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Dr. Diana, both a doctor (therapeutic optometrist), and a recovered POTS and ME/CFS patient, offers help and hope for POTS, Dysautonomia, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, Chronic Fatigue, Chronic Lyme, vascular abnormalities, Fibromyalgia, and Multiple Sclerosis. Dr. Diana is now working full time at POTS Care.

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Weird changes in my nails

NEW STUDY! Parasym Plus™ for Multiple Sclerosis › Forums › PrettyIll.com Discussion › Skin › Weird changes in my nails

  • This topic has 54 replies, 24 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 3 months ago by Nompancakes.
Viewing 10 posts - 46 through 55 (of 55 total)
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    Posts
  • August 26, 2012 at 4:53 pm #2810
    MJ
    Participant

    Ewww… My nails are developing longitudinal ridging (I think that is poor nutrient absorption), redish ends, and they are flattening. Jeez, Louise. Kidney trouble? Does anyone else show this? Thanks!

    Yes, all of the above. Mine also curl under unless I keep them really short. Oh, and my baby toe nails are now so thin that I think I could just pick them right off my toes.

    September 20, 2012 at 6:11 pm #2940
    MJ
    Participant

    Ewww… My nails are developing longitudinal ridging (I think that is poor nutrient absorption), redish ends, and they are flattening. Jeez, Louise. Kidney trouble? Does anyone else show this? Thanks!

    I attached a pic of my left thumb nail. Does anyone know what the red stripe means? Thanks.

    Attached files

    September 20, 2012 at 6:40 pm #2941
    Barbara
    Participant

    Hi
    If it was darker, I would say it was a splinter haemorrhage but it’s looks too pale for that, so I’m not sure. Is it darker in reality, than it looks on the photo ?

    My fingernails go paler in the middle, when I outstretch my fingers, somehow the underlying tissue becomes devoid of blood but it usually goes all the way across the nail. Could this be happening to your nail but unevenly ?
    Regards
    Barbara
    (UK)

    September 23, 2012 at 11:33 am #2951
    MJ
    Participant

    Hi Barbara.

    My other thumb has the same thing. And you can’t tell on the pic, but there are red stripes all over the nail. The stripe is darker and more prominant (what you see in the pic) on the inside of BOTH thumbs. Weird. I’m sure it means something…maybe we’ll never know. Definately not a haemorrhage.

    October 13, 2012 at 5:33 pm #3050
    nancysmith
    Participant

    I have ridges on my nails too. This is somewhat new. I am 39 so it could just be aging, according to a previous comment?

    November 5, 2012 at 12:46 am #3099
    GinnyP
    Participant

    Ewww… My nails are developing longitudinal ridging (I think that is poor nutrient absorption), redish ends, and they are flattening. Jeez, Louise. Kidney trouble? Does anyone else show this? Thanks!

    Hi, Doc. Sounds to me as if you may have:

    • “clubbing” (the flaytening of the nails), which is a classic sign of congestive heart failure and other conditions of hypoxia/hyperfusion), though it also can suggest other difficulties.

    • Beau’s lines (the horizontal dents / ridges / grooves / really weak spots), which can be a sign of a number of metabolic problems including protein malnutrition (if I recall correctly; eyes aren’t focusing just now, so no Google for me) and — among other problems, such as injury, illness, and a bad attack of Raynaud’s — heart failure.

    • And, as you say, probably Terry’s nails (the nail bed that is blanched except for a reddish strip toward the fingertip), which are associated with kidney, liver, thyroid. and heart problems.

    Although the DDx obviously ought to include a good metabolic workup to R/O kidney or liver or even thyroid problems, and a good look at your diet might be in order, Occam’s Razor would seem to suggest that circulatory problems secondary to dysautonomia and EDS are a likely culprir. (Hmm … sounds like a PhD project to me!)

    Personally, I have seen the reddish strip in the distal nail beds shrink this year to less than half what it had been — and the number of floaters in my eyes go way down — since I found out what my pulse and blood pressure were doing and stopped pushing myself to collapse. As often.

    My Beau’s lines, which I have had for years (Lyme), are mostly gone now that I am working very hard to keep up my protein intake (had been aiming for 50 g/day and getting 40ish; now aiming for 100 and feeling much healthier … if still horizontalish).

