Nail Health Tips

The vast majority of white spots, vertical lines, and small crescent changes on nails are not "early warnings of internal diseases." 90% of nail abnormalities are related to three types of causes: external stimulation, local nutritional deficiencies, and fungal infections. There is no one-to-one correspondence with the "liver deficiency, kidney deficiency, spleen and stomach deficiency" circulated on the Internet.

I have been a manicurist for 7 years, and I have met at least a thousand customers who come to ask about their nails. Eight out of ten customers are afraid of themselves. Last week, a girl came over to me after having her nails done for half a month. She held up her finger to show me three or four white dots on it. She said that she had searched the Internet and feared that she might have liver problems after staying up late recently, so she even made an appointment for a physical examination. I looked through the records of her last visit to the store. When she was removing her armor that day, she was still talking about how she had moved to a new house a while ago and was packing for express delivery. She knocked her fingers many times without paying attention. In fact, these small white spots with clear boundaries are essentially "small scars" left by minor trauma to the nail matrix. It is the same as a bruise on your arm. When the nail slowly grows forward, it will be gone when you cut it off, and there will be no problem with the internal organs. Of course, there are different opinions. In traditional Chinese medicine, the state of nails is indeed related to the overall state of viscera, qi, and blood. However, there is currently no evidence-based medical evidence to prove that a single white spot corresponds to the disease of a certain organ. Unless your entire nail is white in large areas, the blood returns slowly after pressing it, and you are always dizzy and weak, then you need to check whether you are anemic. Don't scare yourself by looking at the online comparison table.

In addition to white spots, the most common thing people ask about is the vertical lines on nails. Many people say that long vertical lines are "signs of aging," but this is actually half right. If you are in your forties or fifties and your vertical lines have grown slowly over the years, and your nails have no cracking or delamination problems, then it is really just like wrinkles on your face. It is just normal physiological aging and you don’t need to worry about it at all. But if you are in your early twenties and suddenly have a lot of deep vertical lines, and your nails are very easy to split and delaminate, then it is most likely not because you are old, but because you have done it too hard - either you have damaged the nail surface by grinding it too hard when removing the manicure, or you love tearing your hands or biting your nails, damaging the nail epithelium that protects the nail matrix. The most exaggerated thing I have ever seen was a little boy who was a sophomore in high school. He had been biting his nails for almost ten years. All ten of his fingernails were covered with pitted, deep vertical lines, as thin as paper. Later, under the supervision of his mother, he stopped biting his nails and applied nail polish every day. After more than three months, the vertical lines were basically smoothed out. By the way, there is another common misunderstanding. Many people think of taking vitamin supplements when they see vertical lines. In fact, unless you are on a long-term diet or vegetarian diet and are malnourished, supplements will be of no use to people who eat normally. Excessive vitamin supplements will cause metabolic burden. I specifically asked dermatologists I know about this, and this is the consensus in the industry.

Let's talk about the most controversial little crescent moon. I have seen many people looking for prescriptions to replenish qi and blood because they only have crescent moons on two thumbs on their hands. It is completely unnecessary. Small crescents are essentially new keratin that has just grown out of the nail matrix. Whether or how much is exposed depends on the growth rate of your nails and the position of the nail epithelium. Some people are born with nail epithelium growing lower and have large crescents on all ten fingers. Some people are born with nail epithelium that is tightly wrapped and not even one crescent is exposed. This is normal. Take me for example. I was addicted to weightlifting a while ago and held dumbbells every day, which made my nails grow faster. During those two months, the crescents on all ten fingers were larger than usual. After I stopped being lazy for more than half a month, the crescents shrank back again, and there was no problem. Of course, if your crescents suddenly become more numerous and larger in a short period of time, or if all the crescents you originally had suddenly disappear, and you are also accompanied by sudden weight loss and fatigue easily, then you must be alert to whether there is a thyroid problem and go to the hospital for examination in time. Many Chinese medicine practitioners believe that the short-term fluctuations of the crescent moon are related to changes in qi and blood. If you also have problems with cold hands and feet and irregular menstruation, it is okay to seek treatment from a regular Chinese medicine doctor, but don’t buy random supplements on your own. I have previously encountered a customer who took supplements of unknown ingredients for half a year in order to grow the crescent moon. In the end, the liver function was abnormal, and the gain was not worth the loss.

There are also some small details that people usually don’t pay much attention to, so I’ll also mention them in passing. Don't just tear off the hangnails on your hands. Last month, a young man pulled out the hangnails and contracted paronychia. He ended up going to the hospital and had half of his nail pulled out. It was an old sin. If the hangnails grow, just cut them off with sterilized nail scissors. Don't pull them hard. Girls who like to have manicures should leave a half-month window for their nails every two to three months, and don't apply nail polish continuously. I have seen girls who have been wearing nail polish for half a year. After removing the nails, the nails are so thin that the flesh underneath can be seen through. It hurts with the slightest touch. It took half a year to return to normal.

To be honest, nails are appendages of the skin, and most minor problems are caused by local irritation. Don’t frighten yourself by constantly thinking about serious internal diseases. If the entire nail is really discolored, deformed, or painful when pressed, and it does not get better for more than a month, it is much more reliable to go directly to a dermatologist than to search and figure it out online for a long time.