Will you die if your tongue is coated with black

There are four diagnostic methods in traditional Chinese medicine: observation, auscultation, questioning and palpation. One of the most important aspects of observation is looking at the tongue coating. The so-called tongue coating is the layer of moss on the back of the tongue. Under normal circumstances, this layer of moss is thin and evenly spread on the surface of the tongue. It is white and moist, and is slightly thicker in the middle and root of the tongue. When the thickness, moisture, greasiness, flaking, etc. of the tongue coating are different from normal, it means that there is something wrong with your physical health. For example, a black tongue coating is abnormal, and there are rumors that a black tongue coating can cause death. Is this true?

The blackening of the tongue is mainly caused by the proliferation and darkening of the filiform papillae of the tongue. The glory of black moss can come in different shades, ranging from brown-black, gray-black, burnt black to dark. Black tongue coating is of course rare in clinical practice, but Chinese medicine believes that if a patient has this kind of tongue coating, the disease must be long-term and the disease is more serious.

About half of the patients with black tongue coating have gastrointestinal symptoms such as abdominal distension, constipation, nausea, and poor appetite. After treatment with purgatives, the black tongue coating will disappear after the bowel movements become smooth and the internal heat subsides. After the black tongue coating disappears, the appetite will also improve. These symptoms of gastrointestinal dysfunction are mostly seen in patients with high fever. Therefore, it is one of the symptoms of gastrointestinal dysfunction or poisoning. The gastrointestinal dysfunction is caused by the stimulation of bacterial toxins, which reduces the pH value of oral saliva, increases the adhesion between tongue cells, and extends the keratin protrusions of the filiform papillae, which are stained black by microorganisms to form black tongue coating.

Modern medicine believes that the appearance of black moss should be analyzed according to the cause of the disease.

A few days ago, when I woke up in the morning, I suddenly found that my tongue had turned black and was covered with black coating. I was shocked for a moment. Am I going to die? I remember when I was in school, my teacher said that if a person has black tongue coating, he or she will probably die soon. But the question is, am I, a young and strong man, going to die?

Let’s first see what the textbook says: black coating refers to the black color of the tongue coating. It usually develops from gray moss or burnt yellow moss and is common in the severe stage of the disease. It is mainly used for internal symptoms, either extreme heat or extreme cold. If the tongue coating is black, dry and cracked, or even has thorns, it is mostly due to extreme heat and dryness of body fluids; if the tongue coating is black and smooth, it is mostly due to excessive cold and weak yang.

To explain, if black tongue coating is seen clinically, it is likely to have developed from gray tongue coating or yellow tongue coating. Generally speaking, this is caused by a more serious infectious disease. For example, if you have severe influenza, you will develop severe black tongue. If the patient has black tongue coating, the doctor will also pay attention to it.

There is another situation in which black tongue is caused by extreme cold or heat. That is to say, on an extremely cold night, if you freeze outdoors all night, black moss will appear. It is also possible that black moss may appear during extremely hot weather when you are out in the sun all day. Black tongue may also appear if the internal organs are extremely cold or hot.

Black tongue coating. Another situation is that black tongue coating will appear after eating some foods such as fruits. In clinical practice, I have seen many cases where patients have black tongues. At first glance, the patient seems to be well-rested and has no problems, but no one knows why there is black tongue coating. If you ask the patient at this time, he will tell you that he drank black sesame paste or black fruits.

My tongue is covered with black coating, which obviously has nothing to do with what I said above, but what is the problem? I haven't been in a very good mood these days because I've been staying up late and being in a bad mood. At the beginning, there was liver qi disharmony, the tongue coating was yellow and greasy, and black tongue coating appeared due to staying up late. This also reminds me that it’s time to stop and rest, otherwise my body won’t be able to take it.