New advances in technology might make the tongue an even better diagnostic tool.
Whenever we were unwell as kids, it wasn’t uncommon to see a Chinese medicine practitioner along with our regular GP. Each visit always began – in stark contrast to the GP appointments – with the same three requests: let me feel your pulse, tell me how you’ve been sleeping and stick out your tongue.
Skin rashes can, of course, indicate allergic reactions, while jaundice suggests liver conditions. The colour of the lower eyelid can be a sign of anaemia, while retinal scans can diagnose diabetes. The tongue is revealing of our health because it has a rich blood supply and is full of nerve endings. Using image processing techniques to compare the tongue images from 50 patients with diabetes, renal failure and anaemia with a database of 9000 tongue images, they correctly diagnosed the diseases in 94 per cent of cases, compared to laboratory results.With 80 per cent accuracy, they were able to diagnose a further seven diseases: asthma, heart diseases, cancer, infection of the papillae , inflamed tongue and flu, including COVID-19.
The “cool part” is that they’re using advanced computer processes, like artificial intelligence, to make this happen, Lim says. “This tech can be a big help because it depends less on people, which means fewer mistakes.”