03 Dec The Telling Tales of your Tongue

The ancient Ayurvedic practice of tongue scraping is something that is gaining a bit of momentum in the health world at the moment – and rightfully so! Our mouths house a complex colony of bacteria and it’s an absolute wonderland for bacteria to replicate and grow.

When we sleep the body is working to eliminate toxins in any way possible, which is why we wake up with the coating on our tongue and is the cause of “morning breath”. This is why it’s so important to eliminate these toxins rather than just reabsorbing them back into our body.

When we clean our teeth we are only cleaning around 50% of the bacteria of our mouths, that means the other half stay on the tongue or worse, get swallowed and the toxins are then introduced to our gut. Our gut is the absolute powerhouse for wellbeing, if the gut is off then chances are so are you.

The tongue can actually be very telling of our current state of health. A thick coating on the tongue, the colour of the coating and the areas of which it accumulates expresses certain imbalances in the body.

So what is tongue scraping? Tongue scraping is the art of using a stainless steel or copper tool to stimulate and remove the microorganisms living on the surface of the tongue. The toothbrush isn’t rigid enough to remove enough bacteria and once you’ve scraped once, you’ll understand how much you’re able to remove with a scraper. Pulling the scraper straight down your tongue and rinsing in the sink until all of the coating is removed is best done in the morning before doing anything else. This is because this is when the most toxins have accumulated.

Tongue scrapers are available in any health food store or online. So for what is really an inexpensive and minor morning task, it is worth giving it a shot if not for the long term health benefits then to spare your loved ones of morning breath.

Kristy West – Lifestyle Author

@apositionofpower