Our body gives us a lot of information. As we observe and listen, as we connect strongly with it, health and wellness will follow.
In traditional Chinese medicine, practitioners use the senses to examine, observe and diagnose what is happening with the patient. If you have visited a Chinese medicine practitioner, you would have had your practitioner check your pulse, tongue, and abdomen. He/ she would also check your palm, nails, and eyes.
When I look at my patient’s tongue, it is as if the body is talking to me through the color, shape, and coating. What does it tell me?
The tongue is the reflection of the spleen and stomach Qi in Chinese medicine. When we eat, the nutrient turns into Qi, essence, and blood that conjugate into the tongue’s shape, color, size, and coating.
So looking at your tongue is like asking your body: “hey, how is the movement down there (in your GI)? Did you eat well? Any issue with your work (digestion, transportation, and elimination)?”
Of course, your tongue can’t talk back to me (that would be scary!). But observing silently provides me with a lot of information.
The Shape of the Tongue
First, we look at the tongue shape. The shape of the tongue is the state of nourishment from the spleen and stomach. Because the spleen and stomach transform and transport nutrients and water to the other systems (or Zhang Fu organs as we call them in TCM), the shape of the tongue can tell us if the transformation or transportation is efficient or not.
A thin tongue might mean that the nutrients are exhausted due to illness or overwork. A swollen tongue means that water and nutrients are stagnant, and that means the spleen and stomach Qi are deficient.
Next, we look at the color of the tongue.
An unhealthy tongue might look bruised, dark, or crimson. These signs all indicate the fluid being depleted or stagnant from trauma, heat toxin, or chronic illness. Most of the time, tongue color correlates with the prognosis of the condition. The longer or more internal the condition has been, the darker the color is. For instance, if you caught a cold and have a fever, chills, and joint pain, it usually wouldn’t change the tongue color. But if the cold or upper respiratory infection has progressed and affects more organs, such as turning into bronchitis, the tongue would have more visible changes.
A healthy tongue should look slightly pink, not too red or purple. The color indicates the flow of Qi and blood. The flow of Qi and blood should be like water meandering in the river without any obstruction.
The Coating of the Tongue
Last but not least is the tongue coating. This coating is the manifestation of how well the body is nourished and how efficient the waste was eliminated. The thicker the tongue coating the more stagnant the waste is.
Sometimes we can see thick coating on patients after a big meal the next day. This is because our spleen and stomach couldn’t optimally use the food to nourish the body, instead it turned into a stagnant pile of waste.
Research on Tongue and Health
Tongue diagnosis is gaining its recognition in clinical application and research.
We can see research on tongue diagnosis used in detecting breast cancer. Take cancer for example, in TCM , cancer is a state of stagnant heat-toxin with Zhang Fu and Qi deficiency.
Thus, applying what we know, we can expect to see tongue change in the shape, color and coating. In this research of cancer screening using tongue diagnosis, compared to healthy subjects and cancer patients, they found significant differences in tongue color (healthy people showed more tender and red tongue vs. cancer patients with more purple tongue.)
This valuable finding shows the potential of tongue diagnosis in clinical practice.
