What causes cracked tongue? Diseases from the tongue

The tongue is a window to health. Through this window, we ordinary people can also monitor our physical condition. The shape, color, moisture and coating of the tongue are all reflections of the body's health, which Chinese medicine calls tongue image. So what causes a cracked tongue?

What causes cracked tongue?

Tongue fatness

A fat tongue with tooth marks on the edges is mostly related to water retention, and is mostly caused by spleen deficiency or kidney yang deficiency. Spleen deficiency often reflects digestive system diseases, poor gastrointestinal motility, and malabsorption. Kidney yang deficiency may be accompanied by soreness and weakness in the waist and knees, cold limbs and fear of cold, and abnormal bowel movements. A thin tongue is mostly a sign of deficiency, a pale tongue is mostly a sign of qi and blood deficiency, often accompanied by fatigue, laziness, and lethargy; a red tongue is mostly a sign of yin deficiency and internal heat, often accompanied by restless sleep, irritability and sweating.

Cracks on the tongue

There are various longitudinal or transverse cracks or wrinkles on the tongue. If the tongue is dark red and cracked, it is mostly due to excessive heat in the body, which may be accompanied by bad breath, bitter mouth, and sore throat. If the tongue is light in color and cracked, it is mostly due to insufficient qi and yin, which may be accompanied by dry mouth, dry throat, palpitations and shortness of breath. Fissured tongue can be seen in a few normal people. These cracks often exist all year round and do not change with physical health.

The prick of the tongue

Sometimes we can see that the lingual papillae on the tip and sides of the tongue proliferate and hypertrophy, and the protrusions are like thorns. These are caused by damp-heat in the liver and gallbladder or excessive heart fire. The heavier the heat evil, the larger and more numerous the thorns are. Anyone with thorns on the tongue has heat evil persisting for many days, which consumes the yin fluid, and may be accompanied by sore throat, boils on the body surface, dry stools, etc.

The state of the tongue

The tongue is not soft, and it is difficult to flex and extend, or even unable to rotate. This is mostly due to high fever damaging body fluids and excessive evil heat, which is a manifestation of the late stage of excessive heat damaging yin. Elderly patients may also experience this symptom within two weeks of a stroke. When you stick out your tongue naturally, it may tilt to one side, which is usually due to hemiplegia caused by a stroke. Involuntary tremors of the tongue are usually caused by deficiency of both Qi and blood or internal liver wind. The tongue is unable to flex and retract, which is mostly caused by deficiency of both Qi and blood, damage to Yin and consumption of Yang due to long-term illness, and malnutrition of tendons and veins.

Reminder: If abnormal tongue shape persists, it is recommended to see a Chinese medicine practitioner, who can comprehensively judge and treat the disease based on the tongue shape, tongue coating, pulse and other information from the four diagnostic methods of observation, auscultation, listening, questioning and palpation.