Nails can tell how healthy you really are

Posted on Dec 31st, 2009 | Comments (0)
Health Care

Nails are a window to your health and a keen eye can see your nails and tell you what is wrong with you as the condition of your nails can tell how healthy or ill you really are.

Take a good look at your fingernails and you may notice slight differences in the texture or color - a touch of white here, a rosy tinge there, perhaps some rippling or bumps in the surface. These imperfections may not look like much to you, but to the skilled eye they can offer valuable clues about your overall health.
Just like the eyes are the window to the soul, the nails are the window to your health.

Warning signs for many health issues, from hepatitis to heart disease, may also appear in the nails. Changes in the nails can be a sign of a local disease like a fungus infection or a symptom of a systemic disease like lupus or anemia.

Pale, whitish nail beds may indicate a low red blood cell count consistent with anemia.
An iron deficiency can be basis of the nail bed to be thin and concave and have raised ridges.

The nails offer many little evidences to what's going on inside you regarding your health. Lupus patients get quirky, pointed blood vessels in their nail folds. Psoriasis begins in the nails up to 10% of the time and causes splitting and pitting of the nail bed.

Heart disease can turn the nail beds red. Obsessive-compulsive disorder can give you an idea about in the nails through persistent nail-biting or picking.

Even common disorders like thyroid disease can cause abnormities in the nail beds, fabricating dry, brittle nails that crack and split effortlessly.