Natural Nail Care
Strong, healthy nails reflect a strong, healthy you. Keep your nails in shape with 3 good habits:
• Keep them neat with frequent trims, and don’t forget to clean under the tips.
• Moisturize your nails and cuticles daily.
• Don’t bite hangnails; clip them.
Nutritional Deficiencies
You are what you eat: Beauty on the inside will reflect beauty on the outside. Healthy nutritional choices including omega-3 fatty acids, lean proteins and iron help support healthy hair, skin and nails.
Nails can reflect some nutritional deficiencies, such as low levels of iron, biotin and protein (although protein deficiencies are rare in the United States) [source: Mayo Clinic].
Most nail problems aren’t associated with your nutrition, but if you have an iron deficiency, your nails may disclose it. Pale, whitish nail beds are a common symptom of anemia. With more severe deficiencies, the fingernail may change shape (a condition called koilonychia where the nails are thin and concave with raised vertical ridges).
Anxiety and Stress
If you’re a nail-biter, you’re not alone. About 50 percent of kids and teens in the United States ages 10 to 18 bite their nails as do about 23 percent for adults ages 18 to 22. It’s a hard habit to quit, but by age 30, most people have given it up [source: WebMD].
Nail-biting is a nervous habit, like fidgeting and thumb sucking, and people do it when they’re stressed or bored. Mild nail-biting won’t cause permanent damage but it does leave your hands looking unkempt and bloody, and could also leave you susceptible to infection in your fingers and your mouth. To help quit, try stress-management methods and physical barriers such as bitter-tasting nail polish. Or keep nails looking nice with frequent manicures.
Sometimes it could indicate an anxiety or compulsive disorder and may require behavior therapy. If nail-biting is accompanied by hair pulling or self-mutilating behaviors, see a doctor.
Injury
Who hasn’t unintentionally caught a finger in a door or dropped something heavy on a finger or toe? Mild trauma to the nail bed can cause small, white spots (leukonychia) in the nail plate that are harmless (they grow out as the nail grows and eventually you’ll clip off the damaged part of the nail). A more severe injury to the nail bed can cause dark spots or streaks on or under the nail, nail detachment (onycholysis) and splinter hemorrhages, broken blood vessels that look like red to reddish-brown vertical lines under the nail.
These changes are also symptoms of serious medical conditions including allergic reactions, infection, psoriasis and even melanoma, so if you haven’t recently injured the affected nail, you should see your doctor.
Nail injuries can also happen during a manicure or pedicure. Nail polish and remover are drying and cause brittleness. If you are a chronic nail-biter, try to quit the habit, it can lead to nail deformities, as well as infection.
When to Call a Doctor
Many minor nail changes happen because of an injury and heal in their own time. If you’ve noticed that your nails have changed and the symptoms persist, schedule a visit with your doctor or dermatologist. A doctor will determine the underlying cause and prescribe a treatment regimen.
Infection
Painful, red and itchy skin around your nails is a pretty big clue that something’s not right. Just like other parts of your body, your fingernails and toenails are prone to infection, usually occurring in adults and caused by fungus (such as yeast), bacteria (such as Staphylococcus) and viral warts. Nail infections don’t necessarily indicate larger, systemic health problems but they do need to be treated by a doctor, especially if you have a medical condition that weakens your immune system.
Fungus is the most common perpetrator, infecting about 12 percent of Americans [source: American Academy of Dermatology]. It can cause nails to become thick and crumbly and change color, taking on a blue-green hue. Fungus is notoriously difficult to treat, so see a doctor for medicine and expect to see results only after your nails have gone through a complete growth cycle (a few months).
Bacteria and viruses also both cause unsightly changes to nails. Bacterial infections target the skin under and around the nail and can lead to nail loss if not treated. Skin viruses cause warts around and sometimes under the nail, which a doctor can freeze off or chemically treat to remove.
Unkempt artificial nails, unsanitary manicure equipment and vigorous manicuring can all increase the chances of infection. Always be sure to properly clean your nails, fingernails, toenails and artificial nails, and buy your own manicure tools to reduce the spread of bacteria from person to person.
Undiagnosed disease
Changes to nails don’t necessarily mean you’re developing a serious illness (not everyone who develops disease experiences nail changes), but warning signs of undetected diseases can show up in your nails' appearance.
