Do you believe it? Tongue can reveal signs of stroke

In addition to tasting delicious food, our tongue also controls the code of our health. In traditional Chinese medicine, the tongue is a window to human health. Both its shape and color reveal signs of disease in the body. Tongue diagnosis has become a classic technique in traditional Chinese medicine for thousands of years.

Tongue shape:

Fat tongue with tooth marks: Kidney deficiency and poor metabolism

Thin and red tongue - Yin deficiency and heat

It’s so beautiful to be white and plump! This sentence is often used to describe a healthy and cute child, but if it is used to describe the tongue, it is not so healthy. Fat tongue is a common tongue condition. The tongue looks white and swollen, so it is also called "white jade tongue". The white jade tongue is too "fat" and the edges rub against the teeth, leaving tooth marks.

Professor Yang Li from the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences said that people with fat and large tongues often drool a lot, are afraid of cold, have cold hands and feet, and lack energy. These are manifestations of kidney deficiency, which manifests itself in poor kidney function and chronic kidney disease.

Who is prone to this kind of tongue pattern? Professor Liu Jianfeng, a researcher at the China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, said that he once treated a woman in her 30s who said she often felt dizzy and almost fainted several times, but they could not find any problem. Professor Liu asked her to stick out her tongue, and sure enough, her tongue was chubby with very obvious teeth marks. After questioning, we learned that she was a company executive who often traveled on business. She could only sleep a few nights at home a month, and her diet was very irregular and she often stayed up late.

Professor Liu said that patients like this are very common. Most of them are between 30 and 40 years old. They are busy with work, have irregular lifestyles, stay up late, drink alcohol, and cannot metabolize waste in the body. They should strengthen the spleen and eliminate dampness, and they can often eat some foods such as Poria cocos, yam, jujube, hawthorn, etc. In addition, Yang Li said that in addition to the fat tongue, there is also a corresponding thin and red tongue, which is generally common in the elderly. This may indicate kidney yin deficiency, or yin deficiency with heat. Under the guidance of a doctor, you can take Liuwei Dihuang Pills to improve it.

Tongue coating:

White, thick and greasy - poor spleen and stomach, prone to diarrhea

Yellow, thick and greasy - dampness and heat, drink less alcohol

"A pale pink tongue with a thin white coating, of moderate size, balanced and symmetrical, should be a normal and healthy tongue." Professor Liu Jianfeng described. What is a normal thin white coating? To put it simply, you should be able to "see the bottom", that is, you can vaguely see the tongue underneath through the tongue coating. If you cannot "see the bottom" and it is "covered", then it is thick coating. How to judge the size? Just see if there are any tooth marks.

Clinically, the most common symptom is thick and greasy white tongue coating, that is, a thick layer of white tongue coating on the tongue that cannot be wiped off or scraped off, and a layer of greasy mucus is attached to it. This tongue pattern often indicates poor spleen and stomach, indigestion, and frequent problems such as diarrhea and stomach pain. "Especially after the Grain in Ear season, when the temperature is high and the humidity is heavy, it is particularly easy to have thick and greasy white tongue coating," Yang Li reminded.

There is also a kind of thick yellow moss which is also very common. Xie Ning, a professor at the Basic Theory Teaching and Research Department of TCM at Heilongjiang University of Chinese Medicine, said that a thick, yellow and greasy tongue coating indicates that there is damp heat in the body. This tongue pattern is very common in people who like to drink.

Professor Liu Jianfeng also mentioned a man in his 50s, who was 175cm tall and weighed nearly 200 pounds. He "felt that his appetite was poor and he was always feeling blocked." Professor Liu looked at his tongue, which was covered with thick, yellow and greasy coating. He asked him if he always felt bitter and dry mouth and had trouble sleeping. The patient nodded repeatedly. Later we learned that this patient loved drinking and could not live without it almost every day, and he did not like to exercise. Professor Liu gave him the medicine for a week, and during the follow-up examination, the patient said, "I feel my appetite has improved."

