Healthy nail color

The core color of healthy nails is a uniform and transparent light pink, and the half-moon mark at the root of the nail is usually a warm milky white. However, this is only a general reference standard. Individual differences are huge, and it is not possible to directly use a template to determine whether it is healthy or not.

Because of this incident a while ago, I stopped my mother from buying hundreds of yuan of iron supplement oral liquid - she saw on a short video that white nails were a sign of Qi and blood deficiency. She looked at her nails for a long time, and the more she looked at them, the more she felt that there was something wrong with her white nails, so she had to buy health supplements. I took her to see an old classmate in the dermatology department. They said that my mother was born with shallow nail beds. She has had this color since she was a child. There is nothing wrong with her, and she is just scaring herself.

In fact, the nail itself is a translucent cuticle. The color we see is basically the blood color revealed by the capillaries under the nail bed. If the blood oxygen is sufficient and the microcirculation is good, it will naturally be a uniform light pink. If you exercise and have strong cardiopulmonary function all year round, it is normal for your nails to be a little redder than ordinary people. I know a friend who runs marathons. His nails are darker pink all year round, and all physical examination indicators are better than ordinary people. There are also elders who do farm work and construction sites outdoors all year round. Their nails will inevitably have a slight yellow color. As long as they are not thickened, uneven, or chipped, it is probably caused by long-term exposure to the sun, dust, and stains, and it is not a problem.

Speaking of which, I have to mention Crescent Moon, which everyone cares about the most. The two schools of thought actually have quite different views on this. The anatomical conclusion of Western medicine is very clear: the lunula is a new nail plate that has not yet been completely keratinized. People with methyl groups that grow quickly and are located in the front will have more and larger lunula. If the methyl methyl group is naturally located in the back and the nails are completely keratinized when they grow out, then the thumb may have two crescents for the rest of its life, and it will be completely healthy. But I asked a friend who is a Chinese medicine practitioner, and he said that in the clinical experience of Chinese medicine, the change of the crescent moon can indeed reflect the state of Qi and blood - if you used to have 8 crescent moons, and suddenly only 2 are left, and you still feel tired, afraid of cold, and your hands and feet are cold, it is probably because your work and rest schedule has been too poor recently and your Qi and blood have been consumed a lot. There is no harm in regulating it. In fact, the two statements are not contradictory. The former says that there is no problem with the natural stable state, while the latter says that you should be wary of sudden changes. They can be viewed together.

Of course, this does not mean that changes in nail color should not be taken seriously at all. There are some signs that you should pay attention to. I once had a colleague who went on a diet to wear a wedding photo and lost 25 pounds in three months. His pink nails turned pale and even the edges of his nail beds turned black. He fainted in the conference room during a meeting and was sent to have his hemoglobin tested and his hemoglobin was only 60g/L. It was severe anemia, which scared everyone. There is also Uncle Zhang who has been smoking for 30 years downstairs. His nails have been yellowed by cigarette stains all year round. We always laugh at him as "the color of old smokers." But last year, a dark brown vertical line with a width of 2mm suddenly appeared on his thumb. In less than three months, it became 4mm wide. The edge was still blurry. He quickly went to the hospital for pathology. Fortunately, it was a benign onychomycosis. If it were later, there would be a risk of malignant transformation. Oh, yes, there are also the kind of nails that suddenly turn gray and turbid, and the nails become thicker. Don’t think that you are in poor health. It is most likely onychomycosis caused by fungal infection. Go to the dermatology department for a fungal examination for tens of dollars. You can apply or take medicine to the symptom and it will be cured quickly. Don’t buy blind remedies and soak your hands until the skin peels off.

Speaking of which, I have made a joke before. I have had manicures every month for more than half a year, and every time I removed my nails, I had to wear off a layer of the nail surface. During that time, my nails always looked white. I thought I was anemic, so I went to draw two tubes of blood and found no problem. The doctor asked me to stop doing manicures for three months and not polish my nails. After more than two months, the original light pink color slowly showed through. It was purely caused by external factors.

In fact, after all, nail color is just like a person’s complexion. Some people are born with cold white skin and some are born with yellow skin. As long as it is a stable state that you maintain all year round, there are no sudden changes in color or shape, and there is nothing uncomfortable, there is basically no need to be too anxious. If you are really unsure, it costs more than ten yuan to register a regular dermatology account, and the doctor can give you an accurate answer in two minutes. It is much more reliable than watching ten health videos and guessing the symptoms.