What does your tongue say about you?

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, we use tongue and pulse as our MRI machine to see what is happening with your body internally. It can give us a lot of information in regards to your digestion, sleep, mental state/emotions, pain conditions. The tip of the tongue tells us how your heart system is doing. The middle of the tongue gives us information on the digestive system. The back of the tongue shows how the kidney system is functioning. Sides of the tongue gives us a glimpse into your liver/gallbladder system. When an acupuncturist looks at your tongue, they are looking at an overall color, thickness, and coating. All three of these things give information about your health. In trauma/injury/pain conditions, it can tell us how soon one may recover.

If a person has a pale tongue, that may mean blood deficiency. If there is not enough blood in the body, the muscles/ligaments/joints will not be able to heal as fast. For a person with blood deficiency, it will be crucial to eat the right kind of diet and add some acupuncture points in addition to the ones needed for pain condition in order to get the best possible outcome. A person with a pale tongue may also have symptoms of dizziness, weakness, poor memory, anxiety, depression, scanty menses or skipped periods, palpitations, insomnia, feeling cold.

Red tongue will indicate too much heat in the body, which when translated into Western terms would mean too much inflammation in the body. A person that comes in with pain, will need to resolve inflammation to ensure that pain not only goes away but also stays away. Someone with a red tongue may have additional symptoms such as: feeling hot, anger, constant hunger/thirst, pain feels better with cold, skin conditions such as acne/psoriasis/eczema, constipation.

Purple tongue indicates stagnation. This will be the person that will feel better with movement (whether related to a pain condition or just feeling more energized after a workout). For someone with a purple tongue in pain conditions, it is crucial to improve the circulation for the pain to diminish. Someone with a purple tongue might also have the following: unstable emotions (such as happy one moment and irritable the next), pain that gets better with movement, irregular menstruation, varicose veins, temporal headaches, irregular bowel movements, unable to handle stress well.