Yang Li mentioned that yellow tongue coating may also be a symptom of heat, such as wind-heat cold, especially in midsummer when the air conditioner is on and the temperature difference between indoors and outdoors is large, which makes it easy to catch a fever. At this time, you can use some heat-clearing and exterior-resolving medicines, such as Yinqiao Powder, Honeysuckle, Forsythia, etc. If you want to use dietotherapy, you can eat some mint and cucumber.

People with thick and greasy white tongue coating can eat more winter melon, ginger, etc. Yang Li recommends making soup with "winter melon, coix seed, yam, and ginger" together, and you can also use Huoxiang Zhengqi water. Professor Liu Jianfeng said that if the tongue coating is thick and greasy, dietary therapy will not be very effective, and some Chinese patent medicines can be used, such as Huanglian Shangqing Pills, Danzhi Xiaoyao Pills, etc.

Tongue color:

Red tip of tongue - strong heart fire and bad temper

Pale tongue - Qi and blood deficiency

"The tip of my tongue hurts so much." When I stick it out and look, the tip of my tongue is red. This is a sign of rising heart fire. Professor Liu Jianfeng said that young people are prone to this problem, which is caused by irregular lifestyles. In addition to the red tip of the tongue and a little pain, it is often accompanied by bad temper and yellow urine.

If the tongue is reddish or even crimson, it indicates blood stasis in the body. Professor Liu Jianfeng mentioned a particularly serious case. Two days ago, he went to Guangdong for a consultation on a 14-year-old boy who had a cerebral vascular malformation and fell into a severe coma after a rupture. He was diagnosed as a "vegetative state" and could not swallow. He had to use an instrument to eat. Western medicine seemed to have no better solution, so he invited a Chinese medicine doctor for a consultation. When they got there, they pried open the child's mouth and saw that his tongue had turned blue. This was a typical case of blood stasis, and blood stasis throughout the body. So they gave him symptomatic medication, and after a while, the child was able to swallow. His mother actually shed tears when she told him a story.

Professor Liu reminded that most people would not have blood stasis to such a serious extent, but if it is an elderly person, especially those with high blood lipids, if the tongue color is too dark, it is best to check the condition of the coronary artery to see if there is any blockage.

The most effective way to deal with redness and pain at the tip of the tongue is to use diuresis. Professor Liu said that corn silk is particularly useful and simple to use. You can boil it in water and drink it, or you can use impetigo root and marigold, which can be bought at pharmacies and can be boiled in water and drunk. In addition, eat more Andrographis paniculata in daily life. In addition to red tongue, a pale tongue is also common. Yang Li reminded that this indicates qi deficiency and yin deficiency, qi and blood deficiency, which often occurs in women during menstruation. At this time, you can use angelica stewed chicken soup, or red dates and black chicken soup, both of which are very effective.

Tongue posture:

Stiffness and inflexibility - a sign of stroke

Tongue tremor and drooling – alert for Parkinson's disease

In addition to observing the tongue coating and tongue color, you should also observe the tongue state, that is, the dynamics of the tongue, to see if the tongue is stiff, inflexible, crooked, etc., especially in the elderly. It is said that the tongue is the most flexible part of the human body. A healthy tongue should be able to stretch and retract freely without being crooked.

Professor Xie Ning reminds that if you find your tongue a little stiff, such as often biting your tongue while eating or speaking with a lisp, this may be a precursor to a stroke, especially for people with "three highs". It is best to go to the hospital for a check-up in time.

Professor Liu Jianfeng said that he once treated an elderly man in his 80s who came to see him for insomnia. When observing his tongue, he found that his tongue was stiff and inflexible, and he spoke with a lisp. After questioning, he learned that the patient also had familial hypertension and hyperlipidemia. So he reminded the patient to do a brain CT scan, and found that the blood vessels in his brain were severely blocked and he could have a stroke at any time. Another type is tongue tremor, which is an involuntary shaking. If accompanied by drooling, this may be an external manifestation of Parkinson's disease.

If you find that there is a problem with your tongue shape, you should seek medical attention promptly, especially if you have the three highs, or people with familial hypertension. You should pay attention to eating some lipid-lowering foods, such as black fungus, celery, hawthorn, etc. You can soak hawthorn in water and add some honey.