What Do Healthy Nails Look Like

Last reviewed: 03/03/2020

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Your nails say a lot about your general health, and even pocket-size changes in their appearance can reveal more than than you call up.

Most nail changes aren't caused by anything serious, but some can propose that you have low levels of certain vitamins or minerals, or an underlying condition that needs medical attention.

Eye, lung and thyroid disease are just some of the more serious conditions your nails tin can provide clues about.

Only to spot these clues, you'll need to know what healthy nails await similar and the changes that suggest that something may be wrong.

Signs you have healthy nails

Healthy nails are even in colour, gratuitous of any pits or grooves, and feel smoothen to the touch.

But if they become dry, brittle or change colour, something may be incorrect with your nails or your overall health.

When nail changes are nil to worry about

Some blast changes tin can exist harmless. For example, there's usually no need to worry well-nigh:

white spots or streaks - these tin can oft be acquired by injury
darker lines running downwardly the blast
brittle nails - this can be due to ageing or long-term exposure to h2o, nail polish or chemical cleaning products

Nails can look and experience dissimilar depending on the time of year (they may be more dry during the colder months) and how old y'all are. Merely if you notice a sudden modify in a blast or the peel around your nail becomes ruby-red or swollen, go it checked past a dr..

It'due south also normal for your nails to change during the course of your life. For example, nails may:

become softer, harder or more brittle during pregnancy
break more hands every bit you lot get older
change colour or fifty-fifty autumn off after injury (such equally communicable your nail in a door)

If yous do lose a boom later on an injury, it can take upward to 6 months for a fingernail to grow back and xviii months for a toenail to do the aforementioned. If an injured nail hasn't grown back later this fourth dimension, see a medico.

When to see a medico nigh your nails

Nail wellness is linked to how well your body is performance and changes in your torso tin can sometimes be seen in them.

And so, what type of changes should you look out for?

Keep an middle out for whatsoever of the post-obit:

white or spoon-shaped nails - this tin can exist a sign of iron-deficiency anaemia. Check to encounter if the inside of your lower eyelids are also pale equally this may mean that your torso is making fewer red blood cells because your iron levels are depression
thickened or discoloured (white, black, xanthous or green) nails - this may be caused by a fungal boom infection
pitting - small dents on the surface of the nails can bespeak:
- psoriasis (a skin status that causes ruby, crusty areas to form on the skin)
- a type of eczema called pompholyx (a condition that causes small blisters on the skin)

See a doctor if you discover a alter in the texture, color, thickness or shape of any of your nails and you're non certain why.

Also see a doc if any of your nails fall off unexpectedly. It'south natural for a toenail to alter colour and drop off if you've injured it, but a healthy nail shouldn't autumn off for no reason. If it does, this may be a sign of a health condition.

Find out more than almost why nails autumn off.

Keeping your nails healthy

Following a bones nail care routine should assist to prevent nail harm and other bug. If you need more guidance on what could be wrong with your nails, take a look at this article on smash abnormalities.