Normal people's fur is thin and white. Because the ends of filiform papillae in the tongue mucosa differentiate into "keratinized trees", the gaps between branches of the "keratinized trees" are often filled with exfoliated keratinized epithelium, saliva, bacteria, mold, food residues and oozing white blood cells. These opaque substances cover the red color of the tongue capillaries, and the keratinized epithelium can absorb water and turn white when wet, thus forming a normal thin, white and moist tongue coating.
Tongue coating is too white: mostly cold syndrome, thin and slippery mostly due to exogenous wind-cold, thick and white and slippery mostly due to cold dampness or cold phlegm.
Yellowing of tongue coating: it is generally more common in the process of heat-induced diseases, indicating that the struggle between evil and righteousness is very fierce, and the disease enters the stomach meridian and the evil turns to heat.
Blackness of tongue coating: mainly caused by hyperplasia of filiform papillae of tongue. There are different shades such as brown black, gray black, burnt black and dark color. Chinese medicine believes that patients with this kind of moss must have a long illness period and their condition is more complicated and serious.
The tongue coating is gray or greasy, thin and slippery: it is mostly internal cold, with signs of physical weakness and fever, or indigestion after a long illness.
Tongue is purple to blue: typhoid yang syndrome, lubrication without coating.
The tongue coating is brown: intestinal obstruction.
Mirror tongue: that is, the tongue is not coated and smooth as a mirror. Mild malnutrition, or lack of iron or vitamin B2: In vivo: severe cases indicate that the body fluid is insufficient and the condition is serious. If the mirror tongue of a patient with a long illness is crimson, it is also necessary to prevent sepsis. If the old man's tongue is as smooth as a mirror, the two veins at the base of the tongue become thicker and longer, indicating that he has cor pulmonale.
Tongue piercing: there is a small blank in the middle of the tongue coating, and the tongue coating has fallen off. Penetrating the heart and tongue is the manifestation of yin injury, which often indicates insufficient nutrition in the body. Children are stripped of their fur, indicating that they are undernourished, mainly because partial eclipse leads to the lack of some nutrients in the body, resulting in some tongue coating being stripped. This kind of child has poor physical resistance and is prone to catch a cold or have a fever.
Cow tongue: that is, the tongue is dark red and the tongue coating peels off like beef. Cow tongue is common in patients with pernicious anemia.
Rot moss: It is a kind of thick, big and loose moss, which looks like bean curd residue. There is a thick layer on the tongue, which is easy to scrape off and will gradually accumulate after a while. Rotten moss suggests that there is more yang in the human body, which can lift and dispel the turbid and rotten gas in the stomach. It is a sign of the dispute between good and evil and the improvement of the condition.
Greasy tongue coating: the center and root of the tongue are thicker, the tip of the tongue is slightly thinner, and the particles are fine, which cling to the tongue and cannot be wiped off or scraped off. The tongue coating is covered with a layer of greasy mucus, and most of the tongue is covered with it, so it is invisible. Looking at it with a magnifying glass, the number of silky nipples with greasy fur and their branches increased, and the keratinized trees of each nipple were intertwined and not easy to fall off, containing a lot of mucus and food particles. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that greasy fur means that yang is suppressed by yin evil, and there must be pathological changes in the body, such as dampness, turbid phlegm or indigestion, and turbid phlegm. Such as acute and chronic gastroenteritis.
Mildew moss: The moss is similar to rotten moss, floating and scattered, but the tongue coating is similar to rotten moss and laid flat on the tongue surface, but it is like gray spots or rice grains, and it is piled up on the tongue with different thickness. Therefore, it can be concluded that mold coating is usually due to weakness or excessive use of hormones, immunosuppressants and broad-spectrum antibiotics, which leads to low immune function, poor resistance, imbalance of flora and mold growth and reproduction. This kind of moss usually occupies a part of the tongue first, and then it can spread to the whole tongue or the whole mouth. Most of the diseases are serious. Moldy moss is of great value to the diagnosis of mycosis.
Thorn tongue: refers to the tongue surface with many red thorns protruding, like the fruit of grass mold. Puncture holes appear on the tip of the tongue or the edge of the tongue, indicating that the heat is abundant, which can be seen in patients with various febrile infectious diseases or large-area burns; Puncture in the tongue is mostly due to more toxic heat or heat entering the blood, which is easy to shock and coma. People who suffer from insomnia, constipation or work stress at night, as well as vitamin deficiency, malnutrition and cerebral cortex dysfunction, will also have red thorns on their tongues, which is called yin deficiency and excessive fire in Chinese medicine. The sting on the tongue still hurts. After rest, adjust the nutritional structure, the stool will be unobstructed, and the puncture will soon disappear. Modern research believes that prick is caused by the hyperplasia or hypertrophy of the nipple of the previous generation of tongue.
Cracked tongue: Cracks on the tongue surface include deep cracks, shallow cracks and cracks and wrinkles in different directions. Shallow cracks are like wrinkles, deep cracks are like being cut by a knife, and the cracks are irregular. About 0.5% of normal people are born with cleft lip. According to modern medicine, the superficial fissure of the tongue surface is mainly caused by the atrophy of the tongue mucosa, which makes the original longitudinal and transverse stripes of the tongue muscle surface; Deep cleft tongue is a serious atrophic lesion of the tongue, which makes the lingual muscle epithelial layer lose its normal structure, the lingual papilla partially flatten and fuse, and some atrophy and fracture form cracks. The patterns of cracks on the tongue are really strange, including vertical, horizontal, forked, well-shaped, stubborn, sulcus-like and cobblestone-like. Pathological cleft tongue often coexists with atrophic tongue, which can be seen in some chronic wasting diseases, as well as cases of chronic glossitis caused by malnutrition and vitamin B deficiency, so tongue pain and dry mouth often occur. Long-term map tongues, some of which can later be transformed into cleft tongues. Chinese medicine believes that people with cracked tongue and dry tongue surface are mostly deficient in body fluid; For those with excessive heat, the tongue is also crimson.
