When you’re 50 and older, every doctor will suggest that you have a general checkup every year. However in this day and age, an increasing number of young people are succumbing to sickness, so as we say, prevention is better than cure. To ensure excellent health, I recommend that you begin having regular medical checkups from age 20 and maintain a balanced diet.
Meanwhile, did you know that your fingernails may provide important information about your overall health? Let’s look at some of the various nail conditions that might indicate a more severe underlying problem.
Nail Clubbing
Nail clubbing is a structural alteration in the fingernails or toenails that makes them look like an upside-down spoon. Low oxygen levels in the blood, lung diseases, heart difficulties, and digestive system disorders are all possible reasons for nail clubbing, but lung cancer is the most common.
Nail Pitting
Pitting can occur on either your fingernails or toenails. Pitting on your nails can appear as small or deep holes. It’s possible that the pitting seems to be white dots or other markings.
Psoriatic arthritis patients are more likely to have pitted nails. According to new research, there may be a relationship between nail pitting and the severity of psoriasis in general. In addition to psoriasis, there are a few other reasons for nail pitting. These can include conditions such as:
Atopic and contact dermatitis, connective tissue disorders, osteoarthritis, auto-immune diseases such as alopecia areata, sarcoidosis, pemphigus Vulgaris and incontinentia pigmenti.
Beau’s Lines
We’ve all had witness lines on our nails at some point. Beau’s lines are a frequent nail deformity that might indicate health issues. These ridges developing over the nail are sometimes incorrectly referred to as “bowlines”. Beau’s lines appear when the nail matrix — the area where your nail emerges from your finger — is disrupted.
If you have Beau’s lines on more than one nail, the reason is most likely a systemic infection, long-term exposure to specific environmental variables, or chronic disease. Beau lines can indicate acute renal failure, mumps, thyroid illness, syphilis, and a variety of other conditions.
Yellow Nail Syndrome
Yellow nail syndrome is recognized by the yellowing and thickening of the nails over time. Further symptoms include the loss of the cuticle, the nails stop growing, detachment from the nail bed and even the complete loss of a nail.
Yellow nails might suggest a liver or renal issue, diabetes, fungal infections, or psoriasis.
Pale Nail (White nail) Syndrome
Pale Nail (White nail) Syndrome
Nails that are pink in colour are typically healthy; conversely, excessively pale nails may suggest sickness. Random white patches on the nails are usually innocent and are produced by accident, such as hitting the fingertip or exposing the nails to repetitive stress from manicures.
Apart from what has been mentioned above, zinc insufficiency, calcium shortage, fungal infections, and allergic responses are all possible reasons. But aside from those, causes can range from slight health issues to more serious ones. It would help if you avoided using nail paint or filing the nail till it becomes too thin. Severe disease may be renal illness, heart disease, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, and liver disease.
To wrap up…
If you have one of the nail issues mentioned above, you should see a doctor to be screened for any underlying health issues that may have caused them to appear. If you have found this article helpful or have further insight that you would like to share with your fellow readers, let us know in the comments section below, we would love to hear from you.
