Blue tongue

Many people in life don’t actually pay much attention to their tongue, but sometimes, when we brush our teeth, we find that there are some problems with the color of our tongue. The normal color of the tongue is red, but we found that our tongue turned blue for some unknown reason. In fact, this is what is commonly referred to as the purple tongue in traditional Chinese medicine, which is a signal that there is a problem with the body.

A bluish-purple tongue is a special signal of blood stasis. Among people with purple tongue, about 90% have various chronic diseases in their bodies. Common causes include slow blood flow and increased blood viscosity.

The tongue is partially or completely bluish purple. A purple tongue indicates heat, while a bluish-blue tongue indicates cold. When both a blue tongue and a purple tongue appear at the same time, the main symptoms can be inferred based on the degree of moisture or dryness of the tongue surface. For example, a blue-purple tongue that is dry indicates heat syndrome, while a blue-purple tongue that is moist indicates cold syndrome. The whole tongue is bluish purple, that is, the whole tongue is uniformly blue or purple, or red with a hint of bluish purple (purple with bluish blue), or light red mixed with bluish blue (more blue than purple).

A bluish or purple tongue is a special signal of blood stasis in the body. Among people with purple tongue, about 90% have various chronic diseases in their bodies.

Symptom ratio

According to clinical statistics, among people with cyanotic tongue, about 54.4% are cancer patients, 30.6% are non-cancer patients, and 15% are healthy people. It has been reported that among 151 patients with esophageal cancer, 105 had cyanotic tongue. Some scholars observed 100 patients with liver cancer and found that 71.9% of them had dark purple and ecchymotic tongues. Clinically, it has also been found that patients with mid- to late-stage cancer have far more cyanotic tongues than those with early-stage cancer, and those with metastasis have more than those without. Other chronic diseases related to blood stasis, such as coronary heart disease, cor pulmonale, chronic liver disease, diabetes, vasculitis, lupus erythematosus, dysmenorrhea and amenorrhea in women, can also be seen with a purple tongue.

Origin of the disease

Modern research has confirmed that any cause of venous congestion, slow blood flow, increased blood viscosity, capillary distortion, increased vascular fragility, vasoconstriction and spasm, blood hypoxia, and thrombosis can lead to poor microcirculation in the tongue and the appearance of a cyanotic tongue.