11 Natural Treatments for White Tongue

Hey guys, Dr. Josh Axe here. Welcome to Ancient Medicine Today. Today, I'm going to be talking about 11 natural treatments for a white tongue. And did you know that having a white coating on your tongue could be indicative of a lot of health problems from adrenal fatigue to microbiome problem in your gut such as leaky gut or even low energy levels called low qi in the body in Chinese medicine?

There are all different types of factors That can be causing a white tongue. So on today's episode, I'm going to be going over what causes a white tongue and the natural remedies, the herbs, the essential oils and things that can help you get rid of it and take control of your health. And by the way, help me spread the word right now that food is medicine.

Take a minute, punch that share button, click that like button. Millions of people are suffering with conditions related to a white tongue and don't know how to overcome it. So let's first talk about what can cause a white tongue. Number 1, dehydration. If somebody is not hydrated, it can cause them to have a white tongue.

So of course, getting more fluids and not just water, but electrolytes in the diet on a daily basis. Electrolytes are going to be potassium, sodium, magnesium, calcium, and even chloride. These are electrolytes that keep the body hydrated. So again, dehydration is a cause of a white tongue. So make sure you're drinking plenty of fluids, especially warm fluids like warm tea.

And then vegetable juices can help with hydration. The next thing would be poor oral hygiene. Of course, if somebody isn't oil pulling, brushing their teeth, eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, actually green apples and carrots and celery, those actually help with good oral hygiene as does brushing your teeth. And so again, poor oral hygiene can be causing these issues as well.

An illness or infection can cause a white tongue, so if somebody gets very run down, gets a cold or flu, or has another sort of disease that's especially affecting the body's immune system or spleen or digestive system, this can happen as well. A dry mouth, again, oftentimes correlated with dehydration. Making sure you're getting plenty of healthy liquids in your diet is great as well.

A few other causes, sugar. This is a big one. When you start to get a white coating on your tongue, by the way, there are different causes of a white tongue. Either your tongue itself can be pale and that can show that whiteness, or it can actually be a coating on your tongue.

And if it's the full tongue or back of the tongue, all of those are different conditions that we'll get into here in just a minute. But sugar feeds yeast in the body, that can cause a white tongue. Especially if you've just eaten sugar and go look at your tongue, oftentimes it's more white right afterwards. Reaction to medications, you know, medications can leach nutrients from your body.

And actually cause yeast overgrowth. In fact, birth control pills are one of the top medications that have serious, serious side effects when it comes to causing major yeast overgrowth in your body. Also, having a Candida infection in your body. So Candida, a type of Candida yeast infection, will absolutely cause that white coating on your tongue.

Smoking and tobacco use is another one, overuse of alcohol. That will typically not cause that coating on your tongue, it will typically cause a paleness Because of all the stress it puts on the liver. Also, worry and emotional stress. This is a big one that will cause a white coating on your tongue.

In fact, what will cause just as much of a yeast or Candida overgrowth as sugar consumption is a lot of stress and worry. In fact, that really wears down the spleen according to Chinese medicine, which can then cause yeast overgrowth. And congenital heart disease, if somebody is struggling with Heart disease, that's another factor.

Now, let's move right into one of my favorite topics and that's Chinese medicine. When you get a coating on your tongue in Chinese medicine or depending on the coating, it's indicative of certain health problems. Let me give you an example. If somebody has a coating, and by the way, go and look at your tongue, stick out your tongue, you know, look in the mirror, your bathroom mirror.

If you have a coating on your tongue but it's mostly on the back of your tongue, That's correlated with adrenal fatigue and low what's called kidney qi. But that means you have adrenal fatigue or you have kidney issues right there if you have more of a coating on the back or the posterior part of your tongue according to Chinese medicine.

So you can self-diagnose by simply looking at your tongue in the mirror. Another thing that can be causing a white coating on your tongue is a spleen deficiency. If you stick out your entire tongue. And there's a coating on your entire tongue, that's indicative of what's called a spleen deficiency.

