Tongue diagnosis has been a cornerstone of Traditional medicine for at least 2,000 years. It’s use began long before modern imaging and blood tests. Looking at the tongue gives healthcare providers a glimpse inside of a patient’s body, and provides valuable diagnostic information.
Despite being mostly ignored by centralized medicine, traditional tongue diagnosis has gained acceptance and a share of the spotlight recently. This is because of a number of articles that were written this summer discussing research that validates the effectiveness of tongue diagnosis in a big way.
A group of scientists in Iraq trained an AI model with images of over 5,000 tongues and the health information for the patients. After training, the computer model was able to diagnose disease patterns with over 90% accuracy. This research shows that traditional tongue diagnosis is an accurate and valuable way to identify disease patterns in patients, and has a place as a non-invasive diagnostic technique.
Of course we regularly use traditional tongue diagnosis with our patients at Orlando Acupuncture. In this post I want to share with you the basics of tongue diagnosis so that you can use this information to better understand your health.
Basics of Traditional Tongue Diagnosis
The tongue primarily gives us information about fluid metabolism in the body. Because the human body has finely tuned electronics with water as the primary conductor the proper flow and amount of fluid in the body is essential to our health and vitality. Let’s take a look at some of the things we can learn about our health by looking at the tongue. A healthy tongue ideally is the color of fresh salmon. The muscle should hold it’s shape and not sag, showing good tone. A healthy tongue ideally has a thin layer of clear moisture that is visible on the tongue.
Color
The first thing to look at with traditional tongue diagnosis is the color of the tongue. A pale tongue shows a lack of nutrients in the body and may indicate the need for additional nutrients, the best source of which is high quality food. It is important to note that a pale tongue, especially in the center of the tongue can also show poor digestion and assimilation of nutrients, so simply eating more may not be indicated.
Dark red or purple color of the tongue body shows that body fluids are not flowing properly. This is either because of impaired circulation, as in a purple tongue, or because there aren’t enough fluids to have proper flow as in red tongues.
Size
The size of the tongue tells us about intercellular fluids, the relative concentration of fluid inside of our cells. A thin tongue shows that there may not be enough fluid and more hydration or electrolytes are needed to get more fluid into the cells. A thick, or swollen, tongue can show that there is too much fluid accumulating. Sometimes more exercise can help us to get this excess fluid out via sweat, as well as get fluids moving via increased blood flow.
Coating
The tongue coating tells us about extracellular fluid. A thick coat shows too much fluid accumulation. If the thick coating is yellow or dark colored, these fluids are becoming toxic, and may have some infection. A dry tongue, has no surface moisture and if severe can even wear down the surface of the tongue and create valleys where the fluids have been depleted.
This is only a brief overview of the topic of tongue diagnosis, and there are many other details. I hope that this outline gives you some insight and encourages you to include looking at your tongue as part of your routine now that you have an idea of what your tongue is telling you about your body and your health!
**This post is NOT medical advice. It is for informational purposes only. Please see a healthcare professional before making any medical decisions.