    Even before I started pushing protein, I had been taking a pretty good array of supplements — some anti-inflammatory stuff but mostly items to counter malabsorption, including a Vitacost twice daily vitamin and a matching twice daily mineral capsule — and that had helped with both the Beau’s lines and the lengthwise ridges.

    Here’s another pretty good page discussing nail problems: http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/nail-abnormalities/Pages/Introduction.aspx

    Apologies for any typos and infelicities. Can’t really see them right now.

    November 5, 2012 at 12:50 am #3100
    GinnyP
    Participant

    Ewww… My nails are developing longitudinal ridging (I think that is poor nutrient absorption), redish ends, and they are flattening. Jeez, Louise. Kidney trouble? Does anyone else show this? Thanks!

    Hi, Doc. Sounds to me as if you may have:

    • “clubbing” (the flaytening of the nails), which is a classic sign of congestive heart failure and other conditions of hypoxia/hyperfusion), though it also can suggest other difficulties.

    • Beau’s lines (the horizontal dents / ridges / grooves / really weak spots), which can be a sign of a number of metabolic problems including protein malnutrition (if I recall correctly; eyes aren’t focusing just now, so no Google for me) and — among other problems, such as injury, illness, and a bad attack of Raynaud’s — heart failure.

    • And, as you say, probably Terry’s nails (the nail bed that is blanched except for a reddish strip toward the fingertip), which are associated with kidney, liver, thyroid. and heart problems.

    Although the DDx obviously ought to include a good metabolic workup to R/O kidney or liver or even thyroid problems, and a good look at your diet might be in order, Occam’s Razor would seem to suggest that circulatory problems secondary to dysautonomia and EDS are a likely culprir. (Hmm … sounds like a PhD project to me!)

    Personally, I have seen the reddish strip in the distal nail beds shrink this year to less than half what it had been — and the number of floaters in my eyes go way down — since I found out what my pulse and blood pressure were doing and stopped pushing myself to collapse. As often.

    My Beau’s lines, which I have had for years (Lyme), are mostly gone now that I am working very hard to keep up my protein intake (had been aiming for 50 g/day and getting 40ish; now aiming for 100 and feeling much healthier … if still horizontalish).

    Even before I started pushing protein, I had been taking a pretty good array of supplements — some anti-inflammatory stuff but mostly items to counter malabsorption, including a Vitacost twice daily vitamin and a matching twice daily mineral capsule — and that had helped with both the Beau’s lines and the lengthwise ridges.

    Oh, I also have no visible lunulae except on thumbnails. Don’t know what tthat’s about. (Seem to recall claims it can bea sign of B6/B12 deficiency, but my last test supposedly showed the supps were keeping those in normal range. Must get actual results.)

    Here’s another pretty good page discussing nail problems: http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/nail-abnormalities/Pages/Introduction.aspx

    Apologies for any typos and infelicities. Can’t really see them right now.

    November 16, 2012 at 9:44 pm #3140
    Give My Daughter the Shot!
    Participant

    My toenails, especially big toe, are very deeply and heavily ridged – horizontally. Fingernails are vertically ridged and toes are horizontally ridged. I don’t feel so good and am pretty nauseous, sweaty and dizzy. I am interested in the last post but will have to check it out at a later date.

    I wish we could do a countdown for when a tx protocol might be available. Ugh, it’s awful to feel so sick ALL THE TIME.

    November 17, 2012 at 10:21 am #3141
    Julie52
    Participant

    I too have vertical ridges on my nails. My thumbs are the only ones with half moons. They look like the Red Luna example from your nail disorder link. Some do grow flat but not all. They chip quite easily and as someone else mentioned they seem to flake as if in layers.
    One thing I did notice is that when, for about four months, I took nutritional supplements and vitamins daily, the half moons began to slowly reappear, starting with the index finger. They never did appear on my pinkies.

    January 1, 2013 at 8:31 am #3280
    Nompancakes
    Participant

    I have no moons, and right before my fingers turn to the white part at the top, my fingernails are dark red. The other part of my nail is purple or white most times but can turn pink sometimes. Oh another topic. My toe nails… Both big toenails had some fungal in them and they turned yellow. I got put of some medication and then my toesnail started to regrow back pushing the old nail up till the full nails grew in. Is that normal in pots, eds? I couldnt show my nails for months.

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