Nail health knowledge

More than 90% of the nail abnormalities we encounter every day - including long vertical lines, white spots, small pits, and lack of crescents - are not signs of "internal problems" or "deficiency of certain trace elements". They are mostly caused by local trauma, external stimulation or normal physiological changes. There is absolutely no need to panic, buy supplements or even take medicine blindly.

A while ago, my aunt came to me with her hands raised and said that her nails were covered with vertical lines. She watched a short video and saw that it was a sign of liver damage. She had been drinking chrysanthemum and wolfberry tea for a week, and secretly bought liver-protecting tablets to take. I took her to the dermatology department to register. The doctor laughed after asking a few questions: She never wears gloves when cooking and washing dishes every day. Cleansers such as dish soap and toilet cleaning liquid frequently irritate the nail bed. The skin around the nails is dry and scaly. It is normal for the nails to develop vertical lines due to lack of water. Later, she wore rubber gloves for half a month and smeared the edges of her nails when applying hand cream, and the vertical lines were reduced by more than half.

Oh, by the way, there are still people who had their parents press their heads on their heads and eat insecticides when they were young, right? Just because there are white spots on the nails, they say they are "a sign that there are worms in the stomach." I still remember the sweet smell of the anti-insect medicine. Later, when I was a trainee in the dermatology department, I learned that the white spots had nothing to do with insects, but that the nail matrix had suffered minor trauma - for example, your nails hit the door frame when you opened the door, your fingertips were nicked by the edge of the table while doing homework, or even if you picked the express box hard in the past two weeks, you might leave these small white spots. After a few months, they will disappear as your nails grow to the point where your fingertips are cut off. Nothing will happen.

Some people may ask at this point, the crescent moon should be a barometer of health, right? This is really controversial. In traditional Chinese medicine theory, the number and size of crescents are indeed related to the circulation of Qi and blood. It is believed that people with fewer crescents and lighter colors are more likely to have insufficient Qi and blood and have a cold constitution. However, the consensus of modern dermatology is that crescents are essentially nails that have not been completely keratinized. The number depends on the position of the natural nail matrix. For some people, the nail matrix is ​​further back, and the exposed crescents are small or even invisible. For some people, it is normal to have crescents on all ten fingers. As long as your own crescents do not suddenly become larger, more numerous, or suddenly disappear in a short period of time, there is no need to worry about the number.

I met the most exaggerated girl in the clinic. Because only two of her thumbs had crescents, she took qi and blood supplements for three months in a row. Finally, her menstruation became irregular. After checking her hormones, she found out that unknown ingredients were added to the supplements, which was not worth the loss.

There is one kind of nail abnormality that everyone should really pay attention to: the nail suddenly becomes thick, yellow, and gray, and the surface becomes pitted and brittle. Don't treat it as a "calcium deficiency". It is most likely to be onychomycosis, which is what we call onychomycosis. Many people think that onychomycosis cannot be cured, and will still believe in the "all-in-one" packages offered by pedicure shops on the street. In fact, the cure rate of formal treatment options has reached more than 80%: mild topical amorolfine liniment is enough, and serious treatment combined with oral terbinafine can basically cure the disease after 3-6 months of treatment. On the contrary, the corrosive ointments used by many pedicure shops can easily damage the surrounding normal skin and aggravate the infection.

As for the often-asked question "Does manicure really hurt nails?" I specifically asked manicurists and dermatologists I know well, and both sides of the argument are actually reasonable: regular nail salons only need to polish the nail bed without damaging it, seal it after the treatment, and leave a "window period" of one or two weeks between treatments. A friend of mine used to get a cheap self-service manicure at a price of 9.9. After coming back, the periungual area was swollen for three days. In the end, he had paronychia and had to pull out half of his nail. He still doesn’t dare to do manicure casually.

Actually, nails are not as amazing as what is said on the Internet. The saying "one nail looks at the whole body" is a bit exaggerated. What it most intuitively reflects is the state of your nails themselves, and whether you have played with them recently. For example, the nails of people who have been on a long-term diet to lose weight will easily break and delaminate. This is either a serious problem or not enough protein intake, and the nails will come back after adjusting the diet for half a month. The nails of older people have more and more vertical lines, which is the same as wrinkles on the skin. It is a normal manifestation of aging and there is no need to treat it.

If your nails suddenly turn black, cause severe pain, or all your nails become strangely deformed within a short period of time, don’t panic by browsing Baidu. It costs more than ten yuan to call a dermatology department, which is much more useful than blindly buying supplements.