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Tongue Diagnostics General Easily learned and verifiable Proper lighting critical sun light best incandescent better than florescent Only ask for 15-20 sec sticking out of tongue with out force Check what patient has eaten on affect of tongue color Ask patient not to brush or scrape tongue, eat coloring foods etc. before Drugs can affect tongue, e.g. antibiotics create peeling in coating, long term dampness Vitality general look of health proper size, free in motion, light red, thin white coating that is not too dry or moist Body Body color always reflects true pattern of patient Short term changes have less affect on body Body demonstrates changes in chronic conditions Meridians divergent meridian of heart enters tongue root spleen reaches tongue root and under surface kidney reaches to root of tongue Color state of Zang and to some degree Fu pale less than light red deficiency blood Qi Yang cold red heat exogenous endogenous dark red / scarlet endogenous to ying/xue level long term yin deficiency little to no coat purple blood stasis (long term) started with pale or blue from cold -> blue purple some moistness started with red -> red purple dried fluids causing stagnation purple hugh Qi stagnation blue extreme yang deficiency causing blood stasis Underside ask patient to roll back tongue on to back of top teeth size and color of veins distended but not dark Qi stagnation distended and dark Blood stasis one vein alone one side of body veins indicate all three jiao but in particular upper jiao thick extreme blood stasis from excess think blood stasis from deficiency red/purple shiny damp heat yellow damp pale cold or deficiency (in particular blood) Coating Demonstrates acute issues Formed by residual dirty damp from stomach and intestines normal thin white even moister state of body fluids dry fluid consumption moist/slippery fluid transformation issues more for Fu "has root" coating grows like grass and not easily wiped away with out - painted on or powered on stomach, spleen, kidney not functioning thick can not see body pathogenic factor or excess thickness indicates strength and depth of pathogen thin less than normal thickness indicates strength and depth of pathogen sticky dampness in stomach and intestines doesn't brush off easy retention of dampness, phlegm or food granular loose thick coarse material easily removed heat in the stomach retention of phlegm or food pealed if patches - geographic if entire - glossy extreme Yin and Qi deficiency of stomach color white thin normal or exterior cold thick interior cold yellow heat gray further progression of white or yellow dry from heat lighter / moist cold damp / phlegm fluid retention black severe moist cold from def. of yang dry (with horns) extreme heat Shape thin / shrunken deficiency pale blood Qi red / dry yin deficiency too little fluid swollen larger than normal too much fluid heat pushes fluid up to tongue pale, delicate, very swollen yang Qi def. spleen fails to transport and transform fluids Spleen and Kidney pale with teeth marks Spleen Qi def. causes dampness slightly swollen red excess heat in heart, spleen and stomach purple toxicosis / damp heat from alcoholism / poisons possibly just parts observe location correspondence cracks check to see if crack is congenital if long term and shallow - nothing if deep and short term, pathology red heat consuming fluids pale blood deficiency start and end checked against location correspondence horizontal red / normal yin deficiency iceflow crack older people yin deficiency wet cracks spleen def dry cracks yin def. in spleen papilary buds hotter the person the more they are raised Deviation indicates wind could be indication of internal wind - stroke, high blood pressure rigid loss of flexibility and free movement acute high fever chronic yin deficiency (red) non-substantial phlegm (pale) flabby red extreme yin deficiency in stomach pale extreme Qi and Blood deficiency tip rolls down heart deficiency up heart/lung excess

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