A light, white coated tongue reflects the state of your digestive function. A heavily coated tongue indicates poor digestion, which is caused by excessive pathogenic fluid.
"The tongue is a mirror of the body's digestive system so can reflect food intolerances and sensitivities, gut problems, toxin levels, weak digestion and more," say O'Sullivan and Herting.
For example, a black and hairy looking tongue can signal poor oral hygiene, or diabetes. If your tongue is bright red like a strawberry, it could signal a deficiency in folic acid, vitamin B12, or iron. But, it could also mean you have strep throat, or a fever.
When your tongue is so heavily coated that it results in the appearance of a white tongue, it's a warning sign that you're suffering from an overworked digestive system. If your digestive system is overburdened, it can't function properly. This leads to a buildup of a bacteria or yeast called candida.
This is because your tongue is intimately connected with your digestive organs. Through the process of taste, it detects and distinguishes different types of food molecules and then signals the appropriate digestive enzymes and secretions to break them down.
Most often, yellow tongue is an early sign of a disorder known as black hairy tongue. Rarely, yellow tongue may be a sign of jaundice, a yellowing of the eyes and skin, which sometimes indicates liver or gallbladder problems.
If you have jaundice, a yellow chemical compound called bilirubin builds up in your blood. It can cause yellow skin (including the skin on your tongue) and a yellowing of the whites of your eyes. This buildup may indicate liver damage or dysfunction.
Tongue thickness measured by ultrasonography, correlates significantly with the severity of liver disease, as assessed by CTP and MELD scores. The patients with a CTP score ≥ 10 have significantly reduced tongue thickness as compared to normal individuals and those with less severe liver disease and CTP scores of 5-9.
Signs of your body undergoing excessive stress can show up on your tongue as unusual redness, sores, and ulcers. Also, if your tongue appears to have marks around the edges, that could signify consistently biting your tongue as a reaction to stress.
It's a way to get clues about what's going on in your body before it erupts. Take digestion as an example: The tongue can reveal an imbalance in the digestive system, although it doesn't lead to a specific diagnosis, like irritable bowel syndrome or Crohn's disease.
Various muscles keep the tongue “suspended” in the throat: Muscles and ligaments connect the tongue to the hyoid bone (or lingual bone) in the upper part of the throat and to the voice box. The lingual frenulum connects the tongue to the lower jaw.
This may be because the occurrence of geographic tongue is related to the bacterial microenvironment of the stomach, and patients with gastritis also often have accompanying Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection, which may cause the occurrence of fissured tongue and geographic tongue (11).
Gastrointestinal disorders: Disorders like gastritis, indigestion, and ulcerative colitis may also cause a white coating on the tongue because the mouth is part of the gastrointestinal tract. These gastrointestinal disorders have different treatments, so you need to be properly diagnosed by a doctor to address it.
Furthermore, muscles such as the masseter (mastication muscle) are activated during stress and several aspects of saliva are changed (e.g., cortisol levels, flow rates) [6]. As a result, any of these changes could potentially contribute to the increase of purple color in the tongue.
Yellow tongue can be a symptom of liver issues. Jaundice, or the yellowing appearance of eyes, nails, and skin, can also affect the tongue.
“Normal tongues are pale red with a pale white coating. Heart failure patients have a redder tongue with a yellow coating and the appearance changes as the disease becomes more advanced.”
Nutritional deficiencies include iron, folate and vitamin B12 deficiency. B12 deficiency will also make the tongue sore and beefy-red in color. Glossitis, by causing swelling of the tongue, may also cause the tongue to appear smooth.
Deficiencies in B6 or B12 may lead to a swollen, sore or yellow tongue, along with teeth indentations and fissures on the surface of the tongue. Iron: An iron deficiency can lead to a swollen tongue and painful sores in the mouth.
Geographic tongue, fissured tongue, and hairy tongue are the most common tongue problems and do not require treatment.
Acute liver failure can develop quickly in an otherwise healthy person, and it is life-threatening. If you or someone you know suddenly develops a yellowing of the eyes or skin; tenderness in the upper abdomen; or any unusual changes in mental state, personality or behavior, seek medical attention right away.