
Same thing, spend some time to look at it, analyze it, then we can get down on it
Earlier I went from centre to the outside
Now I will do slightly different
Analyze on your own before reading on!
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If you can see something interesting, you can see the tip is pinkish, which is different to the pale color of the rest
A pale tongue is indicative of possible qi and blood deficiency, or yang deficiency, or cold syndrome
While the heart (tip) appears fine for now, the lungs portion has a crack, which can indicate yin deficiency or dryness
If the lungs has no moisture, there may be a dry cough
We need some moisture, which is mucus, to trap germs and bacteria to aid in our breathing of clean air, so if we don’t have it, we can develop cough or other respiratory issues more easily
Vice versa, too much of moisture can create dampness or phlegm, which also can produce a cough with phlegm
Anyway, the rest of the tongue has a thick coating but here is where it gets tricky
It looks like the middle has a tinge of yellow while the back is white coating
Which is an interesting and important learning lesson for you, my friend!
It is entirely possible to have a cold-heat combination!
For such a tongue, I might guess exterior-cold affecting kidneys and internal-heat affecting stomach
That is assuming the yellow tinge is not due to food or drink (which the person said might be due to food)
There is confirmation of a dry cough, however it is less compared to the last time I saw this tongue
Which arguably, did have a bigger/longer crack
And that means this person has been improving his body condition!
Food Remedies
What I suggest to them is to tweak what they eat, in order to rebalance their body conditions
If the body shows signs of excess heat, you take cooling food
If the body shows dryness, you take moisturizing food
And vice versa
Unfortunately, I won’t be able to cover food today
Which is a huge topic, and honestly, I don’t think I can cover it in totality either
Perhaps just some basic awareness of food and stuff
This article already surpass 2000 words OMG
So I hope you learn something today 🙂
Besides food, I will also have to cover yang and yin deficiency, and blood and qi deficiency some day in the future
If you haven’t read my other TCM articles, you can find out more about how the organs function according to TCM
As well as the basic imbalances that causes sickness in us
And of course, if you found this helpful, feel free to share with your friends and family so they can learn too!
Til next time~
