What Does Your Tongue Say about You? By Nicole Kerr, ND, LAc
E
ver look at your tongue and think: “That isn’t NORMAL?!” “What in the world does that mean?”
“I haven’t seen that before!” If you have never looked at your tongue with intrigue and curiosity, start! Check out your tongue before reading further. Is it red, cracked, and thin with little to no coat? If so, you may be experiencing hot flashes, night sweats, insomnia, and irritability. Or if are you experiencing fatigue, loose stools, spontaneous sweating, and worry, your tongue likely has teeth marks and is pale with a thin white coat. The Tongue as a Diagnostic Tool Your tongue’s muscle body shape and color, as well as the coat quality and color, can tell you a lot about your current health condition. Since changes to its appearance are easily visible, the tongue is a simple way to help monitor health improvements or decline over the course of treatment. The tongue body is most useful in tracking chronic conditions, while the coat tracks acute condition states. Before measurable blood markers, specific organ diagnostic tests and advanced imaging existed, health professionals relied on the five senses to identify, treat, and cure disease. Imagine having only sight, 12
Natural Nutmeg September/October 2021
sound, smell, taste, and touch available to identify, diagnosis, and treat disease with great accuracy. Listening to the tone, quality, and language of the voice; looking at the overall essence and appearance of the patient; smelling and often tasting bodily excretions; and palpating the pulse, muscles, and abdomen were a few of the limited diagnostic tools needed to accurately identify and treat ailments prior to the invention of modern technologies. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is one of the health practices that used the five senses to diagnosis and treat disease in patients. Today, TCM practitioners continue to use tongue and pulse diagnoses, along with ten specific diagnostic questions, to identify and treat unwelcome symptoms in the body—the same as was done 3,000 years ago. For TCM practitioners, examination of the tongue can instantly clarify a main cause in a complex disorder that are often full of contradictions. In TCM, there are few but complex causes for disease states, and identifying the root cause is extremely important to avoid adverse side effects from treatments. Tongue diagnosis is often the one identifiable marker that can indicate a favorable treatment from a less beneficial protocol, as it is used to select appropriate acupuncture points, herbal formula combinations, and help determine treatment duration/frequency.
The Tongue Body The tongue body is the muscle under the coating on top. Unlike the pulse, it is relatively unaffected by short-term events. For example, a stressful drive to an appointment can change the pulse quality and affect blood pressure and heart rate readings, but the tongue will remain true to the patient’s health condition. Tongue color almost always reflects the true health of the patient and is the definitive indicator when contradictions are seen between symptoms and tongue appearance. Body color: • Pale: Cold, and qi, yang or blood deficiency • Red: Heat, excess (coat), deficient (no coat) • Dark red: Extreme heat • Purple: Blood stasis • Blue: Blood stasis due to internal cold Shape reflects the state of the organs, energy (qi) and blood, as well as differentiating a deficient or excess disease state in the body.