Smooth tongue body: the tongue surface is smooth, without body fluid and tongue coating, as flat as a mirror, also known as "mirror tongue". No matter what the disease is, seeing this tongue picture shows that there are signs of disappearance of vaginal fluid in the body and serious loss of body fluids. Glossy tongue, crimson color, heat injury to yin, bright tongue, pale color, both qi and yin injury. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the tongue surface is smooth as a mirror, which is a serious tongue picture. According to the clinical observation of integrated traditional Chinese and western medicine, tongue slippery means that there is no moss and spots on the tongue, and all the filiform papillae and mushroom papillae of the tongue shrink, which is the manifestation of glossitis in the late stage. Tongue slippage can be seen in severe vitamin C deficiency, pernicious anemia, long-term persistent high fever, liver cirrhosis and pulmonary heart failure, uremia due to chronic renal failure, toxic shock, brain coma and other diseases. Studies have confirmed that various factors that lead to the necrosis of epithelial cells in the tongue mucosa may lead to the pale tongue as a mirror.
Stagnant tongue: There are scattered purple-black ecchymosis or ecchymosis on the tip of the tongue or the edge of the tongue, indicating that there is "blood stasis block" in the body. People with blood stasis have slow blood flow in their bodies, and blood flow can even stop completely in some places. When people eat, they will accidentally bite the edge of the tip of the tongue; When people are sick, the fragility of blood vessels increases, and sometimes the blood vessels on the tongue are broken unconsciously. The tongue is more sensitive and often bleeds more easily than other parts of the human body, which makes the tongue prone to petechiae or ecchymosis. Ecchymosis and ecchymosis on the tongue are also common in young women. Most of them have irregular menstruation and dark menstruation, and often have symptoms such as blood clots and dysmenorrhea. Chinese medicine believes that this is a manifestation of blood stasis. Using drugs to regulate menstruation and promote blood circulation can make the microcirculation of the tongue smooth and the blood flow return to normal. Not only can irregular menstruation and dysmenorrhea be cured, but the ecchymosis on the tongue will also disappear. Many cancer patients have ecchymosis and ecchymosis on their tongues, sometimes accompanied by a blue tongue coating. According to statistics, about 50% of patients with malignant tumor have purple tongue, and about 20% have ecchymosis and ecchymosis. If ecchymosis and ecchymosis suddenly appear on the tongue, it is necessary to conduct a detailed examination, which should be noted!
Puffy tongue: the tongue body is enlarged and there are teeth marks on the edge of the tongue, which is called tongue fat; If you are fat, you will be swollen, your tongue will be stuffed with your mouth, and rotation will be invalid. What's more, it will affect your breathing and language. Chinese medicine believes that tongue fat suggests qi deficiency or water dampness; Fat and greasy tongue is mostly phlegm-dampness or damp-heat. The tongue is bright red and swollen, often with heart and stomach fever; Purple swelling of the tongue, mostly due to alcoholism; If the tongue is swollen or even the lips are swollen and blue, this is blood stasis, which is often caused by drug poisoning or food poisoning. Modern medicine believes that tongue swelling is mainly caused by connective tissue hyperplasia, tissue edema, or vascular and lymphatic reflux disorder, which is more common in patients with hypothyroidism, acromegaly, uremia and acute poisoning. Some patients will have throat or neck compression, such as severe laryngeal edema, or extremely enlarged thyroid gland, and the tongue will swell.
Thin and flat tongue: the body of the tongue becomes thinner and thinner. Modern medicine believes that the cause of pale and flat tongue is malnutrition, which makes the muscles and epithelial mucosa of tongue atrophy. More common in chronic wasting diseases, accompanied by emaciation, such as severe pulmonary tuberculosis, pulmonary heart disease complicated with infection and advanced cancer, followed by long-term gastrointestinal dysfunction, vitamin and protein deficiency, pernicious anemia, etc. It can also make the tongue thinner. Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the tongue meat is related to the heart and spleen, and the deficiency of both heart and spleen makes the tongue thin and flat. If the tongue is light and thin, it is deficiency of both yin and yang, lack of qi and blood, and it can't fill the tongue body, which will become thinner because the tongue body can't be nourished for a long time; If the tongue is red and thin, it is due to yin deficiency and excessive fire. The more yin deficiency, the stronger the fire, so the tongue is dry and emaciated. Whether it is a new disease or a long-term disease, if you see a thin and flat tongue coating, you can't be light; If the tongue is thin, shriveled, withered and dull, the prognosis is mostly bad.
Skirt tongue: the tongue extends beyond the scope of bickering between the two sides, which is obviously swollen and delicate. In addition, there are teeth marks on the edge of the tongue, just like the edge of a lesbian skirt. Skirt tongue is caused by malnutrition in the body, especially protein deficiency, which causes tongue edema. Tongue tissue is more sensitive than other organs, so edema may occur in other parts of the body at this time.