7 things your nails are saying about your health

Our fingernails and toenails are not just for decoration.  They help immensely over the course of a day by picking up tiny things to picking out that piece of spinach left behind in your teeth after lunch.  In addition, they can also tell you a lot about your health.  Our eyes may be the window to our soul but our fingernails may be a clue to our health and lifestyle.  Just like our hair and skin, our fingernails are always growing revealing what is going on inside of us. 

Our nails are collections of dead cells that grow from a root called the matrix hidden just beneath your cuticle, the lighter crescent shaped area at the base.  The matrix constantly makes new cells called plate cells and each layer pushes the old dead plate cells out of the cuticle.  When nails start to grow differently or even change color, it usually means there’s something wrong with the matrix or with the surrounding tissue. 

Fingernails take a lot of abuse and depending on circumstances they can develop ridges, spots, thickness, splitting, and pitting.  Often some of these changes are not to worry about but there are all kinds of conditions and diseases affecting our nails that may suggest underlying health problems.

If you were to have a serious disease, there most likely would be other symptoms but a distinct change in our nails different from normal, could indicate a health issue needing to be checked into.

Depending on your nail’s status, here’s what they may be trying to tell you:

1.  Spoon nails (Koilonychia)

Spoon-shaped nails refers to a concavity in the fingernail itself, resulting in a depression in the nail that gives an appearance of a spoon shape to the entire nail.  If a water droplet was placed on the nail it would be held in the depression.  This condition is associated with iron-deficiency anemia and other systemic illnesses or commonly results from repeated exposure to chemicals or trauma.

2.  White bands (Muehrcke’s nails)

This nail condition is characterized by paired, white, transverse lines that signify an abnormality in the vascular bed of the nail.  These bands have be associated with many etiologies such as pellagra, Hodgkin disease, renal failure, liver or kidney disease or trauma.

3.  Nail clubbing

Typically our nails curve at a slight upward angle from the nail bed.  When the nails curve downward this could indicate lung, cardiovascular, liver or inflammatory bowel disease or HIV infection.

4.  Horizontal indentations (Beau’s lines)

Beau’s lines are horizontal or transverse depressions in the nail.  These lines can be caused by diseases that affect the entire body including malnutrition, heart attack, liver diseases, severe infections such as mumps, measles, or pneumonia, and metabolic disorders such as poorly controlled diabetes.  They can also result from an injury to the nail.  The timing of the disease can be estimated by measuring the distance from the Beau’s line to the nail bed.

5.  White nail plates (Terry’s nails)

If most of the nail plate has turned white or opaque, it is likely either a fungal nail infection or a sign of decreased blood supply to the nail bed.  Terry’s nails are typically white with reddened or dark tips and can be a sign of a wide range of medical conditions such as diabetes, malnutrition, an overactive thyroid, liver cirrhosis or heart failure. 

6.  Discolored nails

The most common cause of a yellow nail is a fungal nail infection.  Other causes could be frequent application of nail polish, nail psoriasis, lymphoedema, sinusitis, tuberculosis, or jaundice.  Greenish-black nails could be caused by an overgrowth of bacteria.  Grey nails can be caused by drugs such as antimalarials or minocycline.

7.  Thickened, overgrown nails

A common cause of this is a fungal nail infection.  Other possible causes include psoriasis, long-term pressure from shoes that are either too small or too narrow over the toes or reactive arthritis.