What to do if the tongue is enlarged

If the tongue is enlarged, you should pay attention to whether it is caused by a lack of certain nutrients in the body. For example, if there is a lack of vitamin B, then the symptoms of tongue enlargement will usually appear. Therefore, of course, you should focus on analyzing these reasons and effectively supplement these nutrients to solve and improve the problem.

1. Symptoms caused by vitamin B deficiency. Since B vitamins appear in food at the same time, it is impossible for a person to lack only one type of vitamin B. It’s just that the symptoms and degree of deficiency are different. People used to believe that beriberi was caused by a lack of vitamin B, and pellagra was caused by a lack of niacin. Experiments have confirmed that people whose food does not contain these two B vitamins will not develop these two diseases. These diseases are the result of deficiencies in all B vitamins, but people who are deficient in B vitamins and niacin are more likely to develop them.

2. The easiest way to test whether you have enough vitamin B is to observe your tongue. A healthy tongue is of moderate size, pink in color, has smooth edges, no tongue coating, and will not accidentally bite your tongue. The taste buds are of uniform size and evenly distributed over the entire surface and edges of the tongue. If you observe a healthy child, you can see that when there is a lack of vitamin B, various changes will occur on the tongue: First, the taste buds on the front and sides of the tongue swell, then later become smaller or even disappear, making the tip and sides of the tongue smooth, while the taste buds at the back continue to grow larger. These taste buds are flat in appearance, like a squashed mushroom. When vitamin B deficiency becomes more severe, taste buds can grow close together and push against each other, causing cracks to appear on the tongue. If the deficiency of vitamin B continues to worsen, the tongue will become cracked. When the situation is more serious, the taste buds will gradually disappear, the tip and edges of the tongue will become smooth, and the taste buds in the front and back will disappear rapidly. The most serious situation occurs in the elderly who have been deficient in vitamin B for many years. They often complain that they have no taste for food and sometimes their tongues will hurt. Many people have extremely abnormal tongues but are unaware of it.

3. Vitamin B deficiency can also be seen from the size of the tongue. For example, the tongue may be enlarged, swollen, or accidentally bitten, and the tongue may appear dark red like beef. Another possibility is that the tongue is too small or atrophied. Sometimes the tongue turns purple or bright red. Often the tongue is not a consistent color, for example the tip of the tongue is red and the middle is purple. Different colors indicate the type of vitamin B that is deficient. For example, the most common color of the tongue is purple-red, indicating a deficiency of vitamin B2; dark red indicates a deficiency of pantothenic acid. When vitamin B12 and folic acid are deficient, the tongue will turn strawberry red, the tip and sides of the tongue will become smooth and without tongue coating; when niacin is deficient, the tongue will turn fiery red and will be either too large or too small, because harmful bacteria will breed, causing the tongue coating to accumulate very thickly; it also indicates gastrointestinal indigestion. If there are beneficial bacteria in the intestines that can produce vitamin B, there will be no tongue coating.