Small Health Clues: Brittle Fingernails

Your nails keep breaking off or splintering and coming off in layers. So, what’s the obvious fix? Buy a nail strengthening polish and brush on a few coats prior to putting color on. But, doing this would be like continually slapping a Band-Aid on a wound that just won’t heal. There’s a reason for both and until you find the underlying problem, you’ll never actually “fix” anything. So, we are going to play a little game of sleuth and uncover some of the common issues that occur with your fingernails and what causes them:

Lines across your fingernails – these lines may pop up after an illness or if you are malnourished.

- Brittle or splitting nails – hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidsism or lack of adequate nutrition (most often iron deficiency or low biotin intake) can lead to brittle nails. If your toenails are strong and fingernails are not then an environmental cause may be to blame (winter heat, use of strong household cleaners or constantly washing and drying your hands).

If you have brittle nails, start wearing gloves when you wash dishes and clean your house, try non-acetone nail polish remover and apply lotion to your nails and cuticle areas often. Also, increase your intake of biotin-rich foods or can take this B vitamin as a supplement alone or in a B complex vitamin. Biotin rich foods include: tomatoes, romaine lettuce, carrots, oatmeal, onions, strawberries, Swiss chard, halibut, almonds and walnuts. Also, avoid raw egg whites or products that contain raw eggs since a protein in egg whites, avidin, can bind biotin preventing adequate absorption of this vitamin. When eggs are cooked, avidin no longer binds biotin.

- Abnormal shape (koilonychia) – if your fingernails have raised ridges are thin and curved inward, you probably have iron deficiency anemia.

- Pitting – depressions in your nail may be caused by psoriasis.

- General damage – disease, injury or illness can cause general damaged nails.

Here’s the bottom line – if you have issues with your fingernails that just won’t go away, even after your injury or illness has, it’s time to see a doctor. Sometimes seemingly little cues mean larger issues lie underneath.

Does Supplemental Iron Improve Athletic Performance?

Studies report a high prevalence of iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia in female athletes and soliders. And, iron needs may be higher in athletes due to the demands of training and iron loss (for example, blood cells actually break down from running – something termed foot strike hemolysis). In addition, women lose iron through menstruation every month.

Iron deficiency occurs in 2 main stages:

1) Iron deficiency – too little iron in the body. This is the most common nutrient deficiency worldwide and, according to the NIH, as much as 80% of the world’s population may be iron deficient!

2) Iron deficiency anemia – by the time you reach anemia, you have advanced iron depletion. Your iron storage is deficient and your blood levels of iron cannot meet your daily needs. A general CBC (Complete Blood Count) includes a test for hemoglobin, which will show up below normal when you are anemic. According to the NIH, 33% of the world may have iron deficiency anemia.

While iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia can slow you down, taking iron will improve performance and help you feel significantly better (though if you have normal iron levels, taking iron isn’t warranted and doing so will have no effect on performance).

Symptoms of iron deficiency and iron deficiency anemia include muscle weakness, fatigue, feeling cold often and impaired cognitive performance.

Got Fatigue?

Sleep is way underrated. In fact, I often overhear people bragging about how they go to bed late, wake up early and run through their days. I'm not sure if I believe all of these stories but a lack of sleep is nothing to write home about. It's the fastest route to poor performance and mental fuzziness. And, you'll look tired!

Besides a lack of sleep, sometimes there's something else going on and you have to do a little detective work to figure out what's causing your daytime yawning and daydreams of getting some zzzz's. Check out this article on FitnessRx Magazine's website about the top causes of fatigue in women.

If any of these sound like you, it's time to talk to your physician. If not, it's still time to go to the doctor and find out what's going on. After all, walking around like a zombie is no way to live.

Pregnant? Are you Consuming Enough Iron?

Anemia can increase the risk of preterm delivery. Yet many women don’t consume enough iron while pregnant. In fact, the National Institutes of Health indicates that up to 50% of pregnant women do not have enough iron in their body. That’s why prenatal multivitamins are so important. They contain more iron (and other nutrients) than regular multivitamins. Pregnant women should also get their iron levels tested at least twice while they are pregnant (more often if necessary). However, you still need to be aware of the signs of iron deficiency (though some people have few or no symptoms from iron deficiency). They include:

• Fatigue
• Weakness
• Feeling cold, low body temperature
• Feeling out of breath easily
• Irritability
• Headache

Many women complain of side effects related to their prenatal supplement. You can minimize some of these side effects by consuming your supplement with food. If you are still having problems, talk to your physician about switching brands. Some women do better on name brand versus generic. And finally, consuming a prenatal multivitamin with heme iron will decrease the likelihood that your supplement will make you constipated (because you need less heme iron in comparison to non-heme, to raise your iron stores).

References
J of Nutr 2000;130:443S-447S.
NIH: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000584.htm