What Your Nails Say About Your Health The eyes may be the windows to the soul, but your nails can be windows to your overall health. More than just a canvas for polish, your fingernails can tip-off a savvy observer to whether or not you have anemia, a nutritional deficiency, or have bad circulation.
While the nail itself is dead tissue made of a durable protein called keratin (the same protein as hair) the nail matrix (under the cuticle where the nail is formed) and the nail bed (the tissue beneath the nail itself) are alive and often reflect the status of your health. What could your nails be trying to tell you?

Your nails are: Brittle.
Possible culprit: Water damage. Constantly immersing your hands in water and detergents to scrub dishes or wash away germs to avoid colds cause the nails to swell with water and then shrink when they dry. Study participants report constant brittle, chipped and split nails. Combat the problem by regularly slathering on a rich protective moisturizer such as TheraSeal Hand Protection and working it into your nails. Nail treatments to help strengthen nails like Nailtiques Formula 2 are also very beneficial.

Possible culprit: Biotin deficiency. If Biotin (a B-vitamin)rich foods such as peanuts, almonds and sweet potatoes are sorely lacking in your diet, your nails may be brittle. One study found that 80 percent of people switching to a Biotin-rich diet corrected their brittle nail problem in a few months. In a 1990 Swiss study published in the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology, volunteers who took a Biotin supplement grew fingers nails that were 25 percent thicker and reported less splitting. Possible culprit: Iron-deficiency anemia. Check with your doctor who can perform a test to check if you are iron-deficient, which can impede red blood cells from ferrying oxygen throughout your body. Make sure to include iron-rich foods such as chard, tofu, lentils and beans, beef and pumpkin seeds in your diet. Dietary Supplements that contain Biotin such as Impruv Dry Skin Care Vitamins or Appearex help maintain levels of nutrients vital to nail health.

Your nails are: Marked by a white spot (leukonychia).
Possible culprit: Injury to the nail bed. You might not remember catching your fingernail in your locker at the gym or accidentally whacking it while getting into your car a few months ago, but your fingernail does. Fingernails grow just an 1/8th of an inch each month, so if an injury is inflicted on the nail bed, it won't show up until the nail grows out.

Your nails are: Marked by darkly pigmented streaks.
Possible culprit: Malignant melanoma (aka skin cancer) could be the problem, so get to the dermatologist and have it checked out. The streaks may spread to the surrounding skin or change in color and size as well. In some cases, it's just a fine, splinter-like hemorrhage caused by an injury to the matrix.

Your nails are: Pitted.
Possible culprit: Psoriasis. A chronic skin disease that shows up as red, scaly patches on the body, psoriasis often makes itself known as a pitting of the nails too. A change in shape, discoloration or the nail separating from the skin may also occur. If you have psoriasis, you may also notice rippling or a reddish-brown discoloration.

Your nails are: Detaching from the nail bed.
Possible culprit: Fungal Infection. Loosening, also referred to as onycholysis, is frequently due to a fungal infection of the nail plate. A reaction to the cement used to attach artificial nails, trauma resulting in microfractures of the nail plate during manicures or artificial nail placement or the use of dirty grooming tools can all be contributing factors. Your nails may also turn greenish, white, yellow or even black as they loosen. These infections are tough to treat but not impossible. See your dermatologist who can prescribe an antifungal medication.

Your nails are: Sporting horizontal furrows.
Possible Culprit: Systemic illness or stressors. Sudden illness, malnutrition, carpal tunnel syndrome or events such as a heart attack can cause nails to temporarily stop growing. When the nail begins to grow again, horizontal ridges known as Beau's lines may emerge as the nail grows out.

Your nails are: Showing signs of redness and swelling around them.
Possible culprit: Bacterial infection. A nick at the manicurist, a painful paper cut or other trauma can set you up for a bacterial infection called paronychia. Keep the area clean and use Polysporin First Aid Antibiotic Ointment, an over the counter anti-bacterial preparation to speed healing. Sometimes a yeast infection of the nail (will look like thin white discoloration at the nail tips and gradually progress inwards towards the cuticle) can lead to paronychia as well. Amoresse Thymol can be useful in putting a stop to unwanted yeast infections of the nail plate. If either problem doesn't resolve or gets worse, see your doctor.

Your nails are: Clubbing.
Possible culprit: Systemic disorders. While clubbing does occur in perfectly healthy people, it can also be caused by an array of possibilities including lung cancer, pulmonary fibrosis, cardiac disease and disorders of the thyroid, liver, or bowel.

Your nails are: The nail bed is blue, red, yellow, or white.
Possible culprit: Poor circulation from heart or lung disease. Lack of oxygen in the blood stream can result in blue nail beds. If they are white, liver disease could be the reason. Pale nail beds can indicate anemia. Diabetes may show itself as yellowish nail beds that are pink at the base. If the nail is half pink and half white, consider kidney disease as a possibility. If your nails yellow, seem to stop growing, and thicken, lung disease may be the reason.

Your nails are: Thickened and engulfed by the surrounding skin.
Possible culprit: Be on the lookout for dyskeratosis congenita, a disorder that increases your familial risk of esophageal cancer, cancer of the mucous membranes and cervical cancer.

Karmen B. Saran
DERMAdoctor Staff Writer

(Any topic discussed in this article is not intended as medical advice. If you have a medical concern, please check with your doctor.)

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