Why do nails grow poorly?
If nails grow slowly, this indicates the presence of internal problems in the body or external factors that disrupt the natural processes in the sensitive skin of a woman’s hands. However, even cosmetologists often cannot figure out the reason why nails grow slowly.
To find out whether the growth rate of the plate is really slow, you should measure the time during which it grows, because often girls think this is happening, despite the healthy condition and structure of the plate.
There are several factors related to human health that affect growth rate:
- The presence of diseases in the body. Diabetes mellitus, impaired blood circulation or metabolism often cause insufficient recovery of nails and their weakness.
- Fungus. Because of this, the nails begin to grow more slowly, become thinner, which is why, after growing a little, they quickly break or bend in different directions. Their texture also changes.
- Age. A child’s nails grow much faster than those of an elderly person, which is associated with the state of hormonal levels and the metabolic rate in the body.
These factors can be corrected if you start taking additional vitamins, which will speed up natural processes in the body, preventing nail damage.
A woman’s health always affects the condition of her hair, nails, and teeth, so a lack of vitamins in the body can be immediately determined by the appearance of white spots on the nails. Most people have them, so they are advised to increase the amount of vitamins obtained artificially or from fruits.
There are also external factors that negatively affect the speed of nail recovery:
- Poor nutrition. This includes a lack of beneficial microelements and an excess of oils, harmful substances that cause clogging of pores, the formation of blood clots in blood vessels and the formation of diseases;
- Bad habits. Smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol often negatively affects the structure of the nail, making it thin, brittle, and stained yellowish;
- Daily activities. When working and direct contact with hazardous chemicals and compounds, there is a risk of deterioration in the health of the sensitive epidermis and slower growth;
- Season. Due to lack of sunlight and oxygen, in winter the nail plate becomes weaker and begins to deteriorate. Because of this, it is recommended to start using strengthening masks and baths in the fall.
Why do nails grow slowly?
Slow nail growth may indicate a number of disorders in the human body. It is worth noting that both women and men face such an unpleasant problem. Experts identify many reasons:
- use of low-quality nail cosmetics;
- nail fungus;
- errors in nutrition;
- aggressive effects of household chemicals;
- lack of microelements and vitamins;
- improper care of nail plates;
- nail biting;
- domestic injuries;
- frequent growth.
Not many people know that nails grow fastest on the hand that is used most often: the fact is that the active limb is better supplied with blood.
How to speed up nail growth
To speed up the recovery of the plate and strengthen it, it is recommended to prevent factors that change this factor for the worse. To do this, stop drinking alcohol, smoking, play sports, start taking vitamins and healthy food supplements to replenish their amount in the body.
If their condition is affected by any disease, it is recommended to consult a doctor in order to cure it or minimally neutralize the consequences that it generates.
However, there are additional recommendations related to caring for marigolds:
- Do a neat manicure. You should not cut them at the root, but you need to shorten them often - at least once a week. To prevent the appearance of detachments when using a file, you should move it in one direction.
- Do not use aggressive products that contain acetone and alcohol.
- To restore the condition of the plate, it is not recommended to apply gel polish or other decorative coating for 2-3 weeks.
- When washing dishes, floors or working with chemical components, wear protective rubber gloves. This way you will reduce the risk of aggressive exposure.
- Moisturize your cuticles daily by applying a nourishing cream at night and in the morning.
- Proper nutrition. A sufficient amount of vitamins will reduce the fragility of the plate, making the nail strong. Additionally, you can introduce food additives, microelements, and vitamins into the diet.
If you follow the recommendations for careful treatment of your nails and additional care, they grow faster, become stronger, and break less often. An additional advantage of treating them sparingly is that the decorative varnish coating lasts one and a half to two times longer.
Prevent mechanical stress on them, so they will grow more efficiently and quickly.
How to speed up nail growth? Proven means
- Lemon juice baths
Just squeeze the juice of 1-2 lemons and soak your nails in it for 15-20 minutes.
- Using special varnishes for nail care and growth
Alone or as a base for varnish. Good product: Sally Hansen Maximum Growth.
- Baths with special salt mixtures
- Warm oil baths with olive, almond, burdock oil
Choose any one you like best, they are rich in vitamins, so they are useful not only for nails but also for the skin of your hands.
- Sea salt baths
Dissolve 1-2 tablespoons of salt in a glass of warm water. Pour the solution into a more convenient container and hold your nails for 15-10 minutes.
- Massage with vitamins A and E
They are sold in pharmacies and cost pennies. You can buy it individually in vials, or you can buy it in capsules, already mixed - the drug is called Aevit.
- Baths with gelatin
Dilute the gelatin according to the instructions, leave to swell for 30 minutes. Then heat it slightly and the bath is ready. Keep also for 15-20 minutes. Many people drink such gelatin mixtures on an empty stomach in the morning in 10-day courses. Gelatin contains collagen, which is why it is good for nails.
