Nail Health Issues

90% of minor nail abnormalities are not signals of internal diseases. Most of them are related to external stimulation and short-term fluctuations in work, rest and diet. Only less than 10% of specific changes require vigilance for organic lesions. There is no need to read a popular science to worry about your nails.

Last week, there was a girl who often came to my shop for manicures. She took off her manicure and looked at the vertical lines on the nail surface. She took out her mobile phone to search on the spot. After searching, her face turned pale. She said that she had liver problems and needed to take leave immediately for a physical examination. I have been a manicurist for almost 7 years, and I have seen this kind of self-diagnosis on my nails too many times, and most of the time it is a false alarm.

Some people say that vertical lines on nails are a sign of liver disease. This statement cannot be said to be completely wrong, but it is definitely a small probability event. The clinical consensus of dermatology is that 95% of longitudinal nail ridges (what everyone calls vertical lines) are either caused by the natural aging of nails as we age, or they are caused by frequent picking at the edges of the nails, excessive polishing during manicure, or even long-term irritation by not rinsing the dishwashing liquid when washing clothes. Generally speaking, if they are not raised to the touch and the color is uniform, they should be ignored at all. However, if the vertical lines suddenly become wider and darker within a month or two, and even the skin around the nails begins to turn black and ulcerate, then you must be alert to the possibility of onychomycosis or even melanoma. Don’t hesitate to go directly to the dermatology department for a dermoscopy. This really cannot be postponed.

There are also small white spots that were previously reported to be deficient in calcium, zinc, and various trace elements. Now there is no completely unified conclusion in the academic community. Pediatricians sometimes recommend that children who are picky eaters check their trace elements to rule out the possibility of insufficient nutritional intake. ； But the clinical experience of most dermatologists is that 80% of small white spots are "imprints" left by minor trauma to the periungual nails - such as knocking the nail against the door frame when opening the door, scraping the nail surface when unpacking a package, or even tearing off a hangnail in the past two weeks. Last year, I stayed up late for 12 consecutive days to attend an exhibition. Six white spots appeared on my ten nails. My mother chased me to take calcium tablets every day. I ignored them and ate and slept normally. Within three weeks, they were all gone.

When it comes to this, we cannot avoid the "crescent theory" that everyone has heard since childhood. The older generation says that more crescents mean better health, while fewer crescents mean kidney deficiency and insufficient qi and blood. There is really a big difference between Chinese and Western medicine in this view. The point of view of Western medicine is very clear: the crescent moon is the exposed part of the nail matrix (the growth area of ​​the nail). Some people are born with the nail matrix growing far back, and will only have a crescent moon on their thumbs throughout their lives, or even none at all. It has nothing to do with health. ； However, many Chinese medicine practitioners believe that if the number of crescent moons suddenly increases, decreases, or even disappears in a short period of time, it is most likely that your metabolism has fluctuated. For example, if you stayed up late for a week in a row, just got sick, or you have been on a diet to lose weight for half a month.

Of course, that doesn’t mean that all nail abnormalities don’t need to be taken care of. I’ve seen quite a few really problematic ones over the years I’ve been in this business. Last year, a customer's nails had become gray and yellow and thickened for almost a year. She thought it was due to a manicure and dyeing. When she came to remove her nails, I reminded her that it might be onychomycosis. She went to the hospital to check and it turned out that it was true. She had to apply medicine for more than half a year. There are also those nails that are concave like a small spoon, which is most likely due to iron deficiency anemia. My aunt was like this last year. At first, she thought I was grinding her nails for her. Later, when I did a blood test, the hemoglobin was only over 90. After two months of iron supplements, it slowly returned to normal. There is also the black line on the nail mentioned earlier. If it becomes wider than 3mm in a short period of time and the boundary is unclear, you must check it and don't take it seriously.

Normally, I don’t pay much attention to maintaining my nails. I don’t do frequent manicures in my own business. I usually do them once every 40 days. I leave a week in between to allow my nails to breathe. I don’t let my apprentice polish my nails too hard, otherwise my nails will become thinner and thinner. Also, don’t tear off the barbs. If you really need to deal with them, use nail clippers to cut them all the way to the root. I have seen too many people tearing off barbs and causing paronychia. They swelled like a small carrot and had to go to the hospital for incision and drainage. This is a common sin. Don't let children bite their nails, as they will bite them until the nail bed retracts. When they grow up, they won't be able to get long manicures, and the gain outweighs the loss.

To put it bluntly, your nails are a "little barometer" that grows on your hands. If you have a small problem, first recall whether you have made any mistakes in your body recently. Don't just follow the popular science on the Internet to scare yourself. If you really feel uneasy, just spend about ten yuan to get a dermatology account. A quick look from the doctor will be much more useful than watching three hours of short videos.