A healthy nail plate is smooth, colorless and transparent, but it seems pink due to the translucence of superficial capillaries of the nail bed. It is slightly convex, which to some extent can help protect the fingertips from impact or other damage. This is important, since the impact force is transferred to the soft tissues of the nail rollers.
The area and thickness of the nails depend on a number of factors: the structure of the bone of the nail phalanx, sex, age, profession, etc. In women, the nails are smaller in size and thickness than in men, and grow more slowly. They grow faster in children than in adults. It is also known that on the right hand the nails grow slightly faster than on the left. At women during pregnancy there can be an acceleration of growth of nails. It disappears immediately after childbirth or abortion. With the improvement of blood circulation, the growth of the nail plates is accelerated and, conversely, slows down with artificially induced circulatory disturbance.
Numerous studies indicate that the growth rate of nail plates depends on the seasonal changes. In winter, nails grow more slowly than in summer, by 10-13%. There is also an effect on the speed of nail growth of various diseases. Severe common diseases can, for example, stop growing altogether in a short time, as well as violations of general nutrition. The growth of nails slows down and during recovery, which is especially noticeable in all febrile illnesses.
Than and how sick nails?
One can not argue with the fact that it is impossible to diagnose this or that nail disease only by one symptom, without conducting a human examination. But the knowledge of individual signs of the defeat of the nail plate, nail bed or tissues surrounding the nail, is important. They talk about human health more eloquently than many analyzes.
Painful changes in nails often accompany diseases of the skin, vessels of the extremities, spine, endocrine disorders, infectious processes. At the same time, the functionally low-active horny substance of nails on some or other morbid conditions of the body reacts more sluggishly and monotonously than other organs with good blood circulation.
The onychograph - nail increases in size and thickness, the direction of growth is changed. Distinguish:
- in elderly people with blood supply in the fingers;
- as a result of the inflammatory process of the nail bed (with fungal diseases, rheumatoid polyarthritis, certain infections);
- with a violation of blood circulation (thrombosis, aneurysm, etc.).
Micronchia - small short nails. Often it happens that lovers gnaw their nails, with progressive scleroderma, trophoneurosis, with the defeat of the nerves of extremities of various origins.
"Nails of Hippocrates" - deformation as a result of lesions of the nail phalanges of all fingers of the hands and feet. The nails along with the terminal phalanges are enlarged, becoming dome-shaped, shiny, hard and thickened, reminiscent of watch glass. This deformation of the terminal phalanges and nails resembles drumsticks and is also called "drum fingers". These manifestations are found in people with chronic diseases. They cause the presence of functional disorders and stagnation in the vessels of the extremities (with liver cancer, liver cirrhosis, tuberculosis and lung cancer, ulcerative colitis, congenital and acquired heart defects, pulmonary artery sclerosis, etc.). Often such deformation is constant, only sometimes there can come improvements or signs of the disease can even completely disappear.
Nails - a mirror of the body
What do people say about the health of the nails? Nails say a lot about health - on the nails of a person, by their color and structure, one can judge the state of the whole organism, the nervous system, the vessels that feed the upper and lower limbs, and the quality of human nutrition. When changing the color, structure, growth of nails, it is necessary, first of all, to exclude their fungal lesion. To do this, you need to contact a dermatologist (mycologist) and get a check-up. In the case of fungal nail infection, a long treatment course is scheduled, which the doctor appoints. I will have to visit the mycologist regularly to monitor the progress of treatment and the general condition of the body. If mushrooms are not found, you will be examined by other specialists: a therapist, a vascular surgeon, a neurologist, an endocrinologist. Do not pull this, as sometimes the cause, leading to deformation of the nails, is more serious for the body than just the spoiled nails. Any disease is easier to cure at an early stage - do not forget about it.