{"id":356081,"date":"2026-01-07T00:17:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-07T00:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/356081\/"},"modified":"2026-01-07T00:17:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-07T00:17:13","slug":"open-wide-ai-spots-diabetes-and-stomach-cancer-from-just-the-colour-of-your-tongue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/356081\/","title":{"rendered":"Open wide! AI spots diabetes and stomach cancer from just the colour of your tongue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Doctors have long examined patients\u2019 tongues for signs such as changes in colour (a thick white coating can indicate an infection, for instance) or texture (a dry, cracked tongue may be linked to Sjogren\u2019s syndrome, an autoimmune condition).<\/p>\n

But scientists have developed artificial intelligence (AI<\/a>) programs that check the tongue\u2019s colour, texture and shape with impressive accuracy for early signs of diabetes<\/a> and even stomach cancer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now a review of more than 20 studies assessing these programs has concluded that these are so accurate at spotting signs of disease that doctors could soon start using them in hospitals to help diagnose patients, the journal Chinese Medicine reported.<\/p>\n

In the most striking of these studies (published in 2024 in the journal Technologies), the AI program correctly diagnosed 58 out of 60 patients with diabetes and anaemia just by assessing a picture of their tongue.<\/p>\n

These programs look for tiny changes in someone\u2019s tongue, having been \u2018trained\u2019 in what to look for using a database of thousands of photos of tongues of sick patients.<\/p>\n

Another study found that AI could spot gastric cancer from subtle tongue colour and texture changes that often accompany stomach disease \u2013 such as a thicker coating, patchy colour loss and areas of redness linked to inflammation in the digestive tract.<\/p>\n

When tested on new patients, the AI distinguished those with gastric cancer from healthy volunteers with accuracy similar to standard diagnostic tests, such as a gastroscopy (where a tube with a camera is inserted through the mouth and into the stomach) or a CT scan, correctly identifying cases around 85 to 90 per cent of the time, reported eClinicalMedicine in 2023.<\/p>\n

\"Scientists <\/p>\n

Scientists have developed AI programs that check the tongue\u2019s colour, texture and shape with impressive accuracy for early signs of diabetes and even stomach cancer<\/p>\n

\u2018AI learns by identifying statistical patterns in large collections of tongue images paired with [the patient\u2019s] clinical or health-related data,\u2019 explains Professor Dong Xu, a bioinformatics expert at the University of Missouri.<\/p>\n

\u2018It detects visual characteristics that appear more frequently in individuals with specific conditions than in healthy people, including colour distribution, surface texture, moisture, thickness, coating, fissures and swelling.\u2019<\/p>\n

The idea of the tongue being a useful indicator of health is not surprising, say experts.<\/p>\n

\u2018The tongue is referred to as the mirror of general health,\u2019 explains Saman Warnakulasuriya, an emeritus professor of oral medicine and experimental pathology at King\u2019s College London.<\/p>\n

\u2018A smooth dorsal [i.e. the top] tongue may indicate anaemia because when there is insufficient iron, vitamin B12, or folate (vitamin B9), it leads to the loss of papillae [bumps on the tongue that contain taste buds],\u2019 he says.<\/p>\n

\u2018These nutrients are essential for the rapid cell turnover in the tongue\u2019s surface. Without them, the papillae disappear, leaving the tongue smooth and shiny.\u2019<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, a dry tongue may be an early symptom of diabetes, as this can lead to dehydration and damage to nerves, reducing saliva production.<\/p>\n

High blood sugar levels in the mouth can also promote bacterial and fungal overgrowth, leading to a yellowish coating.<\/p>\n

A pale or white tongue can signal anaemia (due to a lack of red blood cells) and a thick white coating could be a sign of infection (the immune response causes the papillae to swell, and bacteria and debris become trapped between them, creating a visible white coating).<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The AI programs look for tiny changes in someone\u2019s tongue, having been \u2018trained\u2019 in what to look for using a database of thousands of photos of tongues of sick patients<\/p>\n

And \u2018hairy leukoplakia\u2019 \u2013 white, raised patches with a corrugated or \u2018hairy\u2019 appearance on the sides of the tongue (which cannot be scraped off) \u2013 can be symptom of the Epstein-Barr virus (which can cause glandular fever), adds Professor Warnakulasuriya.<\/p>\n

But GPs may only see a few tongue changes in day-to-day practice \u2013 while AI systems, trained on thousands of clinical photographs, can recognise patterns that clinicians may not be familiar with (or that could be too small to be seen by the naked eye) and can then suggest taking a closer look.<\/p>\n

\u2018The availability of clinical pictures in a well-trained AI program could give doctors confidence to narrow down a correct diagnosis,\u2019 says Professor Warnakulasuriya.<\/p>\n

But while AI can spot visual patterns, it doesn\u2019t understand what causes them and may make mistakes.<\/p>\n

For instance, AI might associate a pale tongue with anaemia because many anaemic patients in its training data had pale tongues, but a pale tongue could be caused by other factors such as poor circulation.<\/p>\n

Also, an experienced doctor can consider the patient\u2019s full medical history, symptoms, lifestyle factors and other clinical findings to determine whether a tongue abnormality is significant or harmless.<\/p>\n

\"\u00bfAI <\/p>\n

\u2018AI learns by identifying statistical patterns in large collections of tongue images paired with [the patient\u2019s] clinical or health-related data,\u2019 says Professor Dong Xu of Missouri University<\/p>\n

AI might flag something as suspicious when it\u2019s actually normal, or miss something important.<\/p>\n

This is why\u00a0\u2013 as Bernhard Kainz, a professor in medical image computing at Imperial College London, suggests\u00a0\u2013 the technology is most reliable as a broad health checker.<\/p>\n

Professor Xu agrees, and warns that AI is only as good as the data it is trained with.<\/p>\n

\u2018Variability in how the photos are taken [such as variations in lighting conditions and camera quality, and whether the tongue is wet or dry] can substantially affect measurements of colour and texture,\u2019 he says. \u2018Tongue appearance is also influenced by diet, hydration, smoking, medications and infections, all of which may obscure disease-related signals.\u2019<\/p>\n

Even with the best AI, experts stress a tongue scan should never be treated as a diagnosis.<\/p>\n

\u2018It is always necessary to confirm the diagnosis by conducting appropriate laboratory tests,\u2019 says Professor Warnakulasuriya.<\/p>\n

\u2018Used appropriately\u2019 AI tongue analysis \u2018can help prioritise care and reduce missed early signs, but it should complement, not replace, established diagnostic pathways and clinical judgment\u2019, adds Professor Kainz.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Doctors have long examined patients\u2019 tongues for signs such as changes in colour (a thick white coating can…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":356082,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[554,733,4308,97,102,86,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-356081","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-dailymail","12":"tag-health","13":"tag-technology","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356081","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356081"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356081\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/356082"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}