This Is What Your Fingernails Are Warning You About: Organ Failure, Inflammation, or Worse
Although most people don’t consider them important, our fingernails can actually tell a lot about our health. Any kind of change in the nails may indicate a certain disease or condition, which is why we need to pay more attention to them.
Take a look at your nails – have they changed their color or have dips and ridges on them? Are they thicker than usually or chipped? All these changes can indicate serious health problems and help you detect the problem on time. Here are 8 nail changes which indicate serious health problems:
Fingernails Warning Signs
1. Clubbed Nails
Clubbed nails are those which are puffed around the fingers. Also, the skin around the nail might seem swollen. These can indicate:
Healthy nails should have smooth surfaces with invisible lines. Ridge lines can be a warning of conditions like:
4. Pitted Nails
If you have small dips in the nails it might mean that you have caused them by banging them or you have a health problem like:
Nails like these curve up and form a dip. They can also indicate a lot of issues, like:
These types of nails usually flake away in later. However, a lot of people blame this on the nail polish, when it actually might be:
Having thick nails is not normal. Nails have to be strong. If not, they can indicate:
If your fingernails are healthy they will be pink with a touch of white moons near the base. If they are with other colors, it might meant that you have health problems.
Fingernails Warning Signs
1. Clubbed Nails
Clubbed nails are those which are puffed around the fingers. Also, the skin around the nail might seem swollen. These can indicate:
- Liver Disease
- Inflammatory Bowel Disease
- AIDS
- Lung disease, especially if you already have trouble breathing
- Usually, brittle nails are connected with bacterial infections and hormone imbalance. Also:
- Thyroid disease can lead to brittle and dry fingernails.
- Fungus too makes nails dry or even crumbly, which affects 12% of all Americans.
Healthy nails should have smooth surfaces with invisible lines. Ridge lines can be a warning of conditions like:
- Lupus
- Iron Deficiency
- Inflammatory Arthritis
4. Pitted Nails
If you have small dips in the nails it might mean that you have caused them by banging them or you have a health problem like:
- Zinc deficiency
- Alopecia areata, an autoimmune disorder that causes hair loss
- Connective tissue disorder
- Psiorasis
Nails like these curve up and form a dip. They can also indicate a lot of issues, like:
- Hypothyroidism
- Heart Disease
- Hemachromatosis, a liver disorder where your body absorbs too much iron
- Iron deficiency
These types of nails usually flake away in later. However, a lot of people blame this on the nail polish, when it actually might be:
- Caused by chronic malnutrition
- If they are split and have a pitted nail bed (base) it can indicate psoriasis, which starts in nails 10% of the time.
- They can stem from folic acid, vitamin C and protein deficiencies.
Having thick nails is not normal. Nails have to be strong. If not, they can indicate:
- Lung disease
- Circulation problems
- Fungal infection
- Thyroid problems
- Psoriasis
If your fingernails are healthy they will be pink with a touch of white moons near the base. If they are with other colors, it might meant that you have health problems.
- Dark stripes at the top means that you are aging or you have congestive heart failure.
- White nails indicate liver disease like hepatitis.
- Dull nails indicate a vitamin deficiency.
- Blueish nails are a sign of low oxygen levels in the blood.
- Red streaks in the nail bed indicate a heart valve infection.