Tongue Diagnosis Anyone???

Here in class we are learning a huge part of tongue diagnosing. The tongue is actually a better way of finding illness more so than in the pulse. The pulse simply is more sucepible to change than the tongue is. Here in the tongue diagnosis we have five aspects to observe when looking at the tongue. They are the following:

1. Vitality of the color- known "tongue spirit". Is the color lively? What is the color? If there is an appearance in vitality it would indicate that person is healthy.

2. Body Color- Indicates the state of Blood, Yin organs, and Ying (Nutritive) Qi. Body color is considered to be the most important aspect in observation of the tongue. A normal body color of the tongue would be a pink or light red color.

3. Body Shape- What is the size? What are the features and textures? Also how does it move if it is extended? The body shape reflects the state of  blood and ying nutritive Qi. The body shape also indicates whether or not it is Excess or Deficient.
A normal body shape of the tongue would be not cracked, no trembling or quivering while extended, not to small or large, and it will not be swollen or paper thin.

4. Coating of the tongue- It's all about the Stomach Qi with the coat yo! If your normally transforming and digesting food your coat will be thin and white!

5. Moisture- Reveals the state of Yin and Fluids in the body.Normal would be slight moist. This also is in relation to the stomach.

I have searched around the internet to find a normal tongue or well to try... Little did I know I was going to be very shocked to see some of the tongues out on the internet! Quite a few made me gag and gringe that I had to turn away from the pics. I found one tongue picture labeled as a "normal tongue coating". Lets take a look here:  

What is missing here is the coating. There is not a thin white coat on here yet there is a thickness of white coating towards the lower jiao of the tongue which is also the "Root" of the tongue. That is to be normal if that is the case. Other than that I see a pretty normal tongue. Maybe a little red, but that could be just from the way the lighting is on the camera.

This next illustration I have here is the internal organs and where they go in correspondence to the tongue. How fun and excite right??? :)

Lets take a look at some not so normal tongues and take a guess what is going on??

Can we say HEAT??? Seems that it is more wet than normal as well which red and wet= heat with retention of dampness! :)

 

Here we have a long vertical crack in the center of the tongue. This is related to the heart. This seems to be a normal color of the tongue so it seems to indicate a weakness in the heart. If there was no coating at all it could be a yin deficiency of the kidneys. There is also scallops which could be a spleen qi deficiency. 

Purple tongue... yikes! That is purple! This indicates cold, blood stasis or liver disease. This is a purplish/blue color which is an obstruction of moving blood. If it were to be a reddish purple that indicates heat condensing blood. 

What does your tongue say or indicate about you?