Tongue Health: The colour of your eyes, nails, and tongue tell a lot about your health. A slight change in colour of the tongue may reveal secrets of your health.


There can be many reasons behind the change in the colour of the tongue and one can guess type of disease just by looking at the colour of the tongue.


Many times the colour of the tongue changes due to medicines or food, but abnormal colour changes over the long term may indicate a health problem. Today let us look at facts by which one can find out about the colour of the tongue and the problems that can be causing it. 


Normal Tongue Colour


Normally the colour of the tongue is light pink. It is also perfectly normal to have a slight white coating on it. The texture of the normal tongue is slightly blurred. 


1) White Tongue:  If your tongue is white, it indicates that your oral hygiene is poor, and your body is dehydrated. If the coating on the tongue looks like a layer of cottage cheese, then you may also have leukoplakia. Sometimes the colour of the tongue becomes white due to flu. 


2) Yellow Tongue: When your tongue starts turning yellow, it suggests a shortage of nutritious elements in the body. Disturbances in the digestive system, liver, or stomach problems may cause yellow tongue. Due to these disturbances, a yellow coating starts to settle on the tongue. 


3) Brown Tongue: People who consume caffeine may have a brown-coloured tongue. Smoking also causes a brown tongue. A permanent layer of brown color gets deposited on the tongue of people who smoke. 


4) Black Tongue: If the colour of your tongue has started turning black, then you need to be careful. The colour of the tongue of chain smokers starts turning black. The tongue starts turning black even in case of cancer, ulcer, or fungal infection. Lack of oral hygiene leads to the formation of bacteria on the tongue, due to which the color of the tongue starts turning black.


5) Red Tongue: If the colour of your tongue has started turning red in a strange way, then there may be a deficiency of folic acid or vitamin B-12 in the body. If a red spot is seen on the tongue, then it is called Geographic Tongue.


6) Blue Tongue: A blue or purple tongue means that you may have heart-related problems. When the heart is unable to pump blood properly or the oxygen in the blood starts decreasing, the color of the tongue becomes blue or purple.