While is said that the eyes are the window to our soul, our nails offer a glimpse on our overall health. We can learn a lot by looking at our fingernails.

How to Tell From Nails That We Are Ok?

First look and see if the nail bed is a healthy pink. Then pinch a fingernail gently between the thumb and forefinger of your other hand for roughly 5 seconds and let go. You should see it goes white as we have essentially squeeze out the blood from the finger – this is temporary as it should turn back a healthy pink in a jiffy. Afast return (to pink) indicates healthy blood circulation and good blood capillaries. If it, however, bruises under the nail, you can have fragile blood capillaries.

What The The Signs From Our Nails If Something May Not Right?

1. Yellow Nails

Yellow nails can caused by :

• long term drug usage for example tetracycline
• smoking

However, if none of the above applies, then it can be an indication of thyroid problems.

2. Red Streaks

Also called splinter hemorrhages, these red streaks which appear over the length of nails often comes hand in hand (no puns intended!) with high blood pressure. Besides this, such ‘red streaks’ sign may also indicate inflammatory issues like arthritis or psoriasis.

3. Spoon Nails

When nails become depressed or look spoon-like while it is growing, it could indicate 2 problems. One problem may be simply anemia from either iron or folic deficiency. This can be corrected with a appropriate supplementation plus a good diet. However, if the sign persist (even after adopting proper diet and supplements), this may point to more serious issue such as under-active or incorrectly functioning thyroid gland.

4. Beau’s Lines

Horizontal creases across the nail can an indication of a serious circulatory problem called carpel tunnel syndrome. However such signs may also be an aftermath from a serious illness where these creases or furrow develop when nail growth stops abruptly and then start again.

5. Clubbing

When nail curves upwards, we call that clubbing and this unusual growth pattern is usually linked with serious internal illness of the liver, lungs or large intestine.

6. Blue Colour

When the lunula or nail bed is blue, this may be an indication of blood circulatory issue which is a result of diabetes or heart trouble. Other than that, it could also point to Raynaud’s disease which also causes blue neails when hands get cold.

7. White Streaks

White streaks down the length of the nail often result from heart attack, kidney failure or Hodgkin’s disease. It should be note that a person undergoing chemotheraphy usually get these streaks as well.

8. White Spots

White spots on the nails are most often indicative of zink deficiency.