Why We Get Cracks On Our Tongues (& What To Do About It)

AYURVEDA PERSPECTIVE ON MANY CRACKS ON TONGUE

Most people don't even notice cracks on their tongues.

But in Ayurveda, these cracks tell important stories about what's happening in your body. They can be an early warning sign that your digestive tract is degenerating or that your body is dehydrated.

Discover what a diagnosis of cracks on your tongue means for your own or your clients' health, and how Ayurveda can help.

Why Do You Have Cracks on Your Tongue?

A healthy tongue has no cracks and is soft and supple.

Its full and moistened look indicates the body is hydrated, the person is well nourished and their plasma (rasa dhatu) and red blood cells (rakta dhatu) are healthy.

Children's tongues rarely have cracks and provide a good gauge of what a healthy tongue looks like.

In contrast, cracks are common in elderly individuals who are prone to dryness, digestive issues and Vata aggravation.

They may also be a warning sign that blood plasma is deficient and unable to nourish the tongue adequately, a Vata disorder associated with excess dry quality.

Depending on the depth and severity of the cracks, they can also suggest a more severe Vata imbalance associated with tissue degeneration (loss of ojas).

Cracks Can Reveal the Severity of Your Condition

Pathology in the body typically starts as a loss of vitality (a loss of prana).

If the diminished vitality is not addressed, it gradually leads to a loss of substance (ojas) in the form of tissue degeneration.

While tongue crack formation often follows this same general pattern, the cracks can also appear suddenly along with the onset of an illness, stress, or diet and lifestyle changes.

Normally, though, cracks start single, small, and superficial indicating a mild Vata imbalance or nutrient deficiency in fluids.

The resultant loss of vitality is easily remedied with adequate hydration, balanced nutrition, reduction in stress levels, or gentle cleansing to reduce toxicity.

As imbalances progress, however, cracks become more numerous, longer and deeper.

A very deep imbalance will lead to cracks distributed over the entire tongue. Deeper and more numerous cracks always suggest a deeper injury to fluids and/or the tissue itself.

Re-hydration, nourishment, and rejuvenation are essential in addressing this kind of imbalance, but may not be sufficient.

To heal a disorder in this stage, panchakarma and a detailed examination of the root cause may be necessary.

Location & Pattern of Cracks

To assess the progression of a disorder through the various disease stages, we rate cracks as mild, medium or severe according to their depth, length, location, distribution and number.

Their location on the tongue may also offer clues as to possible issues related to the body's organs.

What's the organ connection?

As organ imbalances affect your blood and circulation, they impact areas of the tongue differently and lead to topical changes to the tongue's surface.

For example:

• The back of the tongue is most sensitive to dehydration and fluid volume, while the sides reflect blood stagnation.
• The center of the tongue enjoys the most circulation, while the tip is most affected by heat.
• Vasoconstriction affects the edges of the tongue more than the center, leading to a color change, or change in the location of cracks.

Similarly, lines anywhere on the tongue warn of accumulation of Vata in that area of the body:

• A crack that runs along the entire midline suggests stress held along the spine. Or it could also indicate a heart issue.
• Cracks on the edges of the tongue reveal that digestive fire ( agni) is impaired. A crack in the center means that the stomach is injured--likely because of a Vata imbalance.
• If the crack runs from the center of the tongue to the tip, look for a heart disorder or congenital heart problems, or tightness in the chest / shoulders.

While the location of cracks can lead to insights about what's happening in the body and its organs, always look for other signs to confirm these findings.

Common Imbalances Involving Cracks on Tongue

The most common imbalances appear as superficial cracks along with a reddish tongue. This pattern indicates dryness creating heat, which translates as a Vata pushing Pitta disorder.

There's a tendency for dryness and heat to go together in the body, just as in the desert.

The remedy is to moisten the tongue by hydrating and nourishing the body, a technique called building ojas. Try a rice pudding for example, or an almond shake.

Sometimes, pathogens or other external factors come into play requiring nuances in your approach.

