What your nails can tell you about your health

By Dan Baumgardt, Senior Lecturer, School of Physiology, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, University of Bristol

As a medical student, nails were one part of my anatomy course that I really struggled with. I found it difficult, at first, to stomach the sight of painful nail injuries.

My squeamishness may have stemmed from witnessing someone sharply removing a plaster from their stubbed big toe – only to take the whole toenail away with it. Ouch. I’ve recovered now, which is lucky since nails can tell doctors a lot about the health of a patient.

Toe…

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