The nails of a healthy person are smooth, shiny, pale pink, with pronounced whitish hole at the base. In this case the nail plate is constantly being updated, grow for a week by about one millimeter.
What is the norm
With age, the nail plate thickens and becomes more fragile. This is part of the natural aging process. The fragility of the inherent and nails of pregnant women. But within six months after birth, usually everything comes back to normal.
Valid if the nails are broken due to lack of vitamins or turn yellow due to poor quality of varnish. Sometimes the nail plate may even turn black and fall off, if the finger is pinched or hit.
Healthy human nails on the hands are fully recovered within 4-6 months, legs for 6-8 months.
But there is a persistent pathology that we often don’t even pay attention. And for good reason. Some changes of form, color and texture of nails and skin around them may indicate irregularities in the functioning of internal organs and the presence of very different and sometimes serious diseases.
What are the variances
1. Excessive breakage
If the nail is broken, barely peering over the edge of the finger, probably, the body lacks the vitamins A, E and C as well as iron and zinc. Sometimes breakage can be a result of thyroid diseases and a precursor of diabetes.
2. White spots
The people they considered a good omen, in medicine, this pathology is called leukonychia. Between the layers of the nail plate are formed of microscopic air bubbles, which on the surface look like white dots and stripes.
Leukonychia is a point (a couple spots on a few nails) and total (when struck by the whole plate). The reasons range from injuries and unbalanced diet to the exhaustion of the nervous system and heart failure.
3. Deeper point
In form and color the nails look as usual. But if you look closely, the nail plate is riddled with tiny pits (like istykanny needle). Do doctors even have a term – naperstkovidnym istinnost.
It is almost always a sign of psoriasis. Sometimes it can manifest itself eczema or arthritis.
Having had this or any other pathology of the nail, you should not self-medicate. The first thing to do is to register to the therapist and/or dermatologist to be tested. Only an occupational therapist and clinical studies are able to give the exact answer, what is the cause of disease. Maybe it’s some kind of stage of psoriasis, or maybe just a glitch in the thyroid or the gastrointestinal tract.
4. Large or small lunule
Lonely or the hole is a pale Crescent at the base of the nail. They have to occupy about a third of it and visible.
Too large holes occur in athletes and people engaged in heavy physical labor. Sometimes they can indicate malfunctions of the heart and blood vessels, low blood pressure.
A small, barely peeking out from under the cuticle lunula can be a symptom of lack of vitamin B12 and iron, and blood circulation problems.
5. Transverse grooves
This so-called line Bo. Pathology of the nail plate in the form of transverse lines to a depth of one millimeter for the first time revealed the French military surgeon Joseph honoré Simon Beau.
Line Bo are formed due to the damage matrix of the nail plate. When it lacks power, the chemical composition of the nail changes, and his plate is deformed. Most often this is due to strict diets bordering on starvation.
Also, these injuries can have a mechanical (when a nail is struck in the center of the hole) or toxic nature (due to potent drugs or chemotherapy). Sometimes the line Bo may appear on the background of cardiovascular diseases, fungal and other infections.
6. Longitudinal grooves
If older is the change in elevation of the nail can be considered the norm, for people under 50 years of projecting vertical stripes say, most likely, and lack of vitamins and trace elements (zinc, iron, magnesium).
It can also be the consequence of a bad manicure or pedicure: too much pushed back the cuticles and hurt the nail root. But in these cases stands out only a few vertical stripes.
If they affected more than 25% of your nails, you should check the health of internal organs. In the first place, cardiovascular and digestive system.
If the pathology is not of an infectious nature, you know her cause and has already started treatment, you can give damaged nails an aesthetic appearance. In any good salon have Spa treatments for your nails. For example, for nutrition and hydration can make a Japanese manicure (P-Shine) or paraffin. For smoothness – grinding and polishing of the nail plate.
Olga Aleinikova, nurse, manicure and pedicure
7. Lokomedia nails
This spoon nail, that is, deformation of the nail plate in which its center flexes and the edges turned up. Discomfort it does not deliver, color and smoothness are preserved, but looks ugly.
The easiest way to identify the spoon nail to put the nail in the water. Drop freely slipped? All right. Straw stuck in a groove? There is reason to think.
Most often concave nails are the result of lack of iron in the body and endocrine disorders. To the purchased causes of koilonychia are also injury, contact with chemicals and sudden temperature changes.
In addition, lokomedia nails can occur due to gene mutations and inherited.
8. Drum sticks
Another name – the Hippocratic fingers. This is a symptom in which the nail plate thicken and become similar to the hour glass. However, if you look at the finger side, the angle between the back of the nail platen and the nail plate exceeds 180°.
Drum sticks – always a sign of a serious illness. They can occur in lung diseases (from tuberculosis to cancer), heart and blood vessels (heart disease, endocarditis, and others), gastrointestinal tract (ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease and others).
9. Detachment of the nail
In medicine it is called onycholysis, the communication of the nail and the nail bed, when they are in a void, and nail plate changes color.
In 60% of cases the cause is trauma. Upon impact, the compressed blood vessels in the dermis, disturbed nutrition of the nail, changing its chemical composition and elasticity. Another 30% are fungal diseases and allergic reactions. The remaining 10% of onycholysis develop due to systemic somatic diseases.
When the nail plate starts to rise up, it no longer covers the nail bed, which nourishes her. This can lead to infection. If you hit or had some contact with chemicals and suddenly noticed that the nail began to flake off, you need to use antifungal and regenerating means.
Olga Aleinikova, nurse, manicure and pedicure
10. Half and half
The so-called syndrome, in which half of the nail white, and half closer to the tip, brownish.
The most likely cause is renal failure, which increases the number of blood vessels under the nails and they Shine through the nail plate.
Also “halved” nails occur in HIV-positive people and those who have undergone chemotherapy.
11. White, yellow and blue nails
Change the color of the nail plate – the signal that it is time to deal with health.
If the nail suddenly turned white, it’s worth checking the digestive and cardiovascular system and to pay special attention to the liver. The yellow hue also provoke liver diseases, and pathology of the endocrine and the lymphatic system. Lividity tells about the lack of oxygen, low hemoglobin level, or poor blood circulation.
12. A single dark line
Often a black stripe appears on the nail plate because of an injury or malfunction of the digestive system. And some of the peoples it does feature the natural pigmentation of the skin.
But if you eat normally, never hit, but on the nail suddenly there was blackening, it is better to consult a doctor. This can be a symptom of melanoma – malignant skin cancer.
How to maintain the beauty and health of nails
Here are some General guidelines gave Olga Aleinikova.
Proper nutrition, healthy sleep and sport should be the default. Regularly inspect your nails and take care of hands.
- Do manicure and pedicure. Timely cut or podpilivaya the free edge of the nails, treat cuticles.
- Not biting his nails.
- Wear gloves when working with chemicals and while digging in the beds.
- Take vitamins.
- Regularly anoint the hands and nails nourishing cream.
- Do not wear tight shoes, do not put your fingers in the gap and be careful with the hammer.
Going to places with large concentrations of people, use liquid gloves (this is the emulsion). The risk of Contracting infectious diseases through the hands is very high.
Seeing nail plates, signs of illness, use antifungal medicines and regenerative medicines. If pathology is sustainable, be sure to do the tests and go to the doctor.
