Dry tongue after waking up

What causes dry tongue when waking up?

The phenomenon of dry tongue after waking up is usually caused by dry mouth, which is closely related to usual diet and lifestyle habits. Some people like to eat spicy food. If they don’t like to drink water, they will easily have the above symptoms. If you want to alleviate this symptom, you must drink more water, eat more fresh vegetables and fruits, maintain oral hygiene, and develop the habit of brushing your teeth in the morning and evening.

What causes dry mouth?

In most cases, dry mouth and tongue are physiological, such as hot weather, excessive sweating, not drinking water for a long time, etc., which lead to dehydration in the body. The dry mouth and tongue caused by this condition can be relieved in a short time by drinking water or rehydrating. However, if you always or often have a dry mouth and tongue, and drinking water or rehydration does not relieve the symptoms, you should consider a pathological condition. Diabetes, tuberculosis, Sjögren's syndrome, severe anemia, vomiting, diarrhea and dehydration, oral mucosal lesions, chemotherapy or local radiotherapy for malignant tumors, mouth breathing due to poor breathing, etc. can all cause dry mouth and tongue. According to traditional Chinese medicine, the following reasons can cause dry mouth.

Yin deficiency and internal heat Any reason that depletes the body's yin fluid can cause internal heat. For example, long-term illness, strenuous exercise, staying up late, etc. can cause the body's yin and yang to lose balance, resulting in a state of yin deficiency and internal heat. Patients with yin deficiency and internal heat may have symptoms such as dry mouth and tongue, night sweats, hot flashes in the afternoon, red cheeks, dry and red tongue, and a weak pulse.

Exogenous wind-heat enters the body and damages body fluids, which can also cause symptoms such as dry mouth and tongue. Patients with wind-heat cold often feel thirsty even after drinking a lot of water, and may also have symptoms of fever and fear of wind.

Internal accumulation of dampness and heat: Long-term contact with or living in a humid place, emotional disorders, frequent consumption of fatty, sweet and greasy food can all lead to the occurrence of dampness and heat, manifested as dry mouth and tongue, general heaviness, yellow and greasy tongue coating, slippery and rapid pulse. Some people have symptoms such as pain and discomfort in the liver area and eczema in the lower body.

If you do not pay attention to your diet when your stomach fire is strong, and eat rich, sweet, and fragrant foods for a long time, it will damage your spleen and stomach, accumulate heat inside your body, cause dryness and damage body fluids, cause food consumption and fluid loss, or cause stomach fire to rise. Because of the excessive stomach fire, one is particularly eager to drink a lot of cold drinks. Dry mouth is accompanied by irritability, dry stool, yellow and red urine, red face, red tongue, and strong pulse.

How to prevent and treat dry mouth

Knowing the many causes of dry mouth, we should actively prevent and treat it. For example, don't talk too much, don't spit too much, treat various chronic diseases, treat various problems that cause breathing difficulties to avoid mouth breathing, avoid kidney yin loss caused by excessive work and excessive sexual intercourse, avoid liver yang hyperactivity caused by emotional discomfort, avoid exogenous factors, and avoid excessive stomach fire caused by excessive consumption of hot and dry foods. These are all active preventive and therapeutic measures. For those who already have unexplained dry mouth, be sure to ask a doctor to help find the cause and start treatment as soon as possible.

In daily life, the clever use of some foods that can be used as both food and medicine can have an auxiliary therapeutic effect on dry mouth and tongue. For example, drinking light honey water, wolfberry water or lotus seed core water regularly, eating more rice porridge and soy milk, and foods such as radish, lotus root, water chestnut, pear, etc. that nourish yin and clear dryness can also help moisturize the mouth and tongue.