Black Hairy, Strawberry and Geographic – What the Condition of Your Tongue Can Tell You About Your Health

One of my grandmother’s favorite things was cooking. cold pressed beef tonguealthough it’s a tradition I don’t feel the need to continue. Have you ever seen one like that? Not only is it huge, but it also requires a lot of scrubbing, boiling, and ironing, as well as peeling off the stout layer of skin from the outside before eating.

No thanks, but no thanks.

Tongues, whether bovine or human, are mostly made up of muscles, some controlling their shape and others controlling their movement. They are covered with specialized membranes containing many different petite bumps, or papillae, that are connected to our taste buds. They sense the flavors and textures of our food.

The tongue doesn’t just taste and facilitate us swallow what’s in our mouths – its appearance can also give away essential information about our overall health.

Technicolor Tongues

Tongues can come in a surprisingly wide range of colors.

Take red tongues for example. A glowing red, inflamed, swollen tongue is sometimes referred to as Strawberry tongue. The warts become inflamed to look like pits on the surface, and this can start with a white coating, making the tongue look like a slightly unripe strawberry. The coating then flakes off, leaving the tongue glowing red.

It may sound like a cute name, but the strawberry tongue should always be taken seriously. First, it can indicate scarlatinawhich is caused by a bacterium Streptococcus purulent. His highly contagious but it can be treated with antibiotics. Without treatment, however, scarlet fever can lead to complications such as rheumatic feverStrawberry tongue can also indicate Kawasaki diseasea potentially sedate inflammatory disease, occurring mainly in children. This also needs to be recognized and treated in hospital as soon as possible.

Strawberry tongue can also be seen in toxic shock syndromea sporadic, life-threatening condition – and an emergency. The condition is caused by bacteria entering the body from the skin, releasing harmful toxins. Symptoms include a high fever, muscle pain and a characteristic “sandpaper” rash.

So never ignore the taste of strawberry tongue.

Tongues can also be discolored white and, believe it or not, black. Conditions such as thrush may cause white tongue while lingua villosa nigra means black, hairy tongueThe name comes from the elongation of the smallest papillae, giving them a hair-like appearance. It is associated with smoking, arid mouth, and penniless oral hygiene.

Then there are the blue tongues. That is central cyanosisa sedate condition where there is a bluish (or cyan) discolouration of the lips, tongue or face due to a lack of oxygen in the blood or penniless circulation. It occurs in a number of heart and lung conditions – and can even be caused by high altitudes. This is another medical emergency, requiring a 999 call.

Mapped language

Your tongue can be more than just red, white, black, and blue. It can take on some really weird shapes. One example is geographical languagewhere the tip of the tongue changes from scratchy papillae to patches of glossy red tissue. The tongue looks like a map of the world, and then a landmass floating between oceans.

What’s strange about this condition is that the spots can appear and disappear, changing the appearance of the tongue. It’s a bit like continents drifting, changing positions on water.

Geographic tongue usually has few symptoms, although some patients may complain of irritation of the tongue surface or an occasional burning sensation. The condition is completely benign and more common than you might think – it is estimated that affects 1-3% population.

Detection of geographic tongue can lead to the diagnosis of other accompanying disorders too. Some links are stronger than others, but psoriasis, allergic diseases, asthma, and diabetes have all been linked to it.

Debunking myths about language

There are some things that language cannot say – or some claims that have not yet been supported by convincing scientific evidence.

Take for example the cracks or fissures on the top of our tongues. Most of us will notice one or two cracks on our tongues – usually one runs straight down the middle. This seems to be just a normal variation. However, some people have deeper and more numerous cracks. This is sometimes called cracked tongue and it seems to have something to do with geographic tongue.

It has been argued that cracks have other links – for example, with vitamin and iron deficiencies, as well as arid mouth (or xerostomia) and smoking, to name a few. Again, the strength of the link according to the scientific evidence is variable.

Perhaps one of the greatest myths surrounding language is that there is something taught at schooland which seems to propagate the problem. It is a misconception that different areas of the tongue are sensitive to specific tastes – for example, sweet at the end, bitter at the end.

This is nonsense. First, most papillae have taste buds (except for the very petite filamentous ones), so all tastes can be experienced in all areas of the tongue. Second, these maps may miss the fifth taste, Umami – comes from the Japanese word for delicious, umami refers to savory flavors. Think parmesan, cooked meat, and tomatoes.

Although the tongue does not have a taste map, in some people it can look like a map and doctors can read it like an atlas, allowing them to make a wide range of diagnoses.