What they are saying is that the state of the tongue may indicate certain kinds of ailments (I would guess mostly those related to the upper GI tract and mouth and possibly some systemic diseases). Much like other overly reductionistic hypotheses (see also iridology and chiropractic), the concept here is that all disease is manifest in patterns on the tongue. Maybe it is true, but such reductionistic claims are extraordinary by nature and require extraordinary evidence. I don't see that evidence in this study (or most of the others on the cited journal).
It is a false dichotomy to declare "Western" and "Eastern" medicine as presumably equal cultural phenomena. There is scientific medicine and non-scientific medicine. Evidence-based medicine and non-evidence-based medicine. Preliminary research (such as that conducted here) is not proof, only a suggestion of ground for further research. "Western" medicine is a cultural phenomena that mostly died out with the advent of evidence-based medicine. MDs no longer talk about humor balance and bleeding. Once evidence showed these ideas to be useless or even harmful distractions, they were dropped and relegated to obscurity and quackery.
Another question I have is why alternative medicine needs a separate journal for research. Evidence is evidence. Once you have solid evidence you are no longer talking about "alternative" medicine. You are just talking about "medicine". If you have a good test design, have sufficiently controlled for bias, and have produced compelling results, any reputable medical journal will accept your research. If all you do is preliminary, unblinded studies with small subject samples, and make generalizations that confirm your biases beyond what the evidence supports, your research will be rejected. Creating a separate journal that accepts sub-par research mostly aimed at confirming biases, but creates an impression of scientific rigor is misleading at best and dishonest at worst.
In traditional Chinese medicine, the overall health of the body or zheng can be determined by an analysis of the tongue. If the tongue is red, it is considered ‘hot’ whereas a white tongue indicates ‘cold.’ These temperature markers refer to symptoms within the body and can serve as a warning sign of health problems.
Now researchers want to bring this method of preventive medicine into the Western world.
Don Xu and colleagues at the University of Missouri developed a computer software program that takes an image of a person’s tongue and analyzes the color and coating to determine zheng.
Science Daily reports:
“Knowing your zheng classification can serve as a pre-screening tool and help with preventive medicine,” said Dong Xu, chair of MU’s computer science department in the College of Engineering and study co-author. “Our software helps bridge Eastern and Western medicine, since an imbalance in zheng could serve as a warning to go see a doctor.”
This system was tested for efficacy on 263 people with gastritis and 48 healthy volunteers. The people with gastritis were classified based on the intensity of their symptoms and past readings of hot or cold so researchers could verify the accuracy of the software.
The study was accepted for publication in the journal Evidence Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine.
Researchers are now working on a way to make the system available to anyone from the comfort of their home. “Within a year, our ultimate goal is to create an application for smartphones that will allow anyone to take a photo of their tongue and learn the status of their zheng.” Xu tells Science Daily.
Of course, you have to accept Chinese medicine for any of this to be helpful.
Tongue Analysis Software Uses Ancient Chinese Medicine to Warn of Disease [Science Daily]
Photo via flickr/nathanmac87
