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What medicines can affect the tongue
- antibiotics - peeled tongue in patches, depletes tomach yin
- corticosteroids - red and swollen tongue
- bronchodilators - tip can get red
- diuretics - yin vacuity and peeled tongue
- anti-inflammatory agents - red or peeled tongue
- antineoplastics - (cancer) thick or dry brown/black coating
- peptobismol - thick brown coating
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Tongue layers
splits into lower, middle, upper burner (back of tongue coming forward)
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body colour
- reflects: yin organs, blood, and ying qi, hot and cold influences, deficiencies, stagnation/fluidity of blood flow
- red = heat
- pale = yang, qi, or blood deficiency
- blue = cold
- purple = stagnation
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sublingual veins
- distended = qi stagnation
- purple = blood stasis
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health pale red colour made from
- red from sufficient heart blood
- pale from stomach fluids reaching the tongue, keeps tongue from getting too red
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body shape
thin vs swollen
- thin = deficiency of yin (red) or blood (pale)
- swollen = qi or yang xu (pale/pale red), damp accumulation, heart or stomach heat (red), alcoholic (red)
- swollen over sides = liver yang
- swollen tip = heart fire (red) or qi xu (normal
- scalloped/teethmarks = spleen xu
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body shape
long vs short
- long = heart fire or phlegm fire
- short = spleen yang xu (pale), heat, k yin xu (red)
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body shape
crakcs or ulcers
typically reflects yin deficiency of various organs
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body shape
quivering, trembling, curling to either side
wind by vairous organ disharmonies
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tongue coating
- by-product of stomach digestion of food and fluids
- expression of stomach qi
- indicates proper functioning of stomach/spleen
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tongue coating
colour
- white = cold
- yellow = heat
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tongue coating
thickness
- thicker = dampness and phlegm
- thinner = depleted fluids or yin
should be thin, white, slightly moist
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moisture
- indicates the status of body's fluids
- wet = accumulation of fluids
- dry tongue = insufficiency of fluids
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