'Covid tongue' and oral manifestations of inflammation / immune dysfunction

https://twitter.com/user/status/1349421278034325506


https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/en...0ynqJV1Ih58cg4B9qc0FMwmHTPZD4N2QVC8Icca-Ia_n7

As someone who has had issues with my tongue since becoming ill, I found this interesting. I don't think we should be calling it Covid tongue; this appearance is quite common in illness and even in a small percentage of heathly folk. I'm not sure there is any consensus as to what is actually going on. Commonly diagnosed as geographic tongue, though other conditions (e.g., thrush) can give a similar appearance. It seems it points to inflammation (manifesting as enlarged tongue papillae that trap food debris—thus the white appearance) but also immune dysfunction. Others suggest problems with metabolism and hypothyroidism.

Picture of my tongue will follow below!

How many others have something similar that they can connect with their ME?

 

This is a pretty standard example of how my tongue often looks, though the 'white food debris' issue is less pronounced these days. Still get lots of bare patches, and the sides of my tongue are scalloped.

I don't recall having these issues before becoming ill.

 

A few months back I was reading up on some people's self-reported experience with fecal microbiota transplant and noticed in a couple of occasions the FMT recipient found their issues with white tongue were resolved by the FMT (although this obviously wasn't the objective).
I wonder if it indicates a dysbiotic oral microbiome - influenced by either the gut microbiome or by host immune regulation.

I think both covid and me/cfs have been connected with microbiome disruption right?

 

Yes, that seems likely to be part of the story. As well as in the gut, bacteria in the mouth are very important.

 

I also have this coating on my tongue.

 

The above quote is from the link in post #1.

I'm rather stunned that the NHS only list "three key symptoms of Covid-19" when so many sufferers have many more than that. I had a rather cynical thought... Is the NHS only acknowledging three symptoms to help them protect their BPS propaganda that anyone with many symptoms isn't really ill and is likely to be suffering from some kind of functional or mental disorder?

[I haven't had Covid to the best of my knowledge.]