Five nail changes that may indicate a more serious condition include discoloration, pitting, clubbing, detachment and lines.
1.Nail discoloration is frequently nothing more than stain from polish, but it can sometimes hint at disease. There’s an array of nail color to watch for: White may suggest liver disease; half white, half pink may signal kidney disease and red may mean heart disease. Yellow, thick, slow-growing nails that may detach from the nail bed are an indicator of lung disease. Lung disease causes low oxygen levels in your blood which can lead to clubbing (enlarged fingertips and nails that begin to curve around them).
2.Pitting, tiny dents in the nail plate, is common in psoriasis sufferers and is first seen in the nails in about 10 percent of psoriasis patients [source: WebMD]. Pitting can lead to crumbling, splitting nails and damaged cuticles.
Additionally, there are many types of lines that can form in or under your nails. Irregular red lines at the nail base suggest lupus. Melanoma appears as dark lines underneath the nail.
Changes to nails aren’t the only warning signs to underlying disease but can provide clues to your overall health. As part of your annual physical, ask your doctor to take a look at them, just in case.
This information is solely for informational purposes. IT IS NOT INTENDED TO PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE.
Ways to Protect Your Toenails
Toenails are most likely to fall prey to fungal infections because the fungus that causes athlete's foot can invade the toenail after it's been injured.
Topical antifungals containing clotrimazole or miconazole will help defeat athlete's foot; apply them at the first sign of athlete's foot, hopefully before the fungus can invade the nail.
If the toenail does get infected, a prescription medication may be necessary to cure it.
Home Remedy Treatments for Nail Problems
1.Avoid the culprits. If you do a lot of housework, it's exposure to detergents and cleansers; if you're a janitor, strong cleaning fluids; a bartender, citrus fruits; and so on. If you can't stay away from these substances, wear gloves whenever possible. Otherwise, you risk brittle nails and even nail separation or infection, which could lead to nail deformity or even loss of the nail.
2.Keep your nails short. The shorter your nails, the less the risk of damaging them.
3.Be careful of nail bangers. Don't use your nail in place of a screwdriver, scraper, or other tool. Try not to hit it with a hammer or slam it in drawers. Such actions can injure your nails, opening the door to infection, stopping nail growth, or causing bruises. See your doctor as soon as possible if a nail turns black and blue; if your physician isn't available, go to an emergency room. The pressure should be relieved on the blood vessel that's been injured underneath the nail.
4.Moisturize your nails. Your nails contain no fat, so they can't naturally hold in moisture. Instead, try soaking them in tepid water, then applying a moisturizer, which will help lock in the water.
Don't forget to reapply moisturizer after wetting or washing your hands or bathing.
5. Avoid moisture. If your nail becomes infected, particularly with a yeast organism, it's important to avoid prolonged exposure to water and to keep the nail area as dry as possible, since infecting organisms generally prefer warm, moist environments.
6. Care for your cuticles, but don't cut them.
7.Don't pick or tear at hangnails, otherwise, you're opening the door to infection by making a break in the skin where bacteria can enter. Clip the dry part of the hangnail with fine scissors, and apply an over-the-counter antibiotic ointment. Keeping your hands, nails, and cuticles moisturized will help prevent future hangnails.
8.Realize the risk with nail cosmetics. Sculptured nails can hold in too much moisture. The glues used in nail wraps can cause reactions resulting in permanent damage to the nail bed and root. The most common problem is separation of the nail from the bed.If you notice any pain or tenderness, you're probably reacting to the glue, and you need medical attention.
9.Forget formaldehyde. Although most fingernail polishes and nail hardeners are not supposed to contain formaldehyde, some still do, and if they cause an allergy or irritation, you can end up with nail separation.
10.Cut down on polish remover. Nail polish remover contains acetone, which dries nails. Use these powerful solvents no more than once a week. The less, the better.
11.About calcium: it helps build bones, but has little or nothing to do with the hardness of your nails. Unless you are suffering from a malabsorption problem, your nails are not influenced that much by your diet.
Home Care
1.Wear vinyl gloves for wet work. Exposing your hands to moisture too often, or getting your hands in harsh detergents or chemicals, can cause brittle nails.
2.For dry work, wear cotton gloves. You'll help protect nails from damage or possible injury.
