10 Serious Illness Symptoms Hidden In Your Nails

Your body is always communicating with you, dropping subtle—as well as not-so-subtle—hints about potential problems on the horizon. By paying attention to these early warning signals, you can catch serious health problems in their earliest, most easily treated stages Fingernails and disease don’t go together in most minds… but they should. Your fingernails can give you valuable health warnings and signal the presence of serious disease.

Split Nails

They look like layered ones. They aren’t aren’t just occasionally chipped or shut in doors. Don’t blame frequent handwashing or nail polish for everything, especially since:

Split nails may result from chronic malnutrition
Deficiency of vitamin C, folic acid, and proteins
Split nails combined with a pitted nail bed (base) can signal psoriasis, which begins in nails 10% of the time.

Dry and Brittle Nails

It is very important for you to know that dry and brittle nails are often associated with the levels of hormone and bacterial health. Do keep in mind that in spite of taking precautions, it might take a while to see the difference in the health of your nails until a full nail growth cycle. This is primarily because thyroid and fungal infections take a while to get cured. You don’t need lotion or cuticle oil. If your nails are dry and brittle, you should check your hormone levels and bacterial health.

Fungal infection tends to make your nails dry and brittle
Thyroid disease leads to brittle, dry fingernails that crack and split easily

Ridges on Your Nails

Heavy ridged lines are a sign of iron deficiency and inflammatory arthritis. If you have red lines at the base of the nails, then they are a sign of lupus or inflammation of the skin. Nails should have smooth surfaces with almost imperceptible lines. Obvious ridge lines are a signal that something is up with your body. Some of the most common conditions associated with heavy ridge lines are: Iron deficiency, inflammatory arthritis, Lupus (for red lines at the base of your nails).

Concave or Spoon Nails

To be considered full spoons, nails will be soft and curve up, forming a dip that is often big enough to hold water. Spoon nails signal:

Iron deficiency (usually from anemia)
Hemachromatosis,
a liver disorder where your body absorbs too much iron
Heart disease Hypothyroidism

Clubbed Nails

Obvious ridge lines are a signal that something is up with your body Clubbed nails are singns of:

Lung diseases, especially if you have troubles with breathing
Inflammatory bowel diseases
AIDS
Liver diseases

Discoloured Nails

In case your nails show streaks of other colours, then your body might be hiding certain health issues. If you want to have good nails give them a good scrub and look at them properly for a thorough analysis.
Green nails are a sign of bacterial infection
Red streaks in your nail bed are a warning of a heart valve infection
Bluish nails signal low oxygen levels in your blood
Dull nails mean a vitamin
White nails are an indication of liver diseases like hepatitis
Dark stripes towards the top are a sign of congestive heart failure

Thick Nails

Thick nails aren’t natural and if they look like paws of claws, then they might have something to say.