healthy nail color

There is no need to search for the standard answer - there is no uniform color number across the Internet for true healthy nail color. There are only three core judgment criteria: the color is uniform and free of noise, the surface has a natural and translucent luster, and the base color is a light pink to transparent tone that fits your own skin tone. As long as these three points are met, even if it is a little more yellow or a little redder than others, you are in a completely healthy state, and there is no need to worry about it.

Have you ever seen the overwhelming "nail health comparison card"? Which cherry blossom powder is the best solution? White color means anemia, yellow color means liver and gallbladder problems, and purple color means heart problems. A while ago, I accompanied a friend to the dermatology department to see onycholysis. I met a sophomore girl in the clinic. She held up her fingernails and told the doctor that she wanted to check her liver function. She said that her nails were yellower than her roommate's, so she must be sick. As a result, the doctor took her hand and compared it with her arm. He said that you have warm skin with yellow and white skin, and it is normal for your nails to have a warm yellow tone. Those comparison cards are all based on the color of nails with cold white skin, so they cannot be applied to everyone.

Speaking of which, the industry actually has two different reference systems for judging nail color. Old-school Chinese medicine often associates nail color with qi, blood, and the state of the organs. For example, a lighter white color corresponds to a lack of qi and blood, a crimson color may indicate internal heat, and a yellowish and dark color may indicate damp and heat accumulation. This judgment logic is combined with the state of the whole body, and generally people will not draw conclusions just by looking at the nails. The view of modern dermatology is more direct: the color of the nail surface itself is affected by heredity, daily habits, and even the state of the day. As long as there are no single color mutations, nail surface bumps, pain, thickening and other abnormalities, color differences between individuals and even color differences at different times are mostly normal.

I have a lot of say in this. Last winter, I suddenly found that all ten of my nails were white, and I couldn’t see any pink tones. The more I looked at the comparison pictures on the Internet, the more scared I became. I checked in overnight and had four blood tests and anemia checked. Nothing was wrong. I went home and thought about it for a long time before reacting. During that time, I wiped the furniture with diluted 84 every day. Every time I felt it was troublesome to wear gloves and started using it directly. The disinfectant directly bleached the surface of the nail surface. I stopped touching it for about a week, and the pink tone of the nail slowly grew back. It’s a bit funny to think about it now.

There are also many people who think that the more crescents on the nails, the healthier they are. Fewer crescents and whiter nails are weak. I specifically asked the dermatologist and he said that the nature of crescents is nails that are not completely keratinized. Some people's nail matrix is ​​far back and the crescents cannot be exposed. They are born with only lunula on their thumbs. Are they unhealthy? There are also people who have small white spots on their nails, and they check everywhere to see if they are deficient in calcium and zinc. In fact, most of them are caused by small injuries caused by biting their nails or bumping them until they touched the nail bed. When the nails slowly grow forward, they are gone when they are cut. There is no need to patch this or that.

Of course, that doesn’t mean you don’t have to worry about nail color changes at all. What you really need to worry about is the “sudden local abnormality”. For example, a black line suddenly grows on a certain nail and is slowly getting wider. Then you need to check whether it is a nevus in time. Although most of them are benign, it is more reassuring to rule out the risk of malignant transformation.； If the entire nail suddenly becomes gray and thick, and the nail surface becomes brittle and crumbly, it is most likely onychomycosis. You need to see a doctor to prescribe antifungal medicine. Don’t use folk remedies blindly. ； If your nails suddenly turn purple when it's cold, just warm them up and you'll be fine. That's just poor blood circulation due to the cold. Don't blame yourself for a heart attack.

In fact, I have met so many people who have "nail anxiety". Most of them have read a few popular science articles out of context, and the more they look at their nails, the more problems they have. It's really not necessary. The color difference of your nails is far less accurate than your usual mental state and sleep appetite. If you are really worried, you can get a regular dermatology account, which costs only ten yuan, and a doctor’s look is much more reliable than looking at your phone for three hours. After all, compared to whether your nails are pink enough or not, the anxiety of thinking about them every day is the most harmful to your body.