Strong, healthy nails reflect a strong, healthy you. Keep your nails in shape with 3 good habits:
• Keep them neat with frequent trims, and don’t forget to clean under the tips.
• Moisturize your nails and cuticles daily.
• Don’t bite hangnails; clip them.
Nutritional Deficiencies
You are what you eat: Beauty on the inside will reflect beauty on the outside. Healthy nutritional choices including omega-3 fatty acids, lean proteins and iron help support healthy hair, skin and nails.
Nails can reflect some nutritional deficiencies, such as low levels of iron, biotin and protein (although protein deficiencies are rare in the United States) [source: Mayo Clinic].
Most nail problems aren’t associated with your nutrition, but if you have an iron deficiency, your nails may disclose it. Pale, whitish nail beds are a common symptom of anemia. With more severe deficiencies, the fingernail may change shape (a condition called koilonychia where the nails are thin and concave with raised vertical ridges).
Anxiety and Stress
If you’re a nail-biter, you’re not alone. About 50 percent of kids and teens in the United States ages 10 to 18 bite their nails as do about 23 percent for adults ages 18 to 22. It’s a hard habit to quit, but by age 30, most people have given it up [source: WebMD].
Nail-biting is a nervous habit, like fidgeting and thumb sucking, and people do it when they’re stressed or bored. Mild nail-biting won’t cause permanent damage but it does leave your hands looking unkempt and bloody, and could also leave you susceptible to infection in your fingers and your mouth. To help quit, try stress-management methods and physical barriers such as bitter-tasting nail polish. Or keep nails looking nice with frequent manicures.
Sometimes it could indicate an anxiety or compulsive disorder and may require behavior therapy. If nail-biting is accompanied by hair pulling or self-mutilating behaviors, see a doctor.
Injury
Who hasn’t unintentionally caught a finger in a door or dropped something heavy on a finger or toe? Mild trauma to the nail bed can cause small, white spots (leukonychia) in the nail plate that are harmless (they grow out as the nail grows and eventually you’ll clip off the damaged part of the nail). A more severe injury to the nail bed can cause dark spots or streaks on or under the nail, nail detachment (onycholysis) and splinter hemorrhages, broken blood vessels that look like red to reddish-brown vertical lines under the nail.
These changes are also symptoms of serious medical conditions including allergic reactions, infection, psoriasis and even melanoma, so if you haven’t recently injured the affected nail, you should see your doctor.
Nail injuries can also happen during a manicure or pedicure. Nail polish and remover are drying and cause brittleness. If you are a chronic nail-biter, try to quit the habit, it can lead to nail deformities, as well as infection.
When to Call a Doctor
Many minor nail changes happen because of an injury and heal in their own time. If you’ve noticed that your nails have changed and the symptoms persist, schedule a visit with your doctor or dermatologist. A doctor will determine the underlying cause and prescribe a treatment regimen.
Infection
Painful, red and itchy skin around your nails is a pretty big clue that something’s not right. Just like other parts of your body, your fingernails and toenails are prone to infection, usually occurring in adults and caused by fungus (such as yeast), bacteria (such as Staphylococcus) and viral warts. Nail infections don’t necessarily indicate larger, systemic health problems but they do need to be treated by a doctor, especially if you have a medical condition that weakens your immune system.
Fungus is the most common perpetrator, infecting about 12 percent of Americans [source: American Academy of Dermatology]. It can cause nails to become thick and crumbly and change color, taking on a blue-green hue. Fungus is notoriously difficult to treat, so see a doctor for medicine and expect to see results only after your nails have gone through a complete growth cycle (a few months).
Bacteria and viruses also both cause unsightly changes to nails. Bacterial infections target the skin under and around the nail and can lead to nail loss if not treated. Skin viruses cause warts around and sometimes under the nail, which a doctor can freeze off or chemically treat to remove.
Unkempt artificial nails, unsanitary manicure equipment and vigorous manicuring can all increase the chances of infection. Always be sure to properly clean your nails, fingernails, toenails and artificial nails, and buy your own manicure tools to reduce the spread of bacteria from person to person.
Undiagnosed disease
Changes to nails don’t necessarily mean you’re developing a serious illness (not everyone who develops disease experiences nail changes), but warning signs of undetected diseases can show up in your nails' appearance.
