bubble_chart Concept

A salty taste in the mouth refers to the sensation of a salty flavor in the mouth, sometimes accompanied by the expulsion of salty phlegm.

bubble_chart Pattern Analysis

1. Kidney Yin Deficiency︰Salty taste in the mouth, or spitting small amounts of salty saliva, accompanied by dry throat and mouth, dizziness, tinnitus, soreness and weakness in the lower back and knees, vexing heat in the chest, palms and soles, restless sleep at night, red tongue with thin coating, deep-thin and rapid pulse, weak chi pulse. Mostly caused by deficiency fire flaming upward, scorching kidney fluids. Treatment should focus on nourishing yin and reducing fire, strengthening the source of water. Use Major Yin-Tonifying Pill, or Anemarrhena, Phelloendron and Rehmannia Pill, etc.
2. Kidney Yang Deficiency︰Salty taste in the mouth, general fatigue, shortness of breath, lack of strength, fear of cold, cold limbs, weakness and limpness in the waist and legs, frequent urination at night, pale and swollen tongue with tooth marks, deep and thin weak pulse. This is caused by yang deficiency failing to restrain, leading to upward floating of kidney fluid. Treatment should focus on warming and tonifying kidney yang. Kidney Qi Pill combined with Schisandra Fruit can be used with modifications.

The five zang-organs each govern the five flavors, with saltiness being the flavor of the kidney. A salty taste in the mouth is often caused by the upward movement of kidney fluid. Both conditions are types of kidney deficiency, one being yin deficiency and the other yang deficiency. They both exhibit symptoms of insufficient essential qi, such as soreness in the waist, weakness in the legs, or dizziness and lightheadedness. The disease cause is often due to overexertion affecting the kidney, aging and physical decline, or prolonged illness affecting the kidney, leading to the decline of the lower origin and damage to true yin and true yang.

bubble_chart Documentation

1. Xiezheng Lun. Mouth and tongue: "Salty mouth is due to spleen dampness, moistening purgation makes it salty, the spleen fails to transform water, hence the saltiness. Two Old Ingredients Decoction add Inula Flower, Patchouli, Peony Root, sandalwood, Evodia Fruit to treat it. Stomach Poria Decoction also treats it, or Six-Ingredient Rehmannia Decoction add Inula Flower, Achyranthes Root, lalang grass rhizome, transforms water from the kidney, directs it downward, to treat it by separation."