Nail Health Tips

The core standard of healthy nails is that the nail surface is evenly pink and tough, and turns white when pressed and returns to pink within 1-2 seconds when released. 90% of the white spots, vertical lines, and small layers that everyone often asks about are not metaphysical signals of "liver failure or kidney deficiency". Most of them are related to external damage, improper local care, and mild nutritional fluctuations. Only a few abnormal changes require vigilance for disease risks.

A few months ago, I took off my manicure and found two small white spots on my middle finger. My mother insisted that I was zinc deficient, so she forced me to drink zinc gluconate for a week. When I asked my dermatology classmate about it at dinner, they laughed at me and said that it was the last time I opened a package and used my nails to pry off the cardboard box and hit the nail matrix. When the nails slowly grew out, they were gone. Sure enough, the white spots were completely gone in less than two months. Of course, it does not mean that all white spots are caused by trauma. If the armor is densely covered with small white spots, and you also suffer from oral ulcers, loss of appetite, and leg cramps every time, then it may be a sign of zinc or calcium deficiency. In this case, it is not too late to check for trace elements and replenish them. Don’t stock up on health supplements when you see white spots.

Many people read short videos and think that "vertical lines on nails mean liver poisoning", so don't scare yourself. If you take a closer look at the people around you who are over 30 years old, eight out of ten will have fine vertical lines on their nails. To put it bluntly, they are "small wrinkles" on the nail bed. They will naturally appear as you age. If you always do housework, soak in water and dishwashing liquid, or do manicures and polish the nail surface so thin and translucent every time, the vertical lines will become more obvious. However, here is a reminder. If the vertical lines on a certain finger suddenly widen, turn black, protrude from the nail surface to the touch, or even slowly crack, then you should quickly go to a dermatology department for investigation to rule out the risk of onychomycosis or malignant melanoma. This is something you really cannot be careless about.

The tips of my nails are prone to delamination and splitting in the winter. I always thought it was due to calcium deficiency. Later, the manicurist I frequented told me that I always use my nails to tear takeout packages and open cans, and I never apply hand cream on the edges of my nails, which caused small cracks. Can my nails not delaminate? Later, every time I applied hand cream, I would also rub it in circular motions around my nails. I always wear rubber gloves when washing things in winter. It was really much better. If the delamination is accompanied by graying, yellowing, thickening and brittle nails, it is most likely onychomycosis, which is what we call onychomycosis. Don't believe what is said on the Internet that soaking in vinegar or rubbing with garlic will cure the problem. These methods can only deal with very superficial fungal infections. If the fungus has penetrated under the nail bed, it is difficult for external medicines to penetrate. You must follow the doctor's advice and take oral antifungal medicines. Trying random folk remedies can easily cause the entire nail to break.

There are also many people who always compare the number of crescents with others, thinking that the more crescents the healthier they are, which is really unnecessary. The lunula is the nail matrix that has not yet been completely keratinized. In some people, the nail matrix grows far back, and the part where the nails have grown out has already been keratinized. Naturally, the crescents cannot be seen. As long as the size and number of your own crescents do not change for a long time, it is completely fine. If all the crescents suddenly become larger during this period, or the original crescents suddenly shrink, then you should check whether there is a problem with thyroid function. Hyperthyroidism may cause the crescents to grow larger, and hypothyroidism may cause the crescents to shrink.

I have gone through many pitfalls in nail care in the past few years. I bought a lot of imported nail care lotions and oils. In the end, I found that the most useful things are actually very simple things: don’t use your nails as a tool to express and tear off tape, don’t do manicures too frequently, no more than once every two months, don’t grind the nail polishing surface too hard, don’t pick hard when removing nails, and don’t cut the dead skin around the nails too clean, otherwise it’s easy to get paronychia. If you really have unexplained pain, blackening, or large-scale deformation of your nails, don’t scare yourself by blindly comparing symptoms on the Internet. It costs 10 yuan to get a dermatology doctor, which is more reliable than anything else.