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Is black hairy tongue related to cardiac arrest, or covid-19?
Late food writer Julia Anne Julie Powell tweeted last week that she had woken up with something that’s literally Black Hairy Tongue her husband told the New York Times that her cause of death was cardiac arrest, but she also recently had covid-19.
All of which makes it look as though the three could be somehow connected.
People, Powells tweet of October 25 continued, including my doctor, seem to think [the black hairy tongue is] no big deal, and will go away soon. She died the following day.
Is there any relationship between the three? Is one�a symptom of the other(s)?�
Does having a black hairy tongue relate to having covid-19, or suffering a cardiac arrest?
The cause of black hairy tongue is a buildup of dead skin cells on the little papillae on the tongues surface.
It can look quite alarming. But Mayo Clinic describes it as� a temporary, harmless oral condition.
The tongue doesnt actually become hairy; its dark, furry appearance is the result of dead cells trapping and being stained by things like bacteria, yeast, tobacco and other substances.
While black hairy tongue doesnt appear on standard lists of symptoms associated with covid-19, a group of Iranian medical researchers wrote in January this year that it is not uncommon in the covid-19 setting.
But the most common causes are separate to the coronavirus
The researchers note that the lingual involvements (i.e., symptoms of the mouth) covid-19 can cause are numerous.
They can include a red, light red or yellow greasy coating on the tongue; pale, purple or white tongue coloration; and rough, tender, puffy, spotty, prickles, fissured, and tooth-marked tongue.
But the main predisposing factor for the onset of oral lesions, of which black hairy tongue appears to be an example, in patients with covid-19, seems to be poor oral hygiene, rather than the coronavirus itself.
Black hairy tongue (or lingua villosa nigra), the researchers stress, is a painless and benign disorder. Underlying conditions may include antibiotics, dehydration, smoking, alcoholism, and again, poor oral hygiene.
Separately, Integris Health has written about covid tongue, citing a British professors estimate that about 1 in 500 patients experience it in some form.
What about black hairy tongue and cardiac arrest? Is there a connection?
Julie Powells husband Eric confirmed to the New York Times, as cited by CNN, that her cause of death was cardiac arrest.
Mayo Clinic emphasises that a sudden cardiac arrest isnt the same as a heart attack. However, a heart attack can sometimes trigger an electrical disturbance, which can lead to sudden cardiac arrest.
But either way, neither has any obvious connection to black hairy tongue. The cause of cardiac arrest, per the American Heart Association, can be any known heart condition.
Or: scarring of the heart tissue, thickened heart muscle (also called cardiomyopathy), medications, electrical abnormalities, blood vessel abnormalities, and recreational drug use.
Was Julie Powell sick?
She had been. In mid September, Powell tweeted that her covid-19 symptoms were getting worse.
She was suffering from a terrible headache, couch, probable fever [and] fatigue.
Her tweet about having black hairy tongue came over a month later, on October 25, 2022, the day before she died of cardiac arrest.�
Based on the medical research cited above though, it seems more likely that Julie Powells black hairy tongue had to do with her bout of covid-19 a month prior than the cardiac arrest that her husband identified as her cause of death.
