Did you know, your fingernails can give you valuable health warnings and signal the presence of serious disease? Take a good long look at your nails for these signs:

Discoloured nails: Fingernail should be pink with a touch of pinkish white (moons) near the base. If your nails are a dull colour or streaked with other colours, you may have a serious hidden health problem. Green nails are a sign of bacterial infection, red streaks in your nail bed are a warning of a heart valve infection; blueish nails signal low oxygen levels in your blood; dull nails reflect vitamin deficiency; white nails may signal liver disease, such as hepatitis; dark stripes at the top (Terry’s nails) are associated with aging and congestive heart failure.

Thick nails: Thickened nails that are otherwise normal can signal lung disease, a fungal infection, thyroid disease or psoriasis. Thickening nails are a change that should tune you in to other health symptoms you may be ignoring. Also watch out for allergic reactions to new medications which can show up as thick nails suddenly!

Split nails: If your nails seem to flake away in layers, it may be due to folic acid, Vitamin C, and protein deficiencies.

Concave (Spoon) nails: To be considered full spoons, nails will be soft and curved 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; or even heart disease.

Ridges: 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, and lupus.

Dry, brittle nails: If your nails are dry and brittle, you should check your hormone levels . Thyroid disease leads to brittle, dry fingernails that crack and split easily.

Reference:

Asia One