Healthy Nails = Healthy Body

There are many ways your body lets you know you are not in the healthiest state. You may have pain, elevations in temperature or blood pressure, or just generalized fatigue. Your joints could be swollen or you could just be unable to rid yourself of that nagging cough. Changes or symptoms are the best indicators of some type of glitch in your body.

But sometimes you feel just fine. There are no outward signs that your body is struggling to overcome certain obstacles to function at maximum efficiency - or so it would seem!

Remarkably, your nails may be an indicator of your overall health!

Your nails you ask? That's right, your nails! Sometimes, the smallest changes in something as seemingly insignificant as your nails may be telltale signs that all is not quite right.

Does your doctor ever look at your hands? Maybe you don't even notice, but chances are he inspects your nails more than you know. Aside from the normal problems nails can have, like becoming ingrown, infected, separated or falling off (usually due to trauma), nails can provide evidence that something is wrong inside your body.

Granted since nails grow slow, approximately ¼ of an inch per month, and are the last part of the body to receive blood and nutrients, nails that are damaged from diseases or conditions are not "real-time" indicators. In other words, if the end of the nail shows changes, such as stains, lines or ridges, the problem is not a new one. But if the nail grows in damaged then this is an indication that your body is presently experiencing an unhealthy state.

But what does that mean - an unhealthy state? If you were sick you would know it, right?

Well not all the time! Sometimes there are no outward signs of illness but yet your body is not functioning to its fullest capacity. Anything from a pre-existing condition to an unbalanced diet can disturb the body's health.

DISCOLORATIONS
Healthy nails are uniform in color and free of discolorations and spots. Normal nails have a pinkish hue.