Ayurvedic tongue diagnosis: what your tongue says about your health

Your tongue can tell you about your health problems and imbalances. 👅 When you visit an Ayurvedic doctor or practitioner, you are asked to stick your tongue out for a tongue diagnosis. Your tongue gives us a good indication of a possible imbalance or sensitivity, and whether there is āma (toxic waste) present in any area. The tongue not only tells you about your physical health, but also how you digest your emotions. A vertical line in the center of the tongue represents the spine, and it gives us a lot of information about where suppressed feelings have been stored. Think of childhood trauma, a toxic relationship or the passing of a loved one. I have a slight curve in the center line, which represents my scoliosis.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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In Ayurveda we say that a healthy tongue looks like the tongue of a kitten 😸: symmetric, evenly pink, not too thick or thin and evenly shaped. But, we are all human and we get to live with challenges every single day, as to which most of us have a slight imbalance, or at least a tendency that is visible on the tongue. And this can help us to take the right action to come back to balance through proper diet, sleep, physical activity and other tools like massage and the use of herbs.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

When you get up in the morning, I advise you to look at your tongue before you brush your teeth, scrape or do anything else. Do you see a thick coating anywhere, indicating there is some toxic waste present in your body, maybe due to a heavy dinner or poor sleep? Is the color different from the morning before? Maybe you feel your tongue is dry – quality of Vata – or very red – more Pitta prone.⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀

Most health problems start in the GI tract, so if from the tongue we can see there is some stagnation, we can get the flow of prana going by removing it through simple habits or routines. Even drinking warm water can solve a lot, no need to always overcomplicate. 😛

Ayurvedic tongue analysis according to the map of organs

Organ map for Ayurvedic tongue analysis

Note: this illustration used for ayurvedic tongue analysis is a mirror image.

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