Five nail changes that may indicate a more serious condition include discoloration, pitting, clubbing, detachment and lines.
1.Nail discoloration is frequently nothing more than stain from polish, but it can sometimes hint at disease. There’s an array of nail color to watch for: White may suggest liver disease; half white, half pink may signal kidney disease and red may mean heart disease. Yellow, thick, slow-growing nails that may detach from the nail bed are an indicator of lung disease. Lung disease causes low oxygen levels in your blood which can lead to clubbing (enlarged fingertips and nails that begin to curve around them).
2.Pitting, tiny dents in the nail plate, is common in psoriasis sufferers and is first seen in the nails in about 10 percent of psoriasis patients [source: WebMD]. Pitting can lead to crumbling, splitting nails and damaged cuticles.
Additionally, there are many types of lines that can form in or under your nails. Irregular red lines at the nail base suggest lupus. Melanoma appears as dark lines underneath the nail.
Changes to nails aren’t the only warning signs to underlying disease but can provide clues to your overall health. As part of your annual physical, ask your doctor to take a look at them, just in case.
This information is solely for informational purposes. IT IS NOT INTENDED TO PROVIDE MEDICAL ADVICE.
Ways to Protect Your Toenails
Toenails are most likely to fall prey to fungal infections because the fungus that causes athlete's foot can invade the toenail after it's been injured.
Topical antifungals containing clotrimazole or miconazole will help defeat athlete's foot; apply them at the first sign of athlete's foot, hopefully before the fungus can invade the nail.
If the toenail does get infected, a prescription medication may be necessary to cure it.
Home Remedy Treatments for Nail Problems
1.Avoid the culprits. If you do a lot of housework, it's exposure to detergents and cleansers; if you're a janitor, strong cleaning fluids; a bartender, citrus fruits; and so on. If you can't stay away from these substances, wear gloves whenever possible. Otherwise, you risk brittle nails and even nail separation or infection, which could lead to nail deformity or even loss of the nail.
2.Keep your nails short. The shorter your nails, the less the risk of damaging them.
3.Be careful of nail bangers. Don't use your nail in place of a screwdriver, scraper, or other tool. Try not to hit it with a hammer or slam it in drawers. Such actions can injure your nails, opening the door to infection, stopping nail growth, or causing bruises. See your doctor as soon as possible if a nail turns black and blue; if your physician isn't available, go to an emergency room. The pressure should be relieved on the blood vessel that's been injured underneath the nail.
4.Moisturize your nails. Your nails contain no fat, so they can't naturally hold in moisture. Instead, try soaking them in tepid water, then applying a moisturizer, which will help lock in the water.
Don't forget to reapply moisturizer after wetting or washing your hands or bathing.
5. Avoid moisture. If your nail becomes infected, particularly with a yeast organism, it's important to avoid prolonged exposure to water and to keep the nail area as dry as possible, since infecting organisms generally prefer warm, moist environments.
6. Care for your cuticles, but don't cut them.
7.Don't pick or tear at hangnails, otherwise, you're opening the door to infection by making a break in the skin where bacteria can enter. Clip the dry part of the hangnail with fine scissors, and apply an over-the-counter antibiotic ointment. Keeping your hands, nails, and cuticles moisturized will help prevent future hangnails.
8.Realize the risk with nail cosmetics. Sculptured nails can hold in too much moisture. The glues used in nail wraps can cause reactions resulting in permanent damage to the nail bed and root. The most common problem is separation of the nail from the bed.If you notice any pain or tenderness, you're probably reacting to the glue, and you need medical attention.
9.Forget formaldehyde. Although most fingernail polishes and nail hardeners are not supposed to contain formaldehyde, some still do, and if they cause an allergy or irritation, you can end up with nail separation.
10.Cut down on polish remover. Nail polish remover contains acetone, which dries nails. Use these powerful solvents no more than once a week. The less, the better.
11.About calcium: it helps build bones, but has little or nothing to do with the hardness of your nails. Unless you are suffering from a malabsorption problem, your nails are not influenced that much by your diet.
Home Care
1.Wear vinyl gloves for wet work. Exposing your hands to moisture too often, or getting your hands in harsh detergents or chemicals, can cause brittle nails.
2.For dry work, wear cotton gloves. You'll help protect nails from damage or possible injury.
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