Like your fingernail, a healthy toenail is a light pink color. Any yellowing or hints of black hue indicate a problem. For instance, you are most likely to have a fungal infection if your toenails start to become yellow. Yellowing can also be a side effect of diabetes, liver disease, or smoking.
A change in color, texture, or shape can be harmless, but it can also be a sign of disease. If you notice any of the following changes to a fingernail or toenail, it's time to see a board-certified dermatologist.
Discoloured, Brittle Toenails
Healthy toenails look pink or peach with pale tips. If one of yours has turned yellow, green, black or white, it could be in the grip of a fungal nail infection. The infected toenail will be thick and brittle; fragments may flake off.
Tiny red lines under the toenail can be a sign of a heart infection. Red lines under the toenail could be broken blood vessels known as splinter hemorrhages. These occur when small blood clots damage the tiny capillaries under the nails. They can signal endocarditis, an infection of the heart's inner lining.
It probably is no surprise that your big toe is the most important when maintaining balance and bearing body weight. Your big toes bear just about 2 times the amount of weight as all your other toes combined! It still should not shock you that the pinky toes are the least important.
Like your fingernail, a healthy toenail is a light pink color. Any yellowing or hints of black hue indicate a problem. For instance, you are most likely to have a fungal infection if your toenails start to become yellow. Yellowing can also be a side effect of diabetes, liver disease, or smoking.
Each big toe contains reflex points for the pituitary gland, pineal gland, hypothalamus, brain, temples, teeth, the seven cervical vertebrae, sinuses, mastoid, tonsils, nose, mouth and other face reflexes as well as part of the Eustachian tubes.
Nail abnormalities are problems with the color, shape, texture, or thickness of the fingernails or toenails. Yellow nail syndrome is characterized by yellow nails that lack a cuticle, grow slowly, and are loose or detached (onycholysis).
This article therefore helps clinicians to find the right treatment of the 5 most common nail disorders (brittle nails, onycholysis, paronychia, psoriasis, and onychomycosis) and provides practical tips that might improve patients' compliance.
A thickening or hypertrophy of the nail plate of the toenail (without deformity). It typically includes discoloration or a loss of translucency. Though onychauxis can be a natural part of aging, it is also a common symptom of diabetes.
Kidney disease can affect the appearance of your fingernails, toenails, or both. People who have advanced kidney disease can develop: A white color on the upper part of one or more nails and a normal to reddish brown color below, as shown here (half-and-half nails) Pale nails.
Did you know your nails can reveal clues to your overall health? A touch of white here, a rosy tinge there, or some rippling or bumps may be a sign of disease in the body. Problems in the liver, lungs, and heart can show up in your nails.
People with diabetes can easily get wounds on their feet. Improper cutting or care of toenails and feet is the leading cause that could lead to toe finger and foot amputation.
Blue nails occur because there is not enough oxygen in the blood. Blue nails may also occur if the circulatory system is not carrying the blood around the body as it should, resulting in poor circulation and a blue tinge.
Nails may take on a bluish tinge if the body lacks adequate oxygen. Heart disease and emphysema may cause this. If you aren't under a doctor's care for an oxygen-related condition, make an appointment to find out what is causing the color change.
Healthy nails should look pink on the nail bed and white when grown off the nail bed. Any other color could be a sign of a deficiency or disease. For instance, clear, pale nails can be a sign of anemia or poor nutrition. White nails, also known as Terry's nails, are a sign of kidney disease, liver disease, or diabetes.
The pinky toe, also called the little toe or baby toe, is the outermost toe in our foot. Unlike the big toe, it is made up of three phalanx bones like the other three toes. It is the least important of all the other toes.
“If you remove one part of that tripod, you lose balance.” So even though the pinky toe itself has no functional value, removing the metatarsal would make running, walking and skipping nearly impossible. This story was produced in partnership with Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism.
The least important of your toes are undoubtedly your pinky toes. As the smallest toes, they bear the least weight and have the least impact on maintaining balance. People born without pinky toes or those who lose one in an accident will see very little, if any, changes to how their feet function.
Oral antifungal drugs.
These drugs are often the first choice. One option is itraconazole (Sporanox). These drugs help a new nail grow free of infection, slowly replacing the infected part.
Blood circulation is when the small blood vessels in our feet begin to narrow and become thicker, making it harder for the blood to flow. This then causes the nail cells to build up causing the nail to thicken from the nail root. This process is called onychoctes.