Although you might never have thought your nails can have anything to do with your health, your nails, like a lot of other body parts, is an indicator to you about your health. The color, shape, thickness of your nails are all symptoms that can be an indication to various health problems.
Here are a few things about nails that must be watched and what they indicate:
1. Nail color
The color of your nails indicates the underlying problems. Generally, healthy nails are in a pink shade with a small crescent at the bottom which is white. A healthy hemoglobin level manages to reflect a pink shade in the nails. Any other colors suggest abnormalities. Here are the colors and indications:
If you have green nails, then that means the nails are infected by bacteria.
If you can see red lines on your nails then that may indicates towards a heart condition.
If your nails are blue then you have low oxygen levels in blood.
If your nails are white then you may have liver related issues.
If your nails are pale then you may have a vitamin deficiency.
2. Thickness of nails
Unlike the common understanding that thick nails means they are healthy, it is less known that thick nails are not natural.
Unusually thick nails indicate poor circulation of blood. Thick nails can also be an indication to lung problems.
While grooved and thick nails mean yeast infections, cracked and thick nails relate to problems with the thyroid gland.
If you have dry and brittle nails then you might be suffering from lack of calcium or vitamin D or Vitamin A.
If you observe that your nails frequently split or are flaky, this may be due to the absence of linoleic acid in your body.
If the skin at the edge of your nail always tears off then you might have a combined deficiency of proteins as well as folic acid and vitamin C.
3. Shape of the nails
The shape of your nail can also indicate the kind of underlying health problems.
If you have curved nails like that of a spoon i.e curved outside then you may be suffering from an iron deficiency or too much iron. When you have spoon nails, the blood supply doesn’t reach the middle of your nail to make it grow. It is sometimes connected with the heart disease as well. White spots on nails is also an indication of iron deficiency in the body.
Although you might not notice there are a lot of things your nails are trying to tell you. Thinning, brittleness, discoloration, splitting, grooves, tiny white spots, concave or convex growth are all related to illness. Some might be natural due to ageing while most others are symptoms of a disease. Sometimes these symptoms are due to the effect of drugs, poisoning or general injury too.
So the next time you see such symptoms in your nails, make sure you improve on your diet and intake of vitamins which mostly solves the problem but make sure to consult a doctor.