Tongue

At the last step of TCM examination, we always ask you to stick out your tongue. What we are looking for ?
We look at the colour of the tongue and the tongue coat. Normal tongue colour supposes to be light red. And there shouldn't have tongue coat. Some clients told me that they are sorry not to scratch away the tongue coat. Actually it's an evidence of internal sickness.
Pale tongue: means Qi or Qi and Blood deficiency. When Qi is deficient, it couldn't delivery Blood to the upper body,that's why there is lack of colour in the tongue.
Red tongue: most means heat inside the body. If the tongue tip is red,that means heat in Heart. People can have sores in the tongue, feel restless,insomnia. If the tongue sides are red,mostly means there is heat in Liver and Gall Bladder, usually these people have a hot temper,easy to get irritated, headache, dizziness,ear rings,hypertension. If the middle tongue is red, it means heat in Stomach. People can easy feel hungry, burning feeling in the stomach. If the back tongue is red,people more have heat in Kidney, can have frequent urination, burning feel when urinate,little amount of urine.
Dark red tongue: means more heat in the body.
Purple tongue: Usually means poor blood circulation.
Blue tongue: means extreme cold in the body. It's also happen on people who have cardiovascular problem,or drug,food poisoning.
Of course, this need combine with symptoms and pulse checking,we can get acute diagnosis.

Keep a even mood

Keeping a even mood maybe the most difficult to reach. Good things,bad things happen,we always have a reaction. We just need to control the reaction in a certain range. Overreaction will cause sickness.
Overhappyness will effect on heart. the symptoms can be losing concentration, distracted,tiredness,palpitation, absent-minded ,even frantic.
Oversaddness will hurt lung, can cause cough, short of breath,heaviness on chest. There is a story. One of my friend,his father died. And he didn't get a chance to go back home to see him for the last visit. He was so sad. Then later on,he developed a chronic cough. A few months later,after he went over the sadness,the cough went away. He is a Chinese medicine doctor,too. This time,he really understood oversaddness can effect on your lung.
Overworry can effect on your spleen,you will have low appetite, stomach blockage, diarrhea, weakness , losing weight and so on.
Overangry can effect on liver, people will have dizziness,headache,red face ,ear ringing, even vomiting blood. passing out.
Overscare can effect on kidney, can cause weakness on legs,losing control on urine and bowel movement,nocturnal emission. We can see on TV and movies,when people were frightened, they lost control on urine and bowel movement.
Our mood shouldn't be effected by outside stuff. Keep peaceful in mind. Good or bad things are just part of life. Nothing will be perfect. Good things follow bad,bad things follow good. So take it easy, try your best to enjoy your life.

Good Sleep

We fall asleep fast, get through the whole night,when we wake up in the morning,we feel fresh. That's a good sleep. We all know,for an adult,most of us need 8-9 hours sleep. But when is the best time for sleep?
In TCM,we divide 24 hours into 12 time period:
5am-7am (mou)--Large intestinal : As a doctor,we know this is a dangerous time. According to a study,60% stoke,heart attack, sudden death happens at this time. Because at this time , people's blood pressure,body temperature is at the lowest level,and blood circulation is very slow. Yang is at the lowest level. Ying is at the highest level. Later on,Ying will reduce,Yang will increase. So this time,better to rest. Don't do exercise during this time.
7am-9am(chen)---Stomach: This time,Stomach Meridian has the most Qi and Blood. This is a good time for breakfast.
9am-11am(yi)---Spleen: Spleen help to deliver nutritions to other organs,include brain. So it's a good time for studying and work.
11am-1pm(wu)--Heart: We always say using heart to study. This is still a good time to study and work.
1pm – 3pm(wei)--Small intestinal: Good time for lunch. This time,most Qi and Blood go to small intestinal meridian to help digestive food. The best,we can have a little snap during this time to let small intestinal work better.
3pm-5pm(shen)--Bladder : This time can drink more water to detoxify.
5pm-7pm(you)--Kidney: Usually dinner time. Eat light but good.
7pm-9pm(wu)---Heart Membrane: It's time to calm down.
9pm-11pm(hai)--San Jiao:Hai,in Chinese,means restart. It's time to go to bed. We can drink some milk,soy milk to help falling asleep.
11pm-1am(zi)--Gall bladder: Gall bladder support all the other organs. Very important to have it get enough rest.
1am-3am(chou)--Liver, 3am-5am(ming)--Lung,5am-7am(mou)--Large intestinal. From 11pm to 7am is the best time for sleep. Body use this time to recovery and build up immunity system.