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.
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