Your Nails Can Talk

If you wear scrubs on your job, you most likely care about the health of others, as well as caring about your own health. Did you know that your fingernails can tell you a lot about the state of your health? It’s recommended that you take a good look at your nails periodically and make note of any changes which may occur. These changes could be early signs of certain medical problems.

Here are a few things that you should be watching for:

• If your fingernails look abnormally pale, this can be a sign of hepatitis (inflammation of the liver, causing fever, jaundice, abdominal pain, and weakness).
• Very soft nails could be an indication of malnutrition (a lack of healthy foods in the diet, or an excessive intake of unhealthy foods, leading to physical harm). Specifically, a deficiency of calcium or protein in your diet, and/or mal-absorption of nutrients by your system can cause malnutrition.
• Yellow nails can be a clue to respiratory diseases like chronic bronchitis (inflammation of the mucous membrane in the airways bronchial tubes of the lungs, resulting from infection or irritation and causing breathing problems and severe coughing)
• Nails which are pitted could be signs of eczema or psoriasis (an inflammation of the skin characterized by reddening, itching, and/or marked by red scaly patches).
• Spoon shaped nails (nails that look soft and that can hold a drop of fluid in the scooped nail bed) can be a sign of iron deficiency anemia or thyroid disease. Other causes of spoon shaped nails are a liver condition known as hemochromatosis, (when your body absorbs too much iron from the food you eat), heart disease and hypothyroidism.
• Pale, whitish nail beds could indicate anemia (a blood condition in which there are too few red blood cells or the red blood cells are deficient in hemoglobin, resulting in poor health. Common causes include a lack of dietary iron, heavy blood loss, or the production of too few red blood cells due to disorders such as leukemia).
• If your nails have a dark streak from the base to the tip, this could be a sign of a potentially dangerous melanoma (a malignant tumor, most often on the skin, that contains dark pigment and develops from a melanin-producing cell melanocyte).
• White spots in your nails could indicate a vitamin or mineral deficiency.
• Horizontal ridges could be a sign of infection, or poor nutrition.

While some of these changes may be due to external factors, such as an allergy to a new nail polish, for example, or an injury to the nail, it’s a good idea to notice changes. Changes may be early warning signs for you. We want you to stay healthy, and watching for any potential problems by listening to what your fingernails tell you, is a good way to take a pro-active role in fighting diseases.