Cracks on a pale tongue indicate a Vata imbalance due to blood deficiency (rakta). A pale tongue indicates that the digestive fire (agni) is low. Color can be restored with digestives like ginger and black pepper as well as easy to digest foods like kitchari and soups.

Deeper cracks with a pale tongue indicate chronic injury to fluids and or tissues. There may be dehydration and/or kidney flushing due to toxins in the blood.

The person will likely feel depleted and could benefit from foods that enrich the blood without overwhelming the digestive system. Bone broth, borscht, pomegranate juice and raisins all serve to rebuild the blood.

Deep cracks with a very red tongue are more serious indicating severe depletion of fluids and a flareup of Pitta. The excess heat has caused an imbalance in the blood (rasa and rakta dhatus) and may be burning up fluids (tejas burning ojas).

Cooling foods like bitter greens, coconut water and aloe vera gel will bring relief.

The most severe situation is cracks on a red shiny tongue due to severe injury to tissues, ojas, fluids and the blood plasma (rasa).

In this case, the stomach is likely damaged and the body extremely depleted.

Recovery from this level of imbalance will require help from an advanced practitioner.

Remedies include favoring building foods that are easy to digest. Bone broth, chicken soup, almonds, warm milk (if digested well) and ghee are good examples.

A tongue that appears shredded is likely the result of epileptic fits, which cause a person to inadvertently chew their tongue.

The good news is that through accurate assessment of their underlying imbalances, cracks on the tongue can heal and may even disappear altogether.

About Tongue Diagnosis & Assessment

The GI tract and the tongue are ever changing environments where rapid recovery and decline are both possible. Take a look at the following example from the Joyful Belly clinic:

Before	After 3 Weeks

Your tongue is a window into your innards. When you look at it, it is as if you are peering down a telescope into the depths of a submarine onto your organs beneath the surface.

The tissues of the tongue and mouth are especially similar to the tissues of your GI tract, with many of the same bacteria.

That's why the appearance of the tongue often mirrors that of your digestive tract, or is (at least) suggestive of GI pathologies.

If your tongue looks healthy, your digestive system is probably healthy. However, if your tongue looks unhealthy, your GI tract may be compromised.

For example, a sore in your mouth may indicate a sore somewhere along your GI tract. If your tongue is inflamed, your GI may also be inflamed.

The appearance of the tongue and the GI is not always the same, but often the tongue provides clues to what is happening deeper within.

When your tongue responds positively to treatment, chances are your GI will too.

It should not be a surprise that the tongue is a useful tool for assessing the health of all organs and tissues in the body. Organs perform important functions and when these functions are compromised, the effects are noticeable everywhere including on the tongue.

The tongue is especially useful for assessment because it is an internal organ visible from the outside, and therefore offers different cues than the skin or eyes.

To assess the tongue, practitioners look at its entire surface, including underneath it and at the back. They also examine your tongue coating and color, along with surface features such as tongue body shape, and color. Of particular note are cracks on the surface of the tongue.

The Power of Ayurvedic Tongue Diagnosis

Tongue assessment has several advantages over other diagnostic techniques, including pulse diagnosis.

Tongues are assessed with the eyes, arguably the most well developed of the five senses in humans.

Seeing is believing!

Also, practitioners can analyze the tongue over the phone, webinar or photos. This enables them to work effectively with clients from afar.

Tongue assessment is also easier to learn and less subjective than pulse diagnosis. The pulse changes rapidly throughout a session according to the anxiety of the client, whereas the tongue is relatively stable.

The tongue is a digestive organ. And at Joyful Belly we specialize in digestion, including tongue assessment and analysis.

Students in our Mastering Ayurvedic Digestion & Nutrition program learn how to determine organ imbalances, constitutional strengths and deficiencies, as well as the quality and nature of fluids via tongue assessment.

Use this fascinating art to assess your own health. Or, if you are a practitioner, use it to:

• Show the depth and nature of client imbalances.
• Better understand client gunas and doshas and observe the ones that need support.
• Measure the progress of client disorders.
• Track client recoveries.

Start your journey into tongue analysis today.

Begin by looking at your tongue in the mirror every morning.

Images of Many cracks on tongue

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