Chinese medicine diagnosis: health from lip color

According to Chinese medicine, the spleen opens the mouth, and its flower is on the lips. Therefore, the normal color of the lips directly reflects the strength of the spleen and stomach. If the spleen and stomach function normally, the color of the lips will be rosy and lustrous; if the spleen and stomach are out of balance, or if spleen disease affects the liver or lung, the color of the lips may change. Abnormal lip color is often a sign of certain diseases, therefore, based on the color and characteristics of the lips, the presence of certain diseases can be judged, and early measures should be taken to prevent and treat them.

Pallor

Pale lips reflect weakness of the spleen and stomach and deficiency of qi and blood, mostly seen in people with physical weakness, anemia or excessive blood loss. As a result of weakness of the spleen and stomach, loss of Qi and blood filling and insufficient blood supply, it can make the lips pale. The spleen dominates the muscles and the extremities, and can also affect the filling of the terminal capillaries, resulting in Raynaud's disease and thrombo-occlusive vasculitis. General pallor of the upper lip is most often seen in colorectal disease, clinically associated with abdominal distension and abdominal pain. Lower lip pallor is mostly seen in gastric disease, which is seen as stomach pain and nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and cold discomfort in the stomach and epigastrium. Sometimes a sudden encounter with cold, panic stimulation, or certain causes of shock, deficiency can also produce transient lip pallor.

cherry red

Cherry red lips are mostly seen in carbon monoxide poisoning, due to severe lack of oxygen in the body, making the lips cherry red, and in severe cases fainting, confusion, unsteady gait, unconsciousness, respiratory and circulatory depression, leading to death. True erythrocytosis can also appear cherry red lips, with varying degrees of severity of the disease and lip cherry red shades differ.

Deep red

Deep red lips refer to the skin mucous membranes are blue-purple, mostly due to insufficient oxygen and hemoglobin in the blood. It is common in pneumonia, pulmonary heart disease with heart failure and shortness of breath and wheezing. Cyanosis of the lips due to poor blood circulation occurs commonly in patients with vascular diseases, such as stroke, pulmonary heart disease, and vascular embolism.

Black color

Black lips are usually caused by digestive system diseases. People with dull and cloudy lips are seen with diarrhea, abdominal distension and pain, loss of appetite, constipation, etc. If black patches appear on the lips and the edges of the mouth and lips are pigmented, they are mostly caused by kidney insufficiency, and patients are prone to symptoms such as fatigue, anorexia, nausea and vomiting.

Yellow

Yellowing of the lips is mostly due to liver disease and spleen. Early or mild jaundice is seen in the yellowing of the sclera and mucous membrane of the soft palate, and is only reflected in the lips when it is more pronounced. In addition, bile duct obstruction, hepatocellular damage or hemolytic disease can also cause yellow lips, which can be lemon, orange, yellow-green, dark yellow, etc. Generally speaking, we can understand the signs of certain diseases by observing the color of the lips, but we must analyze and judge the whole body and local internal organs, and we must also understand whether the lips are colored by cosmetic decoration to avoid being misled by false colors.