healthy nail color

The core color of healthy nails is a uniform light pink with a translucent natural luster. The crescent at the root of the nail (nail half-moon) is soft milky white and usually accounts for about 1/5 of the length of the nail surface. This is currently the most recognized standard for healthy nail base color in dermatology clinics.

A while ago, I accompanied my best friend to get her New Year's manicure done in a complicated style. When she was removing her nails, the manicurist stared at her nails and frowned, saying that your nails must be anemic if you have white nails, and you should drink more brown sugar and ginger tea. As a result, she went for her annual physical examination, and her blood tests were all normal. The doctor said that she was born with thick nail beds, and the color of her blood would be lighter than that of ordinary people, so it was not a problem at all. Don't tell me, there are really many people who check out the "nail color card" found online and are scared to death if there is a slight deviation. In fact, the individual differences in nail color are much greater than you think.

For example, people who are born with cold white skin generally have thin nail beds, and their nails will look more translucent pink, and you can even vaguely see the capillaries underneath. As long as you press your fingertips and release them for 1-2 seconds, it will return to light pink, which is completely fine. My mother has this kind of constitution. In the past two years, I always heard from health care accounts that her nails were too white because of lack of energy and blood. After eating red dates for more than half a year, the color did not change. I went to the dermatologist to ask and found out that it was natural. I worried for a long time. On the other hand, if you exercise regularly and do physical work, your peripheral blood circulation is better than that of ordinary people, your nail color will be darker peach pink, which is completely within the health category. My brother is an outdoor team leader and runs outside all year round. His nail color is two shades darker than mine, and his physical fitness is better than anyone else. Oh, by the way, there are also people who always associate the number and color of crescents with health. I have seen a young man who was born with only two thumbs with crescents, and he can run the whole marathon without any problem, but the nail matrix grows far back, and the crescents are hidden in the flesh and cannot be seen. There is really no need to worry about this.

What you really need to be wary of is the sudden, full-surface color change. For example, I met a little girl in her early 20s at the outpatient clinic. She only ate boiled vegetables for three months in order to wear a small skirt. When she came in, her nails were as white and foggy as ground glass. It took five or six seconds for her blood color to return after pressing. She was always dizzy. Her hemoglobin was only 80g/L, which is moderate anemia. This is a real health warning. Oh, by the way, if it's just the edges or tips of your nails that are a little white, don't panic. It's most likely caused by washing too many dishes recently, using too much laundry detergent and disinfectant, and dehydrating the cuticles on your nails. Just apply nail polish for a few days. It's not a physical problem at all.

Besides, the yellowing of nails that many people are afraid of is not necessarily onychomycosis. Last winter, I always boiled tangerine peel and orange peel water and drank it. I drank it for more than half a month. One day, I suddenly found that my fingernails were yellow. I was scared and thought I had onychomycosis. But I stopped drinking it for a week, and the yellow marks disappeared on their own. It was just citrus pigments. There are also girls who usually like to wear dark nail polish but are too lazy to apply base coat. They have more or less encountered the yellowing of the nail surface, which is also caused by exogenous staining. It will recover after taking a period of time without applying nail polish. Unless the nail surface is extremely yellow and dark, and the nail surface becomes thick, brittle, and pitted, then you should consider onychomycosis as a fungal infection and go to a dermatologist to prescribe antifungal drugs. If the whites of the eyes and skin also turn yellow, it is most likely jaundice. You should check your liver function function quickly, which is a clearer sign of disease.

As for the purple nails, first recall whether you just came in from the subzero outdoor environment, or whether you just clenched your fists for a long time? When I go out to pick up a package in the winter, my nails are as purple as small grapes. After rubbing them twice, they turn back to pink. This is just a normal reaction of the contraction of peripheral blood vessels when exposed to cold, and it is not a disease at all. But if your nails are dark purple all year round, you always feel chest tightness, and you get breathless after climbing two floors, then you should be alert to whether there is a problem with your cardiopulmonary function or insufficient blood oxygen saturation. I have been in contact with an elderly asthmatic patient before. His nails are usually dark pink-purple in the stable stage, and the purple is more obvious during an acute attack, which is a typical signal of insufficient blood oxygen.

Nowadays, there are actually two different logics for judging nail color. Western medicine is more related to blood circulation, nutritional status, and basic diseases. In the nail diagnosis system of traditional Chinese medicine, nail color is also correlated with the state of the organs: whiter color corresponds to deficiency of qi and blood, yellowish color corresponds to spleen deficiency and dampness, and purple color corresponds to blood stasis. There are now many clinical studies to verify the correlation between the two. There is no conflict between the two judgment logics. Combining them for reference can detect minor body problems earlier.

I usually help my friends look at their nails. I never draw conclusions based on the color alone. I also have to look at whether there are any depressions on the nail surface, whether there are any sudden black lines, and the speed of the rebound after pressing. A while ago, a friend of mine had a thin dark brown line on his nail. After searching online, he found out that it might be melanoma. He was so scared that he went to the emergency room all night. After asking the doctor for a long time, he remembered that his nail was caught in the door when he opened the door last month. It was a mark of blood congestion. When the nail slowly grew out, it disappeared. I paid more than 100 registration fees in vain.

There is really no need to worry about the color cards posted online. Nails will be affected by various external factors and undergo temporary color changes. If you are really unsure, going to the hospital to see a dermatologist for a look is more reliable than anything else. Don’t buy random supplements on your own.