There is white coating on the tongue

Generally speaking, it is very normal for everyone to have white coating on their tongue . The white coating on the tongue is like a protective film of the tongue, reflecting the changes in the body and providing strong evidence for medical staff to observe the physical condition. The white coating on the tongue is formed by the differentiation of the filiform papillae endings in the mucosa of the tongue. Normal white moss should be a thin layer, pale white and moist.

Observing the tongue coating can help us observe changes in a person's physical condition. Therefore, it is normal to have white coating on the tongue. Some people often clean the white moss for the sake of aesthetics. It looks better on the outside, but the body's alarm is gone. Once there is an abnormality in the body, it is easy to ignore it.

There is a saying in China's profound ancient culture: Traditional Chinese medicine believes that the formation of tongue coating is a manifestation of the vital energy of the spleen and stomach. Zhang Xugu, a medical scientist in the Qing Dynasty, said: "The tongue coating is caused by the vitality in the stomach, and the stomach qi is generated by the heart and spleen. Therefore, people without diseases often have a thin coating, which is the vitality in the stomach, just like the grass on the ground. If the land is barren, then the soil has no vitality." Wu Kunan, another famous doctor in the Qing Dynasty and the author of the "Song of Observing the Tongue to Identify Diseases", also said: "The coating on the tongue is like the coating on the ground. The coating on the ground is caused by the rise of moisture; the coating on the tongue is caused by the rise of moisture from the stomach and spleen, so it is called coating."

The color of normal people's tongue coating is thin and white. "The Tongue Diagnosis for Febrile Diseases" says: "When evil qi enters the body, the cold, heat, deficiency and excess of the disease will appear on the tongue... Only by examining the color of the tongue coating, whether it is smooth, dry, thick or thin, it will be as clear as a mirror and nothing can escape its detection." It can be seen that the ancients believed that detecting cold and heat from the tongue coating was as clear as looking in a mirror. The tongue of a normal person has a thin, clean coating that is moist and hydrated.

A tongue coating that is too white is usually a sign of cold syndrome, a thin and slippery coating is usually a sign of exogenous wind-cold, and a thick, white and slippery coating is usually a sign of cold-dampness or cold phlegm. However, clinically, white tongue coating is also seen in cases of internal syndrome and heat syndrome.

Some white tongue coating appears completely normal but is often confused. For example, for patients with a mild illness, because the disease has just begun or is in the recovery period, there is white coating on the tongue , which is not abnormal. For this type of patient, the judgment should be made based on his other conditions. If there is neurasthenia or some gastrointestinal neurosis, white tongue coating is not easy to identify.