Ridged Fingernails

Ridged fingernails appear in most of the living persons. Whether most of us do not realize that this is not a normal state of fingernails, very few take some action in this regard and get informed on the possibilities they have to get rid of ridged fingernails.

There are two types of ridges on fingernails, there are the vertical ridges that appear on the vast majority of people, and then there are the horizontal ridges that are less common and that appear in case of some serious disease or illness. Most of the times the vertical ridges are painless and as well do not lead to anything more serious. There are a lot of causes that can be attributed to them.

The causes for the vertical ridges rang from genetic ones, to poor diet, poor nutrient absorption, loss of moisture, dry cuticles and the aging process. While the genetic causes and the aging process cannot be kept under control and is not under our surveillance, the other causes are external factors that can be kept under control and taken some actions to prevent them.

The diet is very important as far as one’s fingernails concerns as from what you daily eat, every vitamin and mineral come, and therefore, the saying “you are what you eat”, applies in the case of your fingernails as well. Whether you take the necessary vitamins from food or from vitamin supplements, your fingernails need them. The necessary vitamins are vitamin A, B, protein and iron. Some cases are when one may be eating healthy, but the nutrients do not go all the way to ones fingernails. In this case a doctor should prescribe you the necessary medication.

The loss of moisture is related to using too much chemicals on your fingernails, to not protecting your fingernails while you are doing housework etc, to using excessive nail polish and nail polish remover, and as well, to not hydrating your fingernails properly every time you wash your hands. So one should use a hand cream every time one washes the hands, should wear protective gloves when doing a lot of work around the house and should give ones fingernails time to breathe three days or so, between the nail polishing processes.

As the above mentioned are related to vertical ridges on fingernails, the causes of horizontal ridges on fingernails are different. They occur as a result of some medication intake, of some illness, infections, heart problems, kidney problems etc.

The horizontal ridges’ can disappear as the illness will fade away while the vertical ridges need a furrow treatment. They will suffer a little change in the beginning until they will disappear for good. The ridges that appear as a cause of the aging process will just diminish their state and not disappear.