Stick Out Your Tongue to Lick Health Problems

Doctors of Western medicine may ask you to stick out your tongue so they can look down your throat. Doctors of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), on the other hand, find your tongue itself to be of great interest. To the skilled eye of a TCM practitioner, the topography of the human tongue is more than a collection of tiny crevasses and multi-hued surfaces — it reveals nutritional deficiencies, flags the presence of infection and also identifies strengths and constitutional weaknesses that can bring on health challenges.

Tongue Tells All

I recently spoke with Maoshing Ni, DOM, PhD, LAC, author of Secrets of Self Healing and a licensed acupuncturist and doctor of Oriental medicine who cofounded Yo San University in Los Angeles. He told me that for more than 5,000 years Chinese medicine has consistently used tongue diagnosis as a fully developed system of assessing health. “The shape, color and movement of tongue body, color, and the texture of the coating all are indicative of body function and pathology,” Dr. Ni explained. “For example, a healthy person should possess a pink tongue body with very little coating. In general, having a red tongue would mean hyperfunctioning (an overreactive system, prone to agitation, fast metabolism and overheating) and a pale tongue hypo-functioning.” A tongue with a yellow coating usually indicates the presence of a bacterial infection elsewhere in the body, while a white coating can be a sign of a fungal infection/mucus condition that sometimes leads to thrush.

Dr. Ni said there are many other specific nuances that a trained professional looks for in tongue diagnosis and that there are other factors that may influence the appearance of your tongue — beyond what you’ve recently put in your mouth — including age, the time of day and season of the year.

Map of the Tongue

The ancient Chinese concept of energy channels, or meridians, is at the core of tongue analysis, just as it is with acupuncture and reflexology. Different parts of the tongue are associated with different body systems and organs. Dr. Ni explained that if you were to look at a diagram of your tongue with the tip in the southern position and the back of it in the north, your organs would be represented in these areas:

  • Tip of tongue: Heart
  • Just behind the heart area: Lungs
  • Center of tongue: Spleen and stomach
  • Back of tongue: Kidney, bladder and intestines
  • Sides of tongue, running from front to back: Liver and gallbladder

Changes in color, coating, appearance, etc., are reflective of issues in the corresponding organs. Extensive research in modern-day China has confirmed this ancient knowledge, Dr. Ni told me.

Are You Sharp-Tongued?

The shape of your tongue, as well as the way it moves, also may reveal your personality tendencies. “For example,” said Dr. Ni, “a narrow, sharply shaped tongue that moves quickly and with agility indicates someone who is impatient and tends toward anger and flying off the handle — people with this tongue presentation are more likely to be Type A. A more lethargic and flabby, swollen tongue that moves sluggishly indicates a person may be more withdrawn, tired and melancholic.” If you want to try to glean some information from your tongue, take a look at the Web site Beyond Well Being, which provides a guided self-diagnosis (http://beyondwellbeing.com/herbs/tongue-diagnosis.shtml) of the tongue based on color, vein patterns, coating and basic characteristics, including cracks and fissures.

While it’s possible to examine your own tongue and make a preliminary assessment based on some common markers and characteristics, Dr. Ni cautions that it’s always best to get a thorough examination by a qualified TCM practitioner, as the nuances of color and texture can be misleading to an untrained eye. And, importantly, a TCM physician will make his/her diagnosis based not only on a tongue examination but also will perform a pulse diagnosis, and combine these assessments with other markers, including what he/she smells, hears and observes. If he/she feels it is needed, a TCM practitioner will not hesitate to order a blood test or an imaging scan if the patient’s condition calls for further confirmation.

Also, Dr. Ni cautioned that you shouldn’t try to “clean up” your tongue by tongue brushing, rinsing or scraping prior to examination by a doctor of TCM, as doing so may mask what’s to be learned. The tongue serves as a barometer for overall health, he said, noting that altering its appearance can impair the doctor’s ability to perform an accurate reading. Note, too, that a simple cup of tea or coffee may bring temporary changes as well, so it might be best to hold off till after your appointment.

Related Articles