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TCM Tongue Diagnosis

 

 Beginning Tongue Diagnosis and Analysis. . .



Tongue Diagnosis in Chinese Medicine

It’s common to see thick tongues, purplish tongues, tongues with teeth marks in them
and tongues with cracks in various places. I also have noted tongues with coats both

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white and yellow, sticky and thin. But what do they mean?

Tongue Diagnosis: Thick– Stagnated Chi

, make sure the patient has not eaten pickles,

cayenne pepper, curry and other hot things. They will temporarily turn the tongue
red. It takes a few hours for the tongue to get its normal coat back after the person has
scraped it as well. And smoking turns the coat yellow.

make the tongue peel within 2-3 days and this peeling is not replaced
until2-3 weeks after the antibiotics are stopped.

) causes the tip of the tongue to redden.

cause the coating to disappear (yin de±ciency). Years of diuretics causes the
tongue to peel.

) causes the tongue to have red points and makes the

body of the tongue thinner. Years of taking these drugs cause the tongue to peel.

can cause the tongue to develop a thick brown to black dry coating.

causes the tongue to become red and swollen.

 is pink in color, medium thickness, no cracks, ulcers, no teeth marks

and with a light white moist coat (with root) on it. It has a look of aliveness and is 
supple (not sti¿). There is no movement (quivering, trembling, side-to-side motion,
curling or shifting to one side.) A healthy tongue looks like a piece of freshly killed
meat.

of the tongue (tip of the tongue) indicates what is happening in the heart
and lungs. The sides of the tip represent the chest/breasts.

of the tongue is related to the stomach and spleen.

of the tongue is related to the bladder, kidneys, small and large

intestines.

areas are on the sides of the tongue.

areas is just behind the tip of the tongue but on the edge.

. Dr. Maciocia says that

the color is the most important, then shape and coating come next. Moisture and
vitality (called Shen) are also important.

Shen can also be seen in the eyes, the walk and the way the patient communicates
(talks/barks/vocalizes) and is an important indicator on the ability to recover from
imbalances.

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: When a body shows dis-ease the tongue color (underneath the

coating) turns from pink to pale, to red and then to purple.

mean blood stasis.

on the tongue are called points and they have a meaning wherever they are.
In Asian and African people these red dots can look brown.

: (Coating is related to Stomach function.)

corresponds to cold in the area of the body correlating to the tongue.

is related to heat.

which means the coating cannot be scraped o¿ and it

looks like grass growing from the soil.

looks like it has been sprinkled on and can be scraped o¿.

, the more progressed the disease.

means that the digestion is not working correctly.

 When you look too far back you will see the circumvallate papillae. These have no

signi±cance in a tongue reading and beginner tongue readers often get alarmed when
they see them (especially if they don’t know basic medical anatomy.)

mean de±ciency.

can mean lack of harmony in getting ¥uids processed  and can involve
the spleen, stomach, kidneys and heart. It can also be from to much alcohol or
increased toxic buildup.

can mean weak spleen.

can mean liver challenges.

can mean heart problems.

and mean lung problems, phlegm, chest

or breast problems. Ulcers here can mean cancer of the breasts.

involve the corresponding organ.

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the longer the dis-ease, imbalance or stronger the genetic

weakness or tendency.

or cracks on the sides has to do with spleen challenges.

mean stomach/digestion problems.

of the tongue it also involves the heart.

indicate lung weakness.

(I see this often) mean spleen de±ciency.

this means that there is a major

emotional cause of whatever the rest of the tongue indicates as dis-ease.

I didn’t know enough about Chinese medicine (or the language!) to be able to decipher
how to treat the body once you ±gure out what is wrong with it. It seems there are
hundreds of formulas and combinations of formulas and “exceptions” to rules and I
couldn’t really understand what he was even saying at times. I guess I have my job cut
out for me going through my herb books and ±guring out which are heating, cooling,
yin/yang herbs and ±nding the American names for the Chinese herbs. I’ve ordered
formulas from herb companies before only to receive something I’d already had on my
shelf! On second thought. . .it’s just easier to muscle test and ask the body what it
really wants.

 Overall, it’s all about ±nding what areas are stagnated, which need to be nourished,
which are getting too much circulation or too little circulation, too much energy or too 
little, and how to balance out the body so that everything is in harmony. There are
many ways to do this.

http://naturalhealthtechniques.com/tongue-diagnosis.htm

JULY 13, 2013 BY EMILY

+
CHINESE MEDICINE,
MEDICINE, DIAGNOSIS
DIAGNOSIS,, TONGUE

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