How some doctors diagnose health problems by looking at finger nails

May 1, 2:02 PMSacramento Nutrition ExaminerAnne Hart

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Fingernail problems when not caused by a fungus are associated with nutritional deficiencies. You can try a multivitamin supplement if your doctor says it won’t interfere with your other health problems or medications.

Many causes of nail problems could be deficiencies in iron, zinc, calcium, or biotin. Sometimes silica supplement in ionic liquid minerals may be of help, such as Eidon ionic liquid multiple minerals with silica or Eidon ionic liquid silica.

Make sure what you take if you take anything is absorbed. And always ask your doctor first because any supplement affects your kidney or other conditions or medications.

Brittle Nails: nutritional deficiencies such as a deficiency of zinc and/or calcium and/or too much selenium. What helps? Perhaps biotin.

Black streaks running vertically across some fingernails: nutritional deficiencies or imbalances such as too much selenium, melanoma, internal bleeding, zinc/copper imbalances or tumors growing inside you. Ask your doctor to test you.

There are many different causes of dark streaks running up a nail that range from nutritional imbalances to conditions that aren’t visible on the outside as well as aging, arthritis, and toxins, even too much blood thinning from a combination of oils, liquid garlic, vitamins, and other supplements that are blood thinners and out of balance.

Thin nails, splitting nails: possible biotin deficiency. Perhaps you need extra biotin. Ask your doctor or a dermatologist. Often brittle nails that are thin need to be thickened with some biotin. Biotin gets absorbed into the matrix of your nails. The matrix is where the nail is embedded into your finger.

The matrix of your nail may need to absorb more biotin at that spot. Ask your doctor whether you need biotin supplements if your nails are weak or thin. Or get your biotin from foods such as egg yolks, soybean flour, yeast, cauliflower, lentils, milk, or peanut butter and some whole grain cereals.

Yellow nails: respiratory conditions such as bronchitis

Spoon nails, curving outward: iron-deficiency anemia

Nail problems in general: possible thyroid dysfunction

Toe Nails growing in different directions: possible causes include aging, arthritis, heart disease, nutritional deficiencies or too much, out-of-balance supplements, or a mineral imbalance and toxicities. Causes could range from thyroid issues to nutritional imbalances to not enough mild exercise such as walking or arthritis, bone loss, or nutritional imbalances due to aging that can be corrected easily. 

Get tested to find the cause as there are many different causes of nails growing in all different directions or even ingrowing toe nails that suddenly appear in people after age 65. See a podiatrist or your doctor for a thorough examination to find the actual cause that could be nutritional or related to other health issues.

What you should know about biotin is that it is part of a B-complex vitamin that you could take along with other B vitamins. Your body needs biotin to process food. How biotin began to be given to help thin or splitting nails is that it was first tried on horses and improved abnormalities in the horses’ hooves.

What's biotin used for?

After success with helping horses' hooves, biotin began to be used to strengthen hair and nails in humans. Research is ongoing and in the past small, inconclusive studies had shown biotin possibly could strengthen nails.

Most people do not have a biotin deficiency. Unless you have a gene that prevents you from absorbing biotin through food such as eggs, milk, or whole grain cereals, you’d get enough biotin—but not if you’re diabetic with type 2 diabetes.

Why is biotin given to some people with type 2 diabetes?

If you do have type-2 diabetes and not taking insulin for it, it’s very possible you may have too low levels of biotin. So get tested to see whether you actually do or do not have enough biotin. Some people take biotin supplements. But find out whether you’re absorbing the biotin from the supplements, if your doctor says you need to take them and you don't have other health issues that prevent you from taking biotin. Ask whether you need biotin from supplements or not, and ask whether you are getting enough from food. Have yourself tested.

Studies are ongoing with type 2 diabetics to see how biotin helps them manage their blood sugar levels. You can look up research done at the Yale University School of medicine with type 2 diabetics given a supplement of both biotin and chromium. In that study, blood glucose (sugar) and blood fat (lipids) levels were improved after a month of taking biotin supplements. So investigate how studies like this one relates to your individual needs.

Biotin usually is safe to take unless you have a condition that doesn’t allow you to take it. Find out if you need it because even if you eat cereals, the food-processing and heat, canning, freezing, or curing destroys the biotin in most processed foods you eat. Other sources of biotin are barley, oat bran, soybeans, walnuts, filberts, peanuts, bananas, cauliflower, egg yolks, milk, and salmon.   

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