What body information can we get fro looking at the tongue?

Tongue examination is the most intuitive way of diagnosis in Traditional Chinese Medicine. If you look at your tongue, you can get many information about your body condition and can learn about whether your body is healthy enough.

First, shortage of positive energy( vital Qi)

In the theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine, positive energy keeps human body healthy. A Chinese medicine doctor usually analyze the level of positive energy by the method of tongue diagnosis, in which the coating of the tongue could provide more obvious evidence.

One situation is that the tongue coating is gone, which usually represents severe weakness of the stomach or dryness of the body. The other situation is that the coating on the tongue becomes thicker, which usually means food accumulation or aggravation of phlegm and dampness. That is usually caused by excessive drinking and eating, which leads to dysfunction digestive system. Both two situations indicates the low level of positive energy of the body.

A normal tongue should be ruddy, flexible with proper coating. So besides the abnormal tongue coating, there are some other possibility to show the shortage of positive energy. Such as pale tongue, thin tongue. Or some people may have difficulty to pull out the tongue and when the tongue is pulled out, it tends to tremble. These situations of the tongue must be brought to the forefront because they often indicate very severe problems.

Second, severity of pathogens( evil Qi)

Through the observation of the tongue image, one can determine whether the pathogens are powerful and prosperous. Let's take dampness for example. Actually, dampness is not very easy to judge through methods other than tongue observation. Sometimes, a doctor can't make clear diagnosis just by asking the patient because the answers from the patient are often vague.

Dampness and tongue coating are linked directly. When a person's tongue coating is thick and sticky and is full of saliva, it can indicate the dampness is heavy. Meanwhile, when the tongue body is fat and has teeth marks on the side of the tongue, it may be also related to the severe dampness.

Third, nature of the pathogens

Tongue image also help us to estimate the quality of pathogenic factors. There are two opposite nature of pathogens: cold and heat. In the theory of Traditional Chinese Medicine, exogenous factors and internal factors are all called negative energy ( evil Qi) , which are obstacles to the body's movement of blood and liquid essence. Before regulating the balance of body, a Chinese Medicine doctor must identify the nature of the pathogens accurately, and then select correct herbs and acupoints for treatment. Treating the heat problems as if it were cold would not have any effect, but would exacerbate the condition. The color of tongue( white and red) can provide the simplest and most effective diagnostic basis for identifying the nature ( cold and heat) of pathogens.

Fourth, Status of recovery

By examining the tongue, we can certify whether we are recuperating properly and how our health condition turns to be. After the recuperation measures, such as acupressure, acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicine and so on, are carried out, the body condition really starts to improve of the tongue sign changes. If the tongue sign does not change, then these adjustment measures may only have a superficial effect, even most symptoms of the condition are reduced. Why? That is because the tongue shows that the problems still exist in body. So the further treatment is very necessary until the tongue image changes. Sometimes the tongue picture changes very quickly, and the Chinese Medicine doctor will make a new treatment plan for the new condition.

As a result, learning tongue diagnosis, can help us to understand the status of the body, and guide us to a healthy life. It is so intuitive and simple that even common people can master the methods easily. This is very meaningful for everyone to keep healthy for themselves and their family.

A preliminary understanding of Dampness

In Traditional Chinese Medicine(TCM), dampness is one of the six pathology factors(wind, cold, heat, fire, dryness, dampness). Generally, humidity is a normal weather phenomenon. But if the weather is too wet and it rains most of the time, humidity could become a pathogen, which is called dampness in Chinese medicine, and can cause many diseases.

How does the dampness come from then?

In TCM, dampness is grouped into two categories according to the origins. The outside dampness is induced by wet environment, such as getting wet by the rain or living in a humid place. In China, diseases caused by dampness are quite common in mid summer because it is the most humid season. The other kind of dampness is internal dampness, which is caused by the body's own dysfunction. For example, patients with weak digestive system, can easily get internal dampness in their body, because they are unable to metabolize water from food and drinks.

What are the pathological characteristics of dampness?

First, dampness is heavy and turbid, and can affect muscles easily. Once affected by dampness, you might have heavy feelings all around the body and soreness in the joints of both arms and legs. Soreness caused by dampness could be localized and a heavy head makes you feel that you were wearing a big hat. The turbid reflects the poor circulation of dampness. That causes blood stasis and can become the carrier of other pathological factors. It sometimes combines with cold and sometimes combines with heat. One way to distinguish those two is to detect tongue image. For heat dampness, the tongue should be red, and the coating should be greasy and yellow; for cold dampness, the tongue is not so red, often very light pink color or white pale, and the coating is greasy and white.

The second characteristic of dampness is viscous,which mainly manifests in two aspects. On the one hand, it refers to the symptoms of dampness disease. The patient affected by dampness could have symptoms of chest tightness, short urination, loose and sticky stools. On the other hand, it refers to the course of disease. Dampness disease usually needs longer time to treat and is more difficult to heal.

Third, according to TCM, dampness is a kind of negative pathological factors(Yin evil), which can damage Yang energy of human body. Yang energy is very important in managing moisture of human body. When dampness stays in the viscera and meridians, it often obstruct circulation of blood and incapacitate the function of internal organs. People who are affected by dampness usually have got very low level of Yang energy,which makes them tired, lazy and downhearted.

What should we do to remove the dampness?

In fact, there are so many ways. Doctors of Traditional Chinese Medicine select the methods to clear dampness according to the location of dampness and other pathogens combined with dampness. These methods need further study to be well applied.

For people who do not know much about Chinese Medicine, there are some simple ways to get rid of dampness.

First, when you are cooking, you can add proper dosage of spices, such as white cardamon, green pepper,etc. These things have the function of encouraging Yang energy,which can fight against Yin evil( dampness). For example, the climate is very humid in Sichuan province in China. So the spicy food is very popular there.

Second, you can eat some dehumidifying food, such as white gourd, red bean, semen coicis,etc. When you feel that your body is blocked by heavy humidity, you can eat these foods more frequently to alleviate the situation.

Third, increasing your exercise frequency and doing more physical activities can expel the body dampness out with sweat.

Fourth, making good use of the electrical appliances around, such as hair dryer, dehumidifier, air conditioner, will play a preventive role from dampness.