Reading our fingernails

[Theloose]

http://mrishaanshareef.blogspot.com/...ct-health.html
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/bookshel...=cm&part=A3372
http://www.aafp.org/afp/20040615/photo.html

[Theloose]

copying posts from the chat thread

Originally Posted by dannic

My lunulas are absent on all but my thumbnails. The article said to suspect anemia or malnutrition. I've only had temporary low iron after DS and DD2, but with all that I went through with my last pregnancy, I'll just bet I've been malnourished.
...

Originally Posted by whoMe

Lunulas - Mine are missing, too, though now I have them on my thumbs. Dh's were huge, though now they're looking more normal. When I read up on it before, the explanation I liked the best was that it had to do with how much oxygen can get to your fingertips. So many factors would affect it, including anemia, blood pressure, other nutrition, etc. I liked that explanation because I don't think my circulation's great, my fingers and toes are always cold, and dh is a heater.

Originally Posted by WuWei

From what I recall of the fingernail thread, the evidence of health changes over the course of weeks and months, not years of history, are "indicated" on the fingernails. The fingernails are only indicative of the "current" most recent status, unless there is ongoing deficiency, I believe. But, if you see nail improvement over a short period of time, say months, I'd expect that does indicate improved health. However, if you have generational deficiencies you may not see improved nail bed indicators.

Interestingly, I noticed my mom's fingernail beds looked very different last week, even before the thread about fingernails was posted. Clubbed, more yellow and darker. I know smokers have nailbeds like that, over time. But, this was a noticeable change from whenever I happened to notice her fingernails last, which was probably around Christmas. I just "notice" that type of thing from observing patients for years. It was interesting to see the fingernail thread a few days later.

All that to say, I believe current disease (past several months) is indicated by the nail beds.

Originally Posted by JacquelineR

It generally does show current health, yes, although chronic illnesses can show up for quite some time on your non-dominant hand.

Originally Posted by kl5

Hi folks, lurker piping up with a question about the above... Could this mean that if the nails on my right (dominant) hand are in better shape than my left, my health is improving? Nails on both hands, but worse on my left, have pretty serious ridges (going the length of the nail) and a deep crease going across my left thumb. My lunulas are missing completely from my pinkie and ring finger on my left hand and only missing from my pinkie on my right. Nails on both hands have a number of white flecks. I have been supping to overcome pretty serious iron and vitamin D deficiencies, so it would be heartening to see some sign of improvement.

Originally Posted by JacquelineR

I'm not certain that I would class that as your health improving as much as your health *changing*. You should not have (visible) lunulas. If they are visible, it indicates a health problem- usually a deficiency of some sort. It's been a long time since I studied it so I can't tell you any longer which finger correlates with which vitamin or mineral.
The decrease in ridges from one hand to the other is good. That means that the deficiencies aren't as severe as they *were*. The "crease" on your thumb was likely the result of an acute illness. You may consider zinc supplementation, since I do seem to recall that white flecks are a sign of zinc deficiency.
This is all stuff I learned when studying palmistry, btw... You'd be shocked what you can tell about the state of a person's health just from their hands.

[lil_miss_understood]

Just subbing.
I'd never seen that link before and it's been a good 10 years since I practiced palmistry at all, so I'm rather impressed with my memory.

[changingseasons]

:

[Theloose]

http://www.handresearch.com/finger-n...utor-start.htm
"ABSENT LUNULA are natural on the little finger. For most people have 8 Lunula, though some of them might be hidden under the cutticles.
Fewer than 8 lunula can signal various vulnerabilities such as: poor circulation, heart disease, protein deficiency, Vitamin A deficiency, numbness, or not enough oxygenation. "

[kjbrown92]

oh wait. I'm supposed to HAVE lunula? I thought it was a good thing that I didn't have them, from the chat thread info. I don't have any at all.

[tanyalynn]

I wonder if 8 is _really_ healthy/normal, or if we're all partly malnourished?

Vitamin A deficiency, huh? I've got that one. Need to take the cod liver oil. Kathy, I've only got 2, I don't think I've ever had more.

So I wonder if, since I've just recently started some CLO, how long it will take to see the beginnings of a lunula on my index finger? Wish I could set a timer attached to this thread to ding in a couple months and I could report back.

[Theloose]

Originally Posted by TanyaLopez

So I wonder if, since I've just recently started some CLO, how long it will take to see the beginnings of a lunula on my index finger? Wish I could set a timer attached to this thread to ding in a couple months and I could report back.

