KNOW ABOUT YOUR NAILS

NAILS FACTS THAT ARE UNKNOWN 

1. Human nails are made of Keratin. It is actually a protective protein that also makes up our hair. However, arrangement of keratin molecules in hair is 

completely different from arrangement of keratin molecules in nails. This is why nails are tougher than hair.

2. Nails are designed for protecting not only the fingertips and toe tips but also the surrounding soft tissue from any external injuries.

3. Perhaps the most important function of nails is to provide a visual advertisement of the overall health of a person. Yes! Nails can actually provide an awful lot of information about a person’s health.

4. Fingernails have a faster growth rate compared to toe nails. Fingernails grow at a rate of 3.5 mm per month while toe nails only manage 1.6 mm a month.

5. There is a popular myth that white spots on nails are indicative of calcium or zinc deficiency. That is far from being true. They don’t indicate any kind of vitamin deficiency. They are rather outcomes of some kind of trauma that befell nail plates or the matrix which essentially is the source of the nail plate.

6. As we said earlier, nails are very complex and they are made up of several parts. The visible area (the hard part) is actually the nail plate.

7. A part of the nail is hidden underneath the cuticle. This part is the actual living part of the nail and is known as the matrix. The matrix actually produces the cells that eventually turn into nail plate.

8. A small crescent-shaped area on the nails that looks whitish is the visible part of the matrix. However, this crescent may not be visible on all nails especially, it is not always visible on the little finger.

9. The matrix is a part or extension of the nail bed which lays beneath the nail plate. As mentioned earlier, the matrix is a living part and has blood vessels, lymphs and nerves.

10. As new nail plate cells are produced by the matrix, the older ones are pushed out forward and they get compressed, translucent and flat. It is this translucency that makes the nail plates look pinkish because the capillaries beneath the nail plates become somewhat visible.