Health News - 21.Dec.02

Geographic Tongue - Nutritional Therapy

We were sent the following letter from one of our users asking about a condition called Geographic Tongue (see picture on the right), I (Lynn) hadn't heard of this particular condition, so I did a little investigation and have added this information as general interest to our readers. If you do have geographic tongue, please consult your doctor for advice.

Dear 1st Vitality

My five year old granddaughter has been confirmed as having geographic tongue by a consultant oral surgeon. He has explained that the condition is benign and there is no known confirmed treatment for the condition.

He has suggested, however, that the use of a zinc supplement with selenium "might be beneficial" while acknowledging that he has no in-depth knowledge of the health food world or homeopathy. He has advised us that we must be careful of the dosage administered to such a young child. Are you able to help please in advising on dosage and/or supplying the appropriate medication?

With thanks in anticipation - Tom

More Information

Geographic tongue (GT) is not at all strange, it is a well-known syndrome, first described in medical literature in 1831, and zinc therapy has been studied and found effective in most cases.

GT is a benign alteration, which will never turn into malign. The cause is still unknown. According to epidemiological studies, 0.2 to 2 per cent of adult have it, but the real prevalence is probably higher, as non-symptomatic persons do not necessarily tell about it to their doctors.

A Scottish study on 25 symptomless GT patients showed that their serum zinc was subnormal, and supplementation with zinc cured almost all cases. Gibson J et al. Geographic tongue: The clinical response to zinc supplementation. J Trace Elem Experim Med 1990:3:203-8

• More recent research suggests that Zinc tablets also taste receptor disturbance Kitagoh H, Tomita H, Ikui A, Ikeda M. Course of recovery from taste receptor disturbance. Acta Otolaryngol Suppl. 2002;(546):83-93 (Abstract). This is due to the fact that zinc is essential to the gustatory function of the soft palate (Abstract)
• Zinc is also effective in treatment of halitosis (Abstract)

For more scientific reports on the topic at Medline data base at pubmed.gov, search for "zinc; tongue"