This Is What Your Fingernails Are Warning You About: Organ Failure, Inflammation, or Worse

Fingernails might not be the first thing you think about when you think about health. However, they are very important and there is a big connection between them and your health. They can signal a presence of different types of diseases.

Credit:dailyhealthguardian.com

Therefore, this means that you can look at your nails with much attention and look at their curves, dips, ridges and grooves and just see how thick or thin they are, or if they are broken or chipped. You should also check their color together with the skin around and underneath them. They can inform you of a lot of things. Thus, if you want to know what they can tell, keep reading.

The Warning Signs that Fingernails Point to

1. Discolored Nails

If your fingernails are healthy, they should be pink in color, with a bit of white moons near the base. If they are in a different color, it might meant that you have some health problems.

• Green nails show bacterial infection.
• Red streaks in the nail bed show a heart valve infection.
• Blueish nails show low oxygen levels in the blood.
• Dull nails show a vitamin deficiency.
• White nails indicate liver disease like hepatitis.
• Dark stripes at the top means that you are aging or you have congestive heart failure.

2. Thick Nails

Thick nails are not normal. They have to be strong, if they are not, it means:

• Psoriasis
• Thyroid problems
• Fungal infection
• Circulation problems
• Lung disease

3. Split Nails

These nails can flake away in later. However, many people think this is because nail polish, but in fact it might be:

• From folic acid, vitamin C and protein deficiencies.
• Caused by chronic malnutrition
• If they are split and have a pitted nail bed, it can point to psoriasis, which starts in the nails 10% of the time.

4. Concave (Spoon Nails)

These types of nails curve up and form a dip. They might point to:

• Iron deficiency
• Hemachromatosis, a liver disorder when the body absorbs too much iron
• Heart Disease
• Hypothyroidism

5. Pitted Nails

If your nails have small dips, it means this might have happened by banging them or you have a health problems like:

• Psoriasis
• Connective tissue disorder
• Alopecia areata, an autoimmune disorder that causes hair loss
• Zinc deficiency

6. Ridges

If your nails are healthy, they will be smooth with invisible lines. If they are ridged, it might meant that you suffer from:

• Inflammatory arthritis
• Iron deficiency
• Lupus

You should not try to buffer them, just look for the real cause of this.

7. Dry, Brittle Nails

These types of nails are connected with bacterial infections and hormone imbalance. Also:

• Fungus can make them dry and crumbly. This disease affects 12% of Americans.
• Thyroid disease can also lead to brittle and dry fingernails.

8. Clubbed Nails

They are puffed around the fingers. Also, the skin around the nail can be swollen. They indicate:

• Lung disease, if you have trouble breathing
• AIDS
• Inflammatory bowel disease
• Liver disease

This is very useful information which will help you discover if you are suffering from a health condition and all it takes is one look at your nails. Thus, do not take them for granted and monitor them from time to time. They can save your life sometimes!