What if you could diagnose heart problems simply by looking at your tongue? What if looking at your tongue could also tell you your hormone status? And what if it could also tell you if you have nutritional deficiencies, gut problems, sleep apnea, a heart condition, and more?
It’s true! You can find early warning signs of these conditions just by looking at your tongue in the mirror.
Here Are the 4 Things You Need To Check For
#1 Color: First, you want to check the color of your tongue. A regular, healthy tongue is pinkish-red in color, and it has a whitish clear coating.
A red tongue can indicate there’s heat in the body, such as a fever. But if you’re a woman and your tongue is red, and it feels like it's burning, it could be an early sign of low estrogen.
A glossy, beefy-red color can be linked to an underlying vitamin deficiency of vitamin B12, iron, and folic acid.
And a purple tongue can mean you have a circulation problem or a heart condition.
#2 Shape: The next thing you want to look at when you check your tongue is the shape.
If your tongue is puffy with teeth marks, it usually indicates a lack of nutrients or moisture. In Chinese medicine, this is a sign of blood stagnation and toxic build-up in the body.
If your tongue is fat, it can cause sleep apnea and could be behind daytime drowsiness.
If your tongue is very thin, it could indicate dehydration or that the body is severely depleted from a chronic condition.
If your tongue feels too big for your mouth, it can be a sign of hypothyroidism.
#3 Coating: Now, we need to look at the coating on the tongue.
If your tongue has a thick coating, you probably have poor gut health. Whereas a white coating can mean you have an overgrowth of candida (yeast or thrush).
If your tongue has a yellow coating, that can signal there’s an infection in the body. And if your tongue has only a thin coating or none at all, that can mean you lack body fluids, or your body is being drained.
And lastly…
#4 Texture: Take a good look at the texture of your tongue.
A sore or lump on one side of your tongue could be a sign of oral cancer. If you have a lump that hasn’t gone away after a few days, see a doctor.
A white or grey sore with a hard, thick, raised surface on the tongue could be a condition called leukoplakia. Leukoplakia is a disorder of the mucus membranes that’s caused by irritation from fillings, crowns, dentures, or even tobacco use.
A bump on the top of your tongue could be a warning of a bacterial or viral infection. Or it could be a sign of an allergic reaction to food or medication. Map-like patches on your tongue that appear to change location each day are what we call geographic tongue. It may look a little weird, but it is harmless.
And if your tongue has grooves or wrinkles on it, the good news is that’s harmless too. But it does make cleaning your tongue a little challenging. So, make sure you keep your tongue clean to stop food from getting stuck in the grooves.
Now that you know what to check for, you need to know how and when to check your tongue.
The Best Time To Check…
The best time of the day to check your tongue is right after you wake up. And the reason is, that’s right before you put anything in your mouth that will affect the coating or color. Food or drink can potentially stain your tongue and give it a different color that will affect your results.
And when you check your tongue in the morning, make sure you do it in natural light if you can.
Also, if you brush your tongue as part of your daily oral hygiene, brushing removes the natural coating. So to keep your tongue coating intact, don’t brush it for a day so you can get a good look at the type of coating you have.
Make sure you don’t stick your tongue out for more than 15 seconds. The longer you stick your tongue out, the darker it will become. So, if you need to “reset” your tongue, pull it back in for a few seconds. And then look at it again.
Getting in the habit of checking your tongue in the morning will help give you an early warning of when your health changes. And it’s a quick and easy way to keep track of your health.