Something I have never seen before
This last Thursday when I was at The Asian Institute of Medical Studies ,teaching a class, I found a copy of the latest New England Journal of Traditional Chinese Medicine in my 'mail box.' I did not look at it as I was teaching a class and focused on that.
Today I had some time inbetween patients so I opened up the journal, only to find an article on TONGUE ACUPUNCTURE!
Now I know you all thought I was a bit over the edge when I wrote about that one treatment I did last spring (See "You want to do What?!?!"[May]), but this takes tongue acupuncture to a completely different level. The author has located 30 points on the tongue that he needles on his patients. Trust me, I am not going down that avenue! He states that these are clinically effective points for a whole range of disease processes. I'll just have to take his word on that...
But, on a similar vein (Sorry, I could not resist that one.) I saw something during a treatment today I have not seen before.
My patient has a fairly deep red tongue, but 3/4 of the tongue surface was covered with a fairly thick black coat. The underside of the coat is a lighter brown, but the surface is black.
When she extended her tongue so I could see it, she had just said "Can you tell me what causes this? It happens every time I drink red wine." She sticks her toungue out and I did a true double-take. I said, "I have never seen anything like that before."
I drew out a diagram of the tongue and the "areas" as sen through TCM. The blackness covers the Kidney, Liver & Gallbladder areas, but does not cover the Stomach, Lungs or Heart. Read that as it covers the back(Kidneys) and sides (LR/GB), but not the center (St), in front of center (Lu) or tip (Ht). Then I said that apparently the red wine creates some heat in the Kidneys, Liver and Gallbladder. I reccomended that not drinking red wine might be a good thing. I did tell her that I was not telling her to not drink, but just to avoid the red wine.
Clinically I do not see a lot of heat signs in her. Sure there are some, but not to the degree that I would expect to in order to generate a BLACK tongue coating. I will keep my self open to seeing things that I might have missed as I work with her, but for now all I can say is "I ain't never seen anything like that before."
Today I had some time inbetween patients so I opened up the journal, only to find an article on TONGUE ACUPUNCTURE!
Now I know you all thought I was a bit over the edge when I wrote about that one treatment I did last spring (See "You want to do What?!?!"[May]), but this takes tongue acupuncture to a completely different level. The author has located 30 points on the tongue that he needles on his patients. Trust me, I am not going down that avenue! He states that these are clinically effective points for a whole range of disease processes. I'll just have to take his word on that...
But, on a similar vein (Sorry, I could not resist that one.) I saw something during a treatment today I have not seen before.
My patient has a fairly deep red tongue, but 3/4 of the tongue surface was covered with a fairly thick black coat. The underside of the coat is a lighter brown, but the surface is black.
When she extended her tongue so I could see it, she had just said "Can you tell me what causes this? It happens every time I drink red wine." She sticks her toungue out and I did a true double-take. I said, "I have never seen anything like that before."
I drew out a diagram of the tongue and the "areas" as sen through TCM. The blackness covers the Kidney, Liver & Gallbladder areas, but does not cover the Stomach, Lungs or Heart. Read that as it covers the back(Kidneys) and sides (LR/GB), but not the center (St), in front of center (Lu) or tip (Ht). Then I said that apparently the red wine creates some heat in the Kidneys, Liver and Gallbladder. I reccomended that not drinking red wine might be a good thing. I did tell her that I was not telling her to not drink, but just to avoid the red wine.
Clinically I do not see a lot of heat signs in her. Sure there are some, but not to the degree that I would expect to in order to generate a BLACK tongue coating. I will keep my self open to seeing things that I might have missed as I work with her, but for now all I can say is "I ain't never seen anything like that before."
posted by Michael Clifford, L. Ac. | 12:54 PM
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