- Keep nails neatly trimmed.
- Nails can get soft due to being in water a lot, so consider wearing rubber gloves.
- Avoid excess exposure to strong chemicals.
- Try not to dig, poke at or lift nails.
- While filing nails, move file in one direction only, outwards from the middle.
- Ensure you have enough calcium, vitamin D, iodine, copper, zinc, and B vitamins, especially biotin, in your diet.
- Rubbing almond oil into the nails every day may help keep them strong.
White spots: These are common and usually a sign of disruption to the nail structure caused by minor trauma. They may be a symptom of low calcium, or anaemia, and chronic diseases such as diabetes. Constant use of nail polish can also leave white marks on the nail surface. Solution: Make sure you get enough calcium and iron in your diet. Moisturise nails regularly to keep them supple. Try changing to a milder nail-polish remover.
Vertical ridges: Thicker ridges running along the length of the nail out to the fingertip often develop as we get older. Solution: You can smooth out these ridges by filing them down with a double-sided polishing nail file.
Horizontal ridges: Ridges or indentations going across the nail from side to side are a sign that the formation of the new nail has been disrupted. This can be caused by injuries to the nail fold (under the skin just above the visible nail) and infections; also by skin diseases such as psoriasis, severe heart disease, malnutrition, low calcium intake and some drug treatments, especially chemotherapy. Solution: Check your general health and diet. By the time the ridges appear, any health threat may have passed. If ridges persist, see your GP.
Discoloured nails: The most common cause is chronic fungal infection. In people with diabetes, fungal infections increase the risk of bacterial infection, leading to foot ulcers and gangrene, so keep an eye on them. Other conditions that can discolour nails are: chronic bacterial infections elsewhere in the body, jaundice and some drug treatments. Solution: Keep feet clean and dry well after washing. Ask your pharmacist about antifungal treatments - you need to follow the instructions meticulously.
Spoon shaped nails: Nails which sink down in the centre (koilonychia) are linked to several diseases including iron-deficiency anaemia, Raynauds disease (where blood vessels to the extremities go into episodes of spasm), lupus (an autoimmune disease) and haeomatochromosis (an inherited disorder of iron storage). Solution: Talk to your GP, especially if you have other symptoms, including tiredness (which could indicate anaemia).
Pale nails: Can indicate the nail has come away from the nail bed below and will soon fall off. Can also be a sign of more serious disease (e.g. liver cirrhosis, heart disease, diabetes, overactive thyroid). Solution: If you have more than one damaged white nail, see your GP to rule out more serious problems.
Black nails: Usually the result of trauma with bleeding into the nail. Psoriasis can cause nails to turn red or brown, or pitted; a chronic bacterial infection can cause a greenish-black tinge; kidney failure can leave nails brown at the tips. Vertical dark stripes are a common normal variant in people with darker skin. Solution: A damaged black nail will fall off in time. Monitor dark patches in a nail: if they grow or affect the nail fold, they could be a pigmented cancer called a subungual melanoma.
Feature by Dr Tricia Mcnair in Lifespan magazine, Spring 2015 and various other sources.
