To Your Health

A. Hippocrates as early as 400BC taught that the nails reflect the health of the whole body. Strong and healthy-looking nails reveal a lot about your general health, while odd shape and inappropriate color provide important clues when something goes wrong.

Nails are constructed primarily of a hard protein called keratin. Nails form a protective sheath over the sensitive endings of fingers and toes, helping protect them from serious injury. Examine your unpolished fingernails under a good light to uncover any evidence of nutrient deficiency or even possible serious health risk.

Most people will find only occasional cosmetic blemishes, perhaps a white spot indicating zinc deficiency or a bruise on the nail. Among the most serious observations would be a brown or black streak that begins at the base of the nail and extends to its tip. This could be a sign of a potentially dangerous melanoma and warrants an immediate visit to your health care provider.

If you have been ill recently, you may see indentations that run across your nail. These are known as Beau's lines and appear when growth at the nail root is interrupted by illness such as an infection. Nails grow about one-eighth of an inch per month (cuticle to tip in around six months) so you should be able to relate the Beau's line to the time of your illness. If you cannot connect the indentation to a past infection, or if the indentations appear regularly for the entire length of the nail, you may be suffering from essential fatty acid deficiency. Fatty acids are used to control the body's inflammatory response, and an inflammation run wild will damage more than just your fingernails. The best food source of the essential fatty acids that Americans tend to lack is seafood, but eggs fortified with these same fatty acids are now available.

About 20% of Americans complain about brittle nails. In a placebo-controlled clinical study, 60 patients with brittle nails were given 2.5 milligrams a day of biotin. This is about 10 times the amount of biotin found in our diet, but all showed improvement of nail quality. Brittle nails may also indicate low stomach acid. Stomach acid is needed not only to start the process of digestion in the stomach but also to bind minerals such as calcium for absorption in the gastrointestinal tract. Stomach acid also signals the pancreas to release its enzymes and finish digesting food. If you are not absorbing nutrients because of insufficient stomach acid, this should be corrected even before you change your nutrient intake.

If you have ridges that run the length of the nail, spoon-shaped nails, and very large moons at the base of the nail, you should have your physician check for thyroid problems. In the most serious cases, the nail may detach from the nail bed and be lost.

When fingernails widen and become rounded (clubbing) you may be suffering from a chronic lack of oxygen to your extremities, a possible sign of heart or lung disease. In addition to some obvious remedies, such as exercising more or quitting smoking if you smoke, a supplement of coenzyme Q-10 is worth a try.

Fortunately, most nail abnormalities can be corrected. If they persist for more than a few months, such clues to your nutritional and health status should not be ignored.