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Diagnostic Methods - Class 04
Chinese Medicine Diagnostic Methods
By: David Botton

Tongue Diagnostics


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

(c) 2005 All Rights Reserved - David Botton