The Huffington
Post | By Laura Schocker
Aside from the occasional manicure, broken fingernail or stubbed toe,
most of us tend to take our nails for granted, not giving them much beyond a
passing thought.
But they might be more complicated than we think. For starters, nails
are made up of more than just the part we paint over with polish. "The
nail plate (hard part of the nail) grows out from the matrix (the root) in a
shape something like an ocean wave," says Jessica Krant, M.D., a
board-certified dermatologist, founder of Art of Dermatology and an assistant
clinical professor of dermatology at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in New York
City. "The white portion of the nail at the base (most easily visible at
the thumbs) is called the lunula (little moon). This is the end of the matrix
showing."
Intrigued? Here are 15 more things you might not know about your nails:
Fingernails grow an average of
3.5 millimeters per month.
That's just over a tenth of an inch. And nails on your dominant hand
tend to grow faster. Toenails, on the other, uh, hand, grow an average of 1.6
millimeters a month, according to the American Academy of Dermatology.
White spots on your nails don't
indicate a calcium deficiency.
"Calcium deficiency causing white spots on nails is the most
common myth, followed by zinc deficiency. The truth is that white spots are
common and harmless and don't indicate any specific vitamin deficiency at
all," Krant says. "Most likely they are signs of previous trauma to
the nail plate (the hard part of the nail) or the matrix (the source of the
nail plate, which is located underneath the cuticle under the skin). Just like
folding or denting a piece of clear plastic leaves a white spot, so does
pressure or trauma to the nail."
Nails are made out of the same
stuff as hair.
Both nails and hair are made up of keratin, just put together in a
different way, Krant explains. And that means the same foods that are good for
your hair are good for your nails. "A varied diet rich in vitamins,
antioxidant fruits and veggies, protein, and minerals is key for healthy nails
and hair," she says. "Keratin is a protein, and healthy oils and fats
are also needed to keep the skin, hair, and nails moisturized and strong."
Men's nails grow faster than
women's nails.
The possible exception, according to the American Academy of
Dermatology, is during pregnancy.
Nails are what separate the
primates from the mammals.
While most mammals have claws to help them with daily tasks, fingernails
are something that distinguish primates (including humans) from the rest of the
group, LiveScience reports:
Scientists suspect primates sort of lost their claws and fashioned
broad fingertips topped with nails to aid in locomotion. While claws would have
provided excellent grip as our mammalian ancestors clambered up large tree
trunks, they would have been a nuisance for larger-bodied primates trying to
grasp smaller branches while scrambling across tree canopies for fruits.
Rather, primates developed broader fingertips made for grasping.
Nail biting is called
onychophagia.
It's also the most common "nervous habit," WebMD reports, a
category which includes other behaviors such as hair twisting or pulling, tooth
grinding or picking at the skin. Roughly half of children between 10 and 18
bite their nails, according to WebMD, but most people stop on their own by age
30. While nail biting is largely harmless (albeit unsanitary), possible health
risks include contributing to skin infections and aggravating nail bed
conditions, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Last year, experts considered including nail-biting, along with other
"pathological grooming" habits, as a type of obsessive compulsive
disorder in the new Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
You actually should let your
nails "breathe" between manicures.
You might want to reschedule that weekly mani appointment -- according
to Krant, it's best to reduce the amount of time your nails are polished to
keep them at their healthiest. "Believe it or not, that hard thing on the
tip of your finger is living tissue, and oxygen does penetrate through the nail
plate to the nail bed," she says. "When you smother the nail and the
nail bed beneath it, the nail has a harder time fighting off infections like
the wart virus or a nail fungus. Also, nail polish is quite drying to the nail,
so keeping them polished all the time (and re-doing the manicure repeatedly,
with the drying chemicals used to remove polish) can eventually dry them out
and make them less flexible and strong."
Nails are a window to the entire
body.
"There is a huge amount that a well-trained dermatologist can tell
about your overall health just by examining nails. From nail bed discoloration
(blueish means lung disease), to capillaries in the cuticles (autoimmune
disease), to yellow, white, or banded nails, sometimes very serious or even
life-threatening disease can be diagnosed just by examining the tips of your
fingers," Krant says. "So if you see something wrong or unusual, like
a dark brown patch on your cuticle that also has an accompanying brown streak
up across the whole nail plate (melanoma), see a dermatologist for help."
Nails grow faster in the summer
than in the winter.
According to the American Academy of Dermatology, different times of
year (as well as your age, genes and a handful of other factors) can affect
nail growth speed.
About 10 percent of
dermatological conditions are nail-related.
Roughly half of nail disorders are caused by fungal infections,
according to the AAD (and they're more frequent in toenails). Other common
conditions include white spots (see above), vertical lines, bacterial
infections and ingrown toenails. Senior citizens tend to have more nail
problems than younger people.
Stress can take a toll on your
nails.
In addition to stress-related picking and biting, chronic stress can
inhibit nail growth, HuffPost previously reported. It's important to manage
stress and get plenty of sleep for optimal nail health (and for a whole bunch
of other reasons), according to Krant. "Chronic stress and fatigue divert
the body's energy and nutrients away from growing healthy nails and hair,"
she says.
There's a reason we can't stand
nails on a chalkboard.
Just the thought of it is enough to make us cringe -- but why?
According to 2011 research, part of the reason is because the noise hits a
frequency that's naturally amplified by the shape of our ear canals, HuffPost
reported at the time. The problem might also have a psychological component --
when study participants were told the source of the noise, they tended to rate
it as more unpleasant compared to those who were told it was part of a musical
composition.
Cuticles have a purpose.
And that's why many experts recommend against removing them for
aesthetic purposes. "The cuticle is there to seal moisture and
environmental germs out of the body, which is why it's very important not to
pick at the cuticle or to let manicurists cut it off," Krant says.
"It must be treated gently and left in place as much as possible."
The hardness of your nails is
mostly genetic.
Not much can be done about nail shape or how quickly they grow in,
Krant explains, but nails that constantly break or peel could signal being dried
out. "Hand washing, doing dishes without thick rubber gloves, house
cleaning, working with paper, getting frequent manicures, and using a lot of
hand sanitizer are all culprits that contribute," she says. To protect
your hands, use a thick hand and nail cream that you use regularly (not just
once a day): "If you get into the habit of reapplying frequently, you keep
your cuticles smooth and unclipped, and you gently file off rough nail edges
instead of picking at them, your nails will start to peel and break less."
Your nails need blood to
survive.
Ever wonder why your nail sometimes falls off after an injury? Here's
the explanation: "Since the nail plate needs blood flow, oxygenation, and
nutrients to grow normally, a crush injury (or kicking the edge of the door
really, really hard by mistake) can disrupt the delicate microscopic
connections that provide the nutrition, and that already growing nail may not
be able to recover well enough to keep growing," Krant says. "It may
fall off completely, and after time be replaced by a new perfectly healthy nail
when the matrix and nail bed are able to reattach themselves to a freshly
growing nail." If the damage happens at the root of the nail, under the
cuticle, it can become permanently scarred, which might mean that you'll always
grow a misshapen nail after that.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/24/nail-facts-fingernails_n_3957467.html?utm_hp_ref=beauty-and-skin
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