Solving other nail problems
The above is a general list that all women need to follow. But what if certain difficulties with nails have already arisen? What to do in this situation? Below is a list of the most common nail health problems and how to solve them.
- Problem #1. Nails are soft and thin
Most likely, this is due to the fact that there is little calcium in the body, as well as other vitamins and elements. Or you frequently expose them to chemicals and water. In order to solve this difficulty, negative factors should be eliminated, and the diet should also be reconsidered: it should contain more calcium, vitamin E and protein. In addition, you need to rub olive oil into your nails twice a day;
- Problem #2. Nails are very peeling
Often the reason may be that they are not filed correctly. In addition, the body may lack vitamin A, as well as iron and silicon. Sometimes peeling nails are a sign of thyroid disease. To solve the problem, you should start with proper filing. It should be done only on dry nails in the direction from the edge to the center. Also, for peeling nails, it is not recommended to use metal files. In addition, you need to do all household chores exclusively with gloves and include more dairy products in your diet. If such measures do not produce results, then you need to check the thyroid gland;
- Problem #3. Nails are not straight, but grooved
Sometimes transverse and longitudinal grooves appear on the nails, which indicate a lack of vitamins in the body or the presence of diseases of the internal organs. In addition, grooves can appear due to severe stress or taking certain medications. It is not easy to solve such a problem on your own. To begin with, you can let your nails grow and see if new grooves appear or if they disappear as the nail grows. Perhaps this was only a temporary phenomenon that did not require intervention. Then, to hide the grooves, you can use a special leveling nail enamel and apply varnish only on top of it. If the problem persists, then you need to consult a doctor.
For all these reasons, nails may not grow properly or become severely broken. Therefore, the problem needs to be solved, and not left to chance, because it can only get worse.
17-07-2016
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This article is based on scientific evidence, written and reviewed by experts. Our team of licensed nutritionists and estheticians strive to be objective, unbiased, honest and present both sides of the argument.
Toenails are designed to protect the terminal phalanges of the fingers, where the nerve endings are located. If they were not there, then a person would constantly experience unbearable pain when walking or receiving a slight blow. That's why it's so important to care for them properly. But it is during care that some people notice that the large toenail does not grow, has changed its shape and has become painful. Why is this happening?
If your toenail does not grow, then you should go to the doctor. The thing is that this can happen for two reasons. Either you have athlete's foot (fungal infection) or the nail has become nonviable and requires complete removal.
Surely, you have a question - how can a nail become unviable? To answer this question, it is necessary to delve into the structure of the nail, which we, naturally, will not do, since it will take too much time. Well, in short, we can say the following: the nail consists of dead particles that accumulate and form dense tissue, which we see on the toes or hands.
There are no nerve endings in this tissue, which is why we do not experience pain when cutting and filing our nails. When the process of accumulation of dead particles is disrupted, the nail stops growing. In this case, the growth of the cuticle “freezes”, and the nail plate itself thickens and shortens.
Solving this problem is very difficult. It is necessary to first establish the reason why the toenails do not grow and have become unviable, which cannot be done without a doctor, and eliminate it. After this, you need to remove the nail itself so that a healthy nail plate begins to grow in its place.
By the way, the growth of the nail plate can freeze as a result of its frequent injury. For example, when wearing tight, uncomfortable shoes, bumps or poor-quality manicure.
, which is accompanied by a number of characteristic symptoms:
- yellowing of the nail plate;
- deformation of the shape (the nail may become dense, convex, lumpy, etc.);
- the appearance of white spots or streaks on the nail;
- slower growth of the nail plate;
- its departure from the nail bed;
- the appearance of an unpleasant odor;
- delamination and brittleness of the nail.
However, it is not at all necessary that all these symptoms will be observed at the same time. - This is a disease that develops very slowly and can sometimes be accompanied only by itching or burning.
And if your big toenail does not grow, and you have at least one of the symptoms described above, then you should immediately seek help from a dermatologist. He will scrape the surface of the nail, which will allow you to determine the exact type of pathogen and select the appropriate treatment.
This requires the use of various medications, both in the form of creams and gels, and in the form of tablets. The thing is that the fungus does not affect the nail itself, but the nail bed. Through it, it penetrates deep into the soft tissues and general bloodstream, and then spreads throughout the body.
And if you treat the fungus only from the outside, then you will certainly achieve good results, but only for a certain time. Signs of a fungal infection may appear on other parts of the body. So you should not self-medicate.
What to do if your toenail does not grow?
If you have been to the doctor and no serious reasons have been identified for why your toenails do not grow, then maybe your body simply does not have enough vitamins and your nails are growing, but very slowly?