I can't remember when I was first looking this up, I want to say it was just a few months ago. At the time, I had no lunulae at all. As my adrenals got better (I think my iron was already fine, I wasn't doing significant vit A, definitely wasn't protein deficiency), they appeared on my thumbs. Now they're fading away again, but I think I've been slacking on my salt and staying hydrated. I'm going to try and bring my bp back up, and see if that changes anything.

[jeevee3]

I was looking at mine and realized I didn't have pinky lanuna so I immediately drank some blackstrap molasses (for the iron) Blech!

You mean I didn't have to do that?

[kjbrown92]

DH has always commented about that my nails weren't as big as they should be and he said it was because his mother used to push back their cuticles before church every Sunday when they were growing up. Maybe my lunulas are just hidden...

I've been taking fish oil for a year now....
Wouldn't low blood pressure sort of say that you had poor circulation?
Was it Calm who had talked about the oxygen test? I know I failed miserably when she had me do it. Of course she said what to do to get it better and I didn't do anything. Maybe I should sart taking the Oxygen Elements again.

[Theloose]

What's the oxygen test?

eta: that's interesting about your nails not being 'big enough.' Dh's and dd's are shorter than mine (more square), but dh's brother's are really, really long. I attributed it to dh biting his nails and bil having an aversion to cutting them, but then dd came along...

[lil_miss_understood]

Originally Posted by whoMe

What's the oxygen test?

:

[LBMarie9]

this is interesting to me---I am confused though---my DH has mostly all his white crescents on the botton of his nail beds (these are the lunas right?!) my two thumbs have it and my left pointer has a small one---no other fingers have it. it's really interesting to me that I :think" someone said that it could mean poor circulation since my hands go numb at night and I have problems (carpel tunnels, etc)---also intersting is that I KNOW I used to have lunas on most of my fingers (back when I was eating the SAD diet) I'm more deficient now?! how do you "fix" the oxygen!!? I DO have low blood pressure--I've always had low blood pressure- I thought it was a good thing--you can get too low?

[Theloose]

Originally Posted by LBMarie9

I DO have low blood pressure--I've always had low blood pressure- I thought it was a good thing--you can get too low?

Adrenal fatigue thread

[KatieBonita]

My nails aren't really thin, but they do split a lot. I can't see that listed on the link.. any clues?

[Chinese Pistache]

Originally Posted by KatieBonita

My nails aren't really thin, but they do split a lot. I can't see that listed on the link.. any clues?

Mine split, too. They're kind of thin (though, I do have KP, so what's up there?). I also have lunulas on all of my fingers (I need to check the kids), but the ones on my thumbs are largest, with all of them getting smaller as they go toward my pinky fingers.

[kjbrown92]

Originally Posted by whoMe

What's the oxygen test?

eta: that's interesting about your nails not being 'big enough.' Dh's and dd's are shorter than mine (more square), but dh's brother's are really, really long. I attributed it to dh biting his nails and bil having an aversion to cutting them, but then dd came along...

I don't mean that they're not long. It's just that they don't go very far down on my fingers. Do you know what I mean? They don't get long either. They break. But DH means it as I have small nails (he also says I have stubby fingers... he wrote a song about it when we were newlyweds... "Put Your Stubby Hand in Mine". That was the same week he wrote "Fishsticks Five Nights a Week"). I digress.

The oxygen test was something about holding your breath for a certain amount of time. It should be somewhere on the CSS thread. Of course, now that Calm is back, we can just ask her.

[Theloose]

Originally Posted by kjbrown92

I don't mean that they're not long. It's just that they don't go very far down on my fingers. Do you know what I mean? They don't get long either. They break. But DH means it as I have small nails (he also says I have stubby fingers... he wrote a song about it when we were newlyweds... "Put Your Stubby Hand in Mine". That was the same week he wrote "Fishsticks Five Nights a Week"). I digress.

The oxygen test was something about holding your breath for a certain amount of time. It should be somewhere on the CSS thread. Of course, now that Calm is back, we can just ask her.

I actually looked at her site and found it

That's what I meant too, about the nails. It's really hard to talk about, huh? I mean the pink part (as opposed to the white part that you cut) is 'normal' for me, long for BIL and really short for dh and dd.

[kjbrown92]

Originally Posted by whoMe

I actually looked at her site and found it

That's what I meant too, about the nails. It's really hard to talk about, huh? I mean the pink part (as opposed to the white part that you cut) is 'normal' for me, long for BIL and really short for dh and dd.

If you look at the actual test near the bottom, I was around a 5...
yup, the pink part is what I was talking about too.

[tanyalynn]

I didn't see that before, the breathing thing. I'm between "noticeable health problems" and "feeling lousy." And I feel so much better than I used to. :