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Pregnancy and Labour Support Acupuncture
24 May 2024
Why does my Acupuncturist want to see my tongue?
24 May 2024
Picture this: You walk into the acupuncture treatment room, feeling either a bit nervous or excited for the relaxation ahead. After discussing your aches and pains, sleep patterns and digestion among other things, you start to relax as your acupuncturist checks your pulse on both wrists. Suddenly, your eyes widen in surprise when you hear, “Could I look at your tongue?” …You want to look at my what?!
One of the most common questions I get as an acupuncturist is “Why do you want to look at my tongue?” It may seem like a bit of an odd request, but I’m here to shed some light on the subject!
Tongue Diagnosis
Tongue diagnosis is an important diagnostic tool used in Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) to objectively understand what’s going on inside your body. TCM aims to discover imbalances within the body systems and bring those systems back into balance or homeostasis.
When your acupuncturist looks at your tongue, we are looking at 4 main categories: The colour, shape, coating and moisture.
Think of the tongue as a reverse map of the body. The tip of the tongue represents the heart and lungs. The center represents the digestive system. The sides of the tongue represent the liver and gallbladder and the base represents the kidneys, bladder, and intestines. We use the appearance of the tongue in each section to give us information about the health of each organ system.
Here are a few examples:
– A thick yellow coating at the base of the tongue may indicate chronic constipation or a bladder infection.
– A red tip of the tongue in the heart area may indicate anxiety or insomnia. – A vertical crack in the center of the tongue may indicate digestive weakness.
Curious about what your tongue says about you?
Find out by booking an appointment with our Registered Acupuncturist, Kathryn at Natural Choice Medical Clinic in Guelph.