And that typically means that your body, especially your blood cells, they're not— things aren't sticking together. So your spleen is responsible for making things stick together, especially if you're a person who has a loose stool, loose bowel movements, not well-formed, having some basic digestive issues, and a white coating on your tongue, that's indicative of a spleen deficiency. Okay.

One of the things that can cause spleen deficiencies are worry and stress. Other things are consuming too much sugar or refined grains. The other thing is consuming too many damp foods such as dairy products or eggs or wheat products or bananas or sugar. All of these things cause dampness to accumulate in the body.

So a spleen deficiency is typically just your body's too damp, which makes you susceptible to yeast and Candida overgrowth in your body. Which can show up on your tongue as a coating of a white tongue. Another thing here is a Qi deficiency, and that is where your kidneys get very worn out in Chinese medicine.

Now, the way you know that you have a Qi deficiency is not if you have a coating on your tongue, but if your tongue is pale. Your tongue should actually be a nice bright pink color, okay, when you stick it out and look at it in the mirror. So if it's pink, it looks good.

If it's like a light pink or even becomes like a pale, a very pale pink, that's a warning sign that you have a Qi deficiency and that your energy is depleted. And your kidney in Chinese medicine is responsible for bringing up your energy. And here's another way you know if somebody has low Qi. Sometimes they would say in Chinese medicine that person has a glow about them or bright eyes.

So if you have this energy, your eyes are bright, you feel really good, like you just feel good, you feel good, you're energetic. They would say in Chinese medicine, that person has high qi, that person has really high energy fullness in their body.

If somebody's energy becomes low, their kidneys aren't working as strong, their lungs, their liver, these organs become deficient, people tend to start to struggle with motivation. They feel lack, not as motivated. They feel energy depleted as the day goes on. They start feeling not really serious clinical depression, but oftentimes there's a mild just depression. They can get down some days.

Yeah. But there's just this overall lack of life and energy and a glow about the person. If somebody has the lack of that, that's low qi in Chinese medicine, and typically that can also be correlated with a pale tongue. So not a coating, but a pale tongue there as well. And I'm going to talk about how to help improve some of these things here as well, and a likely gut imbalance.

If somebody has a white coating on their tongue, Typically, they have too much bad bacteria and yeast in their system, and they have a lack of soil-based probiotics and good bacteria and probiotics in their system, which is affecting their overall immune system. So this is how they would diagnose or deal with some things in Chinese medicine.

Now, let's talk about those remedies that help the body overcome a white tongue. By the way, if you're enjoying this live training, take a minute right now, punch that share button, click that love button. Help me spread the word right now on how to use food as medicine and overcome these chronic deficiencies that so many people are struggling with today. Number 1 remedy, probiotics.

We know probiotics help with a number of things, but the number 1 thing the right type of probiotics will do, probiotics will crowd out the bad yeast and Candida and support the growth or help replenish those good bacteria and probiotics that your body is so deficient in. So again, probiotics. Really help with that microbiome balance in the body.

Now, another thing that can also help a white tongue is baking soda. Baking soda is very alkaline in nature, and so that can actually help. A lot of times when our bodies become too acidic in terms of the foods we're eating on a regular basis, and if we have things like reflux to where things are coming up, we want to drive things down, baking soda can help with that. Coconut oil pulling.

We know oil pulling Coconut oil is very high in medium-chain fatty acids which are antimicrobial which help balance out the good and bad bacteria ratios in the body. So oil pulling is where you're going to put, like take a tablespoon of coconut oil, swish it around in your mouth for between 5 minutes and up to 20 minutes ideally. And a great time to do that is when you're in the shower.

You know, you put in a tablespoon of coconut oil, you shower, keep it in your mouth. And then you spit it out in a paper towel and throw it away afterwards. I mean, that's a great time to do oil pulling there as well. By the way, if you've ever done oil pulling, I would love to hear from you right now here on Facebook Live or YouTube Live.

Let us know if you've done oil pulling and seen benefits with that. Sea salt. Now, sea salt, especially good types of truffle salt that are found in things like the bed of the Pacific Ocean, they are very high in magnesium. Not just sodium, but they have good amounts of trace minerals as well. And actually, a little bit of sea salt or minerals is actually good to support the adrenals.

