4/27/06
Speaking in Tongues
If you ever got in trouble for sticking your tongue out at your sibling, it might surprise you to have someone say, “Please stick your tongue out at me” – but you’ll hear just that from your acupuncturist.
What use is your tongue to diagnosis and treatment? It gives information about what’s going on in your body. It’s a reflection of the working state of your organ systems, the length of time your body has been dealing with imbalance or ailment, and your body’s capacity to effectively respond to the challenges of illness.
Diagnosis in Oriental Medicine can be made using a number of different venues. Some of these include: feeling the pulses; observing the tongue; palpating the abdomen; and observing facial color, the prevailing smell of the body, and the vitality of the voice and its underlying sound (for example, a shouting or laughing tone). Of all the various methods of understanding the patterns of disharmony in the body, pulse and tongue are the two “pillars.”
Texts of Chinese Medicine say that observation of the tongue is usually the clearest indication of a person’s disharmony. When there are vague or conflicting signs, as within a complicated condition, the tongue reflects the most basic and underlying pattern. It is the most reliable gauge of what is going on at the most fundamental level, and thus an indicator of the core treatment.
Four main items are involved in this observation: the tongue body color, the coating on the tongue (translated from the Chinese as “moss” or “fur”), the amount of moisture on the tongue body, and the shape and movement of the tongue.
The color and shape of the tongue reflect the inherent strength and functional capacity of the person. The body of the tongue generally reflects long-term dysfunction, while the coating reflects primarily the state of the digestive system, as well as short-term disturbance and the relative intensity of the problem. The progression of illness is also revealed by the tongue: as illness improves, the quality of the tongue body and coat becomes more normal, whereas a worsening of the tongue indicates degeneration of the illness.
External factors that affect the appearance of the tongue include medications, smoking, and coffee. If any of these are part of a person’s regular use, the practitioner must use other forms of diagnosis as well to get a truer picture of the person’s internal health.
Each part of the tongue is said to correspond with particular organ systems. For example, the tip of tongue indicates the heart, the sides relate to the liver and gall bladder, the center to the stomach, and the back to the kidneys. These correspondences are not absolute, but help narrow down the major areas of concern.
A normal healthy tongue is pale red and slightly moist, with a thin white coat. (There are varying shades of red and degrees of moisture that fit into “normal”.) It should “fit comfortably in the mouth” – not too big, too small, swollen or shriveled. The movement of the tongue should be flexible, not stiff. Cracks are common, normal unless they develop during an illness, and signify a chronic condition.
Outside of normal, one might see colors of pale, red, bright red, or purple. The coating could be thick, thin, or absent; white, yellow, or gray; wet, dry, sticky, or greasy. The shape may be thin, swollen, quivering, or slanted to one side.
The tongue’s bounty of information helps a practitioner understand how to best treat each individual. So the next time you see your acupuncturist, go ahead, stick your tongue out!
Click here for a printer-friendly version of this article.
© 2009 Jenny Chapin
Top of This Page277 Main Street, 2nd Floor, Greenfield, MA 01301
413-522-3816 Email: jgchapin@crocker.com
Directions/Map
© 2009 Jenny Chapin