In this case, you should make various ones at home, use medicinal varnishes (there is a large selection of them in pharmacies), perform daily foot baths, etc. In addition, you need to take a course of multivitamins. But to do this, you need to consult with a specialist so that he can choose the most suitable complex for you.
And most importantly, do the right manicure. Don't touch your nail for a while. Give him time to recover. It may indeed be true that you previously damaged it with the same nail scissors when you cut it.
Only a doctor can tell you the exact reason why your toenails do not grow. After all, this phenomenon is quite rare and requires careful diagnosis. In any case, you should not self-medicate, since this is unlikely to lead to positive dynamics.
Good day! Today we will talk about the pressing problem of many people - poorly growing nails. After all, with long and well-groomed nails, hands have a completely different look, but otherwise, hands look rather untidy. It turns out that this problem has certain problems and, accordingly, solutions. If your fingernails do not grow, what should you do about this problem?
There is a myth that if nails grow slowly, then it’s all about nutrition and by adjusting it, you can solve this problem. The truth is that there can be different reasons:
- Presence of concomitant diseases. If an adult or a child has problems with kidney function, metabolic disorders, blood supply or diabetes mellitus, then this certainly affects the growth rate of nail plates. Also for this reason, hair “suffers”. Some doctors can determine the area of disturbance in the body by the external condition of the nails
- A person may have diseases of the nail plates, which lead not only to a slowdown in their growth, but also to a worsening of their condition: fragility, yellowing, delamination. For example, a fungal infection can cause the nail to crumble into small pieces.
- Age. With age, metabolic processes and blood circulation in the human body slow down, as a result of which nails, hair and teeth do not receive enough nutrients and vitamins for full growth
- Bad eating habits. Many people ask the question: “Why is it so difficult for me to grow beautiful nails?” Analyze what you eat and the questions will immediately disappear! Let's say more, if you eat poorly, then problems can arise not only with the growth of nails, but also with the functioning of most of the organs and systems of the body. So make sure you have the right balance of not only calories, but also nutrients, micro and macro elements
- Bad habits. According to research, smoking negatively affects the growth of nail plates and also turns them yellowish.
- Occupation. If a person’s work is associated with chemicals and other harmful substances, then this will most directly affect the growth of nails and the health of the body as a whole.
- Season. In the summer season, nails grow much faster than in the winter. This is due to the fact that in summer the human body receives a sufficient amount of vitamins and microelements. And visiting bodies of water has a beneficial effect on nail growth. But vitamin deficiency leads to their fragility and delamination.
Proper nutrition for nail growth
If your nails do not grow fast enough, you need to introduce additional care for them, which should be done every day or several times a week. Their nutrition will increase the likelihood of them strengthening and the rate at which they grow will return to optimal limits.
However, in addition to additional care, you need to pay attention to the nutrition and food you eat daily. Since what we put into our body affects the condition of our skin, nails, and hair, we need to balance our diet by excluding junk food.
The basis of a normal diet should be:
- Proteins (nuts, eggs, chicken breast). To produce collagen and elastin fibers, pay attention to eating foods high in protein, which will make the structure of the plate stronger;
- Fatty acids (vegetable oils). Needed to restore hormonal levels;
- Vitamin A (red vegetables). When introduced into the diet, nails grow twice as fast, as it promotes the production of keratin and restores the natural regeneration processes in the skin;
- Vitamin C (citrus fruits, rose hips). Needed for the body to produce collagen;
- Vitamin B12 (seafood, nuts, liver). Promotes restoration of natural cell regeneration;
- Zinc and iron (pumpkin seeds, eggs, legumes). Helps restore normal blood circulation.
Avoid drinking carbonated drinks, eating pure sugar and chocolate, eating fried foods and large amounts of oil.
Nails will grow faster if you increase the amount of water consumed per day to two liters; natural regeneration processes will be restored in the body, which will further improve their structure.
Factors affecting growth rate
A lack of vital substances: calcium, zinc, vitamin D and others can slow down the growth of horny plates on the fingertips. A concomitant factor to this phenomenon will be a decrease in the rate of hair growth, poor condition of teeth and hair. This picture occurs at any age; an infant under one year old, a preschooler, or a teenager may be at risk.
Slow growth can also be observed in the following cases:
- Penetration of a bacterial infection into the body.
- Disruption of the immune, cardiovascular and endocrine systems.
- Infection of the nail bed with a fungal infection.
- For dermatitis and psoriasis.
- When taking medications,
- When a child is injured.
- When transferring deviations by inheritance.
If there is no growth of horny plates on the arms, but everything is normal on the legs, most likely there is a bad habit. Consider the fact that on the lower extremities the keratin layer forms twice as slowly. A child can bite his nails secretly from his parents, so the bad habit can go unnoticed for a long time.