healthy nail color

The core characteristics of healthy nails are that the overall background color is uniform light pink, the nail plate is smooth and shiny, and the nail half moon at the root of the nail is clear and milky white, with no obvious black spots, white spots, gray-yellow patches or large-scale color changes.

Last week, I went to the dermatology department with my best friend who was always suspecting that she had nail cancer. I went to see Dr. Chen, whom I have known for almost ten years, to see the thin black lines on her right hand that had been growing for half a year. We talked for more than half an hour about the misunderstandings about nail color, and only then did I realize that many people have ridiculous cognitive biases in this area.

Many people always think that healthy nails must be exactly the same "standard light pink", which almost means there is something wrong with the body, but it is not at all. I was born with poor peripheral circulation. When my hands freeze in the winter, my nails turn as white as paper. When I rub them to warm them, they immediately turn to light pink. Dr. Chen said that this is a normal physiological fluctuation and there is no need to worry at all. There is also my personal trainer who goes to the gym all year round. His nail color is one shade darker than ordinary people, a slightly translucent coral pink. This is also because his peripheral blood oxygen content is higher than that of ordinary people who sit for a long time, which is a healthy individual difference.

Oh, yes, regarding the judgment of nail color, the reference logic of Chinese and Western medicine is not the same, so there is no need to argue about right and wrong. Western medicine mostly distinguishes whether it is a local problem or a systemic problem: for example, a single gray-yellow thickening is mostly onychomycosis due to fungal infection. Striped black spots on the nails are either onychomycosis or traumatic congestion. If the whole fingernails are white, it is most likely to be checked for anemia. If it is purple and cyanotic, it is necessary to check whether there are abnormalities in cardiopulmonary function. From the perspective of traditional Chinese medicine, nails correspond to liver blood. White nails may indicate insufficient qi and blood, while yellow nails may indicate dampness and heat or spleen deficiency. In many cases, the treatment direction and the intervention logic of Western medicine can complement each other. For example, if the nails are slightly white and there is no anemia in a routine blood test, if you replenish qi and blood according to traditional Chinese medicine, most of the nails will slowly return to normal.

The most controversial thing is actually Jiabanyue. I have read a lot of health bloggers saying that "a healthy person must have 8-10 nails and a half months, the less, the more frail." I had counted mine before, and only my thumb and index finger were there, so I panicked for a while. As a result, Dr. Chen laughed directly and said that the size and number of nail half-moons are naturally very different. Some people's nail matrix grows far back, and the newly grown nails are already keratinized before they are exposed. They are born with only two thumbs with nail half-moons. As long as the nails do not suddenly become more or less, wide or narrow recently, there is no problem at all. On the contrary, if there were almost no nails for half a month before, but recently all ten fingers suddenly appeared, you should be alert to whether it is a sign of hyperthyroidism.

There are also many misunderstandings that make people laugh or cry. Not long ago, a colleague had several small white spots on her nails. Her mother insisted that she had roundworms in her stomach, so she was forced to take deworming medicine for two days. However, when she went to the hospital for a checkup, it was found that she hit the tip of her nail while loading a bookshelf two weeks ago, and the nail matrix was slightly damaged. It disappeared when the nail grew to the tip of her finger and was cut off. I was very nervous for several days. Also, my grandma is almost 80, and her nails are always a little yellow. I always suspected that her liver was not good, so I asked her to have a full set of liver function tests, all of which were normal. Dr. Chen said that the elderly’s deck will gradually thicken with age, and its transparency will decrease, and it will naturally have a yellowish tint. This is normal aging and is not a disease at all.

Oh, by the way, girls who have done manicures all year round, don’t panic. Many people feel their nails are dark yellow and lackluster after removing them, thinking that there is a serious health problem. In fact, most of them are caused by the nail surface being baked dry by the manicure lamp, or corroded by the acetone in the nail polish remover. If you stop doing manicures for half a month, apply some hand cream and finger edge oil every day, it can basically return to its original color.

In fact, to put it bluntly, nails are just "mini traffic lights" growing on the hands, but they are not a golden rule of health. If your color changes occasionally, don’t rush to the Internet to check the medical records and declare yourself “serious illness reserve”. First think about whether you have had a bump recently, whether you have had a manicure, or whether you have been exposed to cold or heat. If the color is really wrong for a month or two in a row, accompanied by pain, itching, and deformation and thickening of the deck, go directly to the hospital to see a dermatologist. It is much more reliable than following ten health-care posts.