If you’ve ever listened to any of the television commercials advertising various prescription medications, you will undoubtedly wonder why anyone would ever take them. In some of the commercials, nearly half the commercial is nothing but a warning of the possible side effects one could encounter by taken the advertised medication. I think of it as a list of reasons NOT to take that particular drug.

My favorite warning that you hear on so many of these commercials is about not taking that drug if you are allergic to it. How do you know if you’re allergic to it if you don’t try it?

Our society has gotten so lawsuit happy, that everything we do or purchase has some kind of warning. The most hilarious one I ever heard of was pointed out to me by a former air traffic controller. Have you ever flown? Have you ever seen the card in the back of the seat in front of you that shows a diagram of the plane and where the emergency exists are? Years ago, the top line on that card, used by a major airline, to the reader that if they can’t read the card to have a flight attendant read it to them. Really? If you can’t read, then how do you know to contact the flight attendant?

Most warnings of side effects range from things that may cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, constipation, rash, dizziness, shortness of breath, headaches, fatigue, muscle cramping and more.

But have you ever heard of a drug manufacturer that issues a warning for a certain drug that it may result in someone developing a black hairy tongue?

Yes, you read that right, according to this report:

“A 55-year-old patient complaining of nausea and a bad taste in her mouth was actually suffering from a rare condition known as ‘black hairy tongue’.”

“A case report published in the New England Journal of Medicine said the patient, who was not identified by name, saw her tongue turn black after being prescribed medication for a bacterial infection.”

“The patient had been admitted to the hospital after a severe motorcycle injury that injured both her legs. According to the report, the patient had developed a bacterial infection and was treated with intravenous meropenem and oral minocycline. She reported her nausea and other symptoms about one week after starting the minocycline.”

‘Black hairy tongue, resulting from treatment with minocycline, was suspected,’ the case report authors wrote. ‘Black hairy tongue is a benign condition characterized by hypertrophy and elongation of filiform papillae on the surface of the tongue, with brownish-black discoloration’.”

Perhaps the next time your doctors asks you open wide and say ‘ah’, ask him or her what color your tongue is and if it looks hairy or not, especially if you were given minocycline by your doctor.