We definitely experienced this before: A big delicious meal is right before our eyes, we put a bit of it into our mouths. As we chew and savour it, all of a sudden, comes an acute pain～ Oh no, we bite our tongues again….It is really frustrating. Fortunately, we didn’t bite it too hard, or else we could have bitten it off and it would be miserable.
Eating too fast and talking while eating are some of the reasons that cause us to bite our tongue accidentally because we are not paying attention. Yet, carelessness isn’t the only reason. In reality, we can learn from the TCM perspective as to why we often bite our tongues. There are four reasons altogether.

1.    Exuberance of heart fire

When there is exuberance of heart fire, the movement of the tongue will become stiff and it’s easy to bite our tongue. People who are more depressed tend to have reddishness at their tongue tips and margins, even feeling pain. Their tongues are hard to move, so they bite their tongues. They can take some Chrysanthemum tea to cool down their liver and heart fire. As their heart fire is lowered, their tongues will become nimble and they won’t bite their tongues.

2.    Excessive body dampness

Some people have thicker tongues with teeth imprints on them. This is due to weak spleen and stomach that cause dampness in their spleen, which indicates excessive dampness in their body. If they are not careful, they will bite their own tongues too. The treatment should then focus on strengthening their spleen and stomach to eliminate the dampness by taking some medicine to regulate their Qi.

3.    Long term excessive pressure and lack of rest

If in long term, you have been over pressured, lacking of rest, your brain’s central nervous system will be inactive and you may bite your tongues frequently.

4.    Relating to heart diseases

TCM recognizes tongue to be our little heart, which means tongue is the outward reflection of our heart. Many heart diseases can be detected through the tongue. For example, patients with myocardial infarction, stroke, severe blood stasis etc. All these patients will have purplish or bluish tongues with signs of blood stasis on them. Varicose vein will be clearly seen under their tongues. Their tongue movement would probably be inflexible. Hence, they often bite their own tongues. If such thing happens, please see a doctor immediately!