What Your Nails Can Tell You About Your Risk of Skin Cancer and Other Diseases

If you see a widening band of color running up and down your fingernail, you might want to see a doctor right away. That colored band could be an early signal of a rapidly spreading skin cancer.

You may want to become better acquainted with your fingernails and toenails. Those lowly parts may serve as important early warning signs for several serious ailments, including liver and kidney failure, heart and blood vessel disorders, poisonings, various painful inflammations of the joints and muscles and a deadly form of skin cancer called melanoma.

Melanoma does appear in the nail unit. If you happen to see a widening brownish or blackish band running up and down the nail, especially in person of middle age or older, a biopsy may be indicated.

You have to get your nails carefully examined by a doctor every time you have a physical examination. Lines or changes in nail coloration may indicate disease or exposure to toxic substances in the home or workplace. Pits and beads on the nails may also provide clues to the presence of rheumatoid arthritis and two kinds of muscular inflammations called fibromyalgia and myofascial syndromes.

In one study, out of 150 patients suffering from myofascial syndrome, 122 had nail pits and 76 had nail beads. Of 93 patients with fibromyalgia, 80 had nail pits and 45 had beads on their nail surfaces.

In addition, 25 out of 30 patients with rheumatoid arthritis also had beads on their nails. Now let me share to you some of the most common signs that your nails can tell you with regards your health.

1. Double white horizontal lines. This could be a sign of liver disease or poor nutrition.

2. Spoon nails. The nail surface forms a cup or depression. May be a sign of iron deficiency or anemia.

3. Yellow nails. Hard yellow nails may be a sign of chronic lung disease like emphysema or chronic bronchitis, or it could be sinus trouble.

4. Half-brown, half-normal nails. This could be sign of serious kidney trouble if the nail half nearest the knuckle is normal but the half toward the end of the nails is brownish.

5. Club nails. This is the opposite of spoon nails, the nail is raised abnormally high with steep side curves. May be signal of heart disease, lung disease or thyroid problems.

Now those are just a few of the signs that your nails can tell you. Familiarize yourself of them and you might even save yourself or others from a long-term serious disease in the future.

Suzie’s passion is to write on wide varieties of subjects. Her latest writing is at baby bjorn active carrier which contains reviews on baby carriers backpacks and other information about baby carriers.