The language will tell you the truth

Anatomically, the tongue is a muscular shaft, made of striated muscles, divided into two parts by a furrow of connective tissue. In our mouth, the language has many functions related to eating: it allows you to suck up and mix food during chewing, moving food to the throat or recognizing the taste of dishes. Thanks to language, it is possible to create a vacuum needed to suck and articulate words. A healthy tongue should be pink, resilient and moist.

Diseases of language

What the language looks like can tell the doctor what kind of disease is present in the mouth. In infants and children, bleeding from the tongue, speech problems, a severely delimited red or bluish spot or the presence of small nodules may indicate a benign tumor - a hemangioma. The child's tongue is then convex, soft and reminiscent of a strawberry. The development of hemangiomas is promoted by prematurity and low birth weight.

The pre-cancerous stage of the tongue, by some physicians combined with the Epstein-Barr virus infection, is white keratosis, also known as hairy leukoplakia. The cause may also be immunodeficiency or irritants. In this disease, white patches or streaks appear on the surface of the oral mucosa, often asymmetrically located on the lateral surface of the tongue. These spots can not be wiped away, which distinguishes the white keratosis from the more common fungal infections. Changes do not cause pain or bake.

The most common oral cancer is cancer of the tongue, most often taking the ulcerative form (endophytic form), less frequently nodular (exophyte form). Its symptoms are bleeding lesions, long-healing ulcers, erosions and rapidly growing nodules. An advanced disease can cause immobilization of the tongue and salivation. The development of language cancer is favored by age, the incidence of family history and the abuse of alcohol and tobacco.

Reduced resistance promotes the occurrence of oral inflammation, including language. Infections can be fungal, viral or bacterial. In the case of yeast infections, the tongue is usually covered with a white, lumpy coating that can spread to the throat and esophagus, and can be covered with numerous furrows (the so-called geographical language). Sometimes, the candidiasis is accompanied by taste disorders. Viral infections are usually caused by virusesherpes, the same ones that are responsible for herpes. Usually symptoms are small bubbles that can break and form small ulcers. Bacteria that attack the tongue are mostly streptococcus.

Generalized states

Language can also be a source of information about generalized diseases, including avitaminosis, anemia and diabetes. Deficiencies of vitamins usually cause burning and pain in the mouth, enlargement and redness of the warts of the tongue, and over time they smooth and disappear. Vibrations of individual tongue nerve fibers (fasciculations) usually indicate a deficiency of vitamin B₂. With iron deficiencies, or anemia, the tongue usually changes to pale, pale gray, and sometimes even white. The warts on its surface begin to fade, they can form at the corners of the mouths.

In turn, persistent hyperglycemia in the course of diabetes is manifested in a dry, cracked and sore tongue. In type 2 diabetes, there is a stiffening of the blood vessels, which in the case of a tongue can lead to its sinning, the appearance of bruising and enlargement of its veins. Interestingly, the appearance of the underside of the tongue has also been associated with rheumatoid arthritis. In 86% of patients with RA, the sublingual vessels are widened and elongated.

Disorders of the digestive system

The appearance of a yellow coating on the tongue may indicate the occurrence of erosion of the gastric mucosa.It is assumed that the more yellow the shade has a coating, the more severe the changes in the stomach. The tongue also shows changes during the development of stomach cancer. The tongue can then be dark red with a small coating, completely smooth or crevice, sometimes it turns bluish or purple, sometimes it is very dry.

Although in western medicine the analysis of the appearance of language is not a common study, it is important in Chinese folk medicine. And yet the study of the language is non-invasive, does not involve discomfort for the patient, can be repeated many times and can sometimes be a valuable guide for further research.

Based:

Z. Zdrojewicz, J. Majewski, J. Pająk, R. Sycz,Language will tell you the truth, or language as a diagnostic tool for many diseases. Medycyna Rodzinna 3 (2017) 226-232