So we talked about one of those conditions causing a pale tongue or the white coating in the back of the tongue is a lack of electrolytes or hydration. So sea salt with lots of water is actually very, very good. And again, you don't want to do a lot of sea salt, but I'm talking about, you know, a quarter of a teaspoon in water, drinking that down.

Very, very good at supporting the adrenal health there as well, or just sprinkling some on your food. Astragalus, this is the chief herb in Chinese medicine that is nourishing to the spleen, very good for dampness in the body, strengthen these organs as well.

So if you have that white coating on the full of your tongue, you absolutely want to take astragalus up to 6 months at a time, very beneficial for the body there. One of my favorite herbs, also acts as an adaptogenic herb. Helping your body better deal with stress. Colloidal silver has antimicrobial benefits. This is especially good if you have a cold or flu.

Again, I know there are some people that worry about colloidal silver. It's completely safe if you're doing about a teaspoon a day or a teaspoon multiple times a day if you have an illness. But again, colloidal silver can be very beneficial or just plain silver is good as well. Garlic. Now, garlic contains allicin.

An antimicrobial that is also an antiviral and anti-yeast, can kill off these bad bacteria in your system. So adding garlic to your diet on a daily basis can prove beneficial when it comes to getting rid of that white tongue. Now, probably the most powerful natural antibiotic in the world today is oil of oregano via oregano oil. And oregano oil contains a compound called carvacrol.

And even some level of thymol. And both of these compounds in oregano oil kill off bad bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungal infections. So oregano oil, very powerful. Now, I don't recommend taking oregano oil more than 10 to 14 days in a row internally. So you can add oregano to your meals, to burger meat, to chicken. Add it just as a leaf to your meals on a regular basis.

But if you're going to go through a candida cleanse and really cleanse your body of bad bacteria, oftentimes people will do oregano oil, about 1 to 3 drops, 3 times a day with food for about 10 days, as well as eating a lot of probiotics during the day as well when you're doing a candida cleanse like that.

And Pau d'Arco tea, I actually believe if somebody's struggling with candida and that's the cause of their white tongue, Pau d'arco is the most powerful tea anyone can consume. I recommend 1 cup 3 times daily of pau d'arco tea. And this is very cooling to the body and helps eliminate any type of fungal or Candida issue there as well. Bone broth.

You know, one of the things I did for my patients in the past when they struggled with Candida or a white tongue, I would have them do a bone broth cleanse where they drink bone broth They drink Pau d'Arco tea and then they consume loads of probiotics and they do that for 3 days in a row.

Then after 3 days for breakfast and lunch, they drink bone broth all day along with Pau d'Arco tea and probiotics. And for dinner, they'll do a big salad meal, meat, lots of veggies, maybe a whole grain, that type of thing. But that's a perfect diet for getting rid of the white tongue and of course, good oral hygiene Brushing your teeth, good for getting rid of a white tongue.

But all of these things in combination, great natural remedies for getting rid of a white tongue. And I want to highlight a few. I would say the best are probiotics, astragalus, oil of oregano, pau d'arco, and bone broth, the most powerful natural remedies at getting rid of a white tongue. So I hope you've enjoyed this live training.

If you have enjoyed it, click the like button right now and help me spread the message. Food is medicine. Punch that share button right now as well. And if you're not subscribed to our live feeds, make sure you subscribe. Myself and my buddy Jordan Rubin are always doing these live trainings and we're always traveling doing pop-ins at our favorite restaurants and shops and stores.

So make sure you subscribe here for our channel as well. And if you want to learn more about a white tongue or conditions like Candida or Qi deficiency or adrenal fatigue, you can also Just check on Google and Google my name, Dr. Axe Candida, Dr. Axe adrenal, and I've got some great in-depth articles for you to read on my website, draxe.com, as well. Thanks for watching.

This has been me, Dr. Josh Axe, with Ancient Medicine Today.