A new study from the Guangzhou University of Chinese Medicine has found a surprising way to detect chronic heart failure—by looking at the microbes on a person’s tongue.
This research shows that people with heart failure often have a different-looking tongue and a unique set of bacteria on its surface compared to healthy people.
Normally, a healthy tongue looks pale red and has a light white coating. But people with chronic heart failure often have tongues that appear redder with a yellow coating. These changes become more obvious as the disease becomes more serious.
To test this idea, the researchers studied 42 people with chronic heart failure and 28 healthy individuals. All of the people in the study had no mouth or dental problems, no recent infections, and had not taken antibiotics or immune-related medicine in the past week.
The researchers collected samples from the coating of the tongue in the morning before anyone had eaten or brushed their teeth. They used a stainless steel spoon to scrape the tongue gently. Then they used a special scientific method called 16S rRNA gene sequencing to identify the bacteria in each sample.
The results were striking. The bacteria found on the tongues of people with heart failure were completely different from those found on the tongues of healthy people. There was no overlap between the two groups. This means the bacterial makeup on the tongue might be a strong sign of heart failure.
The team found five specific types of bacteria that could correctly identify who had heart failure and who did not, with an accuracy of 84%. They also noticed that two types of bacteria—Eubacterium and Solobacterium—became less common as the heart failure got worse.
This means that checking the microbes on the tongue could become a simple and painless way to help doctors diagnose heart failure and monitor how the condition changes over time. It could also be used to screen large groups of people.
This isn’t the first time scientists have looked at tongue bacteria to detect disease. Earlier research found that people with pancreatic cancer had a different mix of microbes on their tongues compared to healthy individuals. Some experts think that these changes in bacteria may lead to inflammation, which might help cause certain diseases—including heart failure.
Even though this study gives hope for a new way to find and follow heart problems, more research is still needed. Scientists don’t yet know whether these tongue bacteria changes cause heart failure or are just a result of it.
Still, this study opens up exciting new ideas for finding heart problems early. It also shows the value of looking at simple things—like the tongue—for clues about our health. The research team, led by Dr. Tianhui Yuan, hopes this new method can make it easier to detect and treat heart failure in the future.
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