Healthy Nail Color

The standard core color of healthy adults' nails is a uniform and transparent light pink or flesh pink. The original pink color can be restored after 1-2 seconds of pressing and releasing the nail surface. The crescent at the nail root is mostly milky white with clear edges. There is no large area of ​​yellowing, blackening, graying or abnormal white or purple spots. It is basically healthy.

Do many people like to stare at their nails and ponder them in their free time? One moment I feel that the color is too light, is it anemia? The next moment, the crescent moon is missing two pieces, is it kidney deficiency? A while ago, I helped my best friend who has owned a nail salon for seven years and sat at the front desk for two days. I answered 20 to 30 questions about nail color alone. I really had all kinds of worries.

What impressed me most was a little girl who had just finished the college entrance examination. After taking off the burgundy manicure that she had done for more than half a year, the surface of her nails was slightly yellow, and her eyes turned red on the spot. She said that she had read some popular science and said that yellowing nails was hepatitis. Her father had hepatitis B and was afraid that she would be infected. I gave her a cup of iced milk tea to calm her down first. Later, she went to the hospital to check her liver function test and found out that the pigment of the dark nail polish had seeped into the nail surface. After stopping the treatment for more than a month, when she came back to the store, her nails had returned to a pink and tender state.

Speaking of healthy judgments about nail color, the reference standards in different fields do differ. Western medicine pays more attention to the signs of organic lesions: if the nails suddenly turn gray, thickened and delaminated, the first thing to do is to check whether it is fungal infection of onychomycosis (also known as onychomycosis). ； If your nails are partially black or purple, first recall whether you have been pinched by a door or squeezed by a shoe recently. It is most likely due to subcutaneous congestion. ； If the entire nail is cyanotic for a long time, you need to be alert to whether the cardiopulmonary function is abnormal. As for the number of crescents and whether there are vertical lines that people often struggle with, most Western medicine believes that individual differences are huge. For example, some people are born with the nail matrix positioned far back and the crescents cannot be exposed. This cannot be directly equated with health.

The judgment dimension of traditional Chinese medicine will be more biased towards feedback of the overall state. An old Chinese medicine doctor I know who has been practicing for more than 30 years said that if the color of the nails is very light, almost porcelain white, accompanied by cold hands and feet all year round, and dizziness when standing up after squatting for a long time, it is mostly a sign of insufficient Qi and blood. ； If your crescent moons have suddenly become more numerous and larger recently, your fingernails are a darker shade of bright red, and your mouth is always dry and you have oral ulcers, it is most likely due to fluctuations in your immunity caused by your recent anger and disordered work and rest routine. Of course, there is a common warning line for both sides: If there is an obvious black vertical line on the nail, which continues to become wider and deeper, don’t get hung up on any school. Go to a dermatologist first to check whether it is a nevus. The most important thing is to rule out the risk of malignant transformation.

I myself have stepped into the trap of excessive anxiety before. The year before last, I was rushing to plan an industry summit. After working through it for almost half a month, I suddenly found white spots the size of millet grains on my two fingernails. My mother complained about it in my circle of friends and sent a bunch of zinc and calcium supplements that day. As a result, I took my nail to the dermatology department to see a friend. He looked at it with a magnifying glass for two seconds and laughed. He said that I hit the root of my nail when I was unpacking a package a few days ago, and the nail matrix was slightly irritated. I didn't need to take any medicine, and it would disappear when the nail slowly grows out. Sure enough, after two months, the white spots grew along with the nails to the fingertips, and when they were cut off, they were gone.

You really don’t need to look for “health alerts” on your nails every day. Some people are born with thick cuticles and have matte pink nails. Some people have been exercising all year round and have good peripheral circulation, but their nails are redder than ordinary people. As long as you don’t feel uncomfortable and your physical examination indicators are normal, there is no need to worry. If you are really unsure, go get a dermatology appointment. The registration fee of a few dollars is much more reliable than blindly checking online posts. After all, nails are only a small reference for health status. If there is a real problem, most of it will be accompanied by other discomforts. Don't scare yourself because of a small color difference.