Your nails might be trying to tell you something — and checking them could be the easiest way (hands down) to spot hidden health problems.
uncertain
checking → try → problems
Meaning “little moon” in Latin, lunulae are the half-moon shapes at the base of your nails.
asserted
lunulae → mean → nails
It’s where new nail cells are made and pushed forward.
asserted
cells → ’ → ?
They’re most prominent on your thumbs and are smaller and less visible as you move out to the pinkies.
asserted
you → ’re → pinkies
Researchers analyzed studies going back to 1954, when the first research was published on a particular kind of unusual lunulae, to find exactly what the mini-moons can tell us about our health.
asserted
moons → analyze → health
Lunulae are usually white, because the nail is thicker there, obscuring the blood vessels on the nail bed.
asserted
nail → obscure → bed
That said, not everyone has them, and not having lunulae doesn’t indicate you’re unhealthy.
asserted
you → say → lunulae
But when you have lunulae that turn red, it could spell danger.
uncertain
it → have → danger
“Red lunulae may reflect both systemic disease activity or local pathology,” the authors wrote.
uncertain
authors → reflect → activity
What reserachers found
Nails are highly sensitive to health changes in the body.
asserted
Nails → find → body
It needs a steady flow of nutrients, oxygen, and blood flow to grow continuously, and changes to any of these will affect the way they grow.
asserted
they → need → way
For example, using GLP-1s has recently shown to be associated with discolored and detached nails.
asserted
using → use → nails
That’s why we’re been looking to our nails for so long as indicators of health.
asserted
we → ’ → health
Back in that first 1954 report, researchers in London observed 61% of folks examined with red lunulae also had heart failure.
asserted
% → observe → failure
All the others with red lunulae had some kind of systemic disease like emphysema and chronic bronchitis (both known as COPD), cirrhosis (longterm liver scarring), and cancer, including polycythemia vera (a blood cancer that causes thick, slow moving blood), lymphoma (cancer of white blood cells), and myeloid leukemia (cancer of blood and bone marrow).
asserted
that → have → blood
Since then, more research has shown red lunulae are connected with autoimmune conditions like alopecia areata (which causes the hair to fall out in round patches), dermatomyositis (which causes skin rashes and muscle weakness), and systemic lupus erythematosus (aka SLE, which attacks healthy tissue and organs.)
asserted
which → show → tissue
Author also note connections with congestive heart failure, psoriasis, carbon monoxide poisoning, and lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV), a sexually transmitted infection caused by certain variants of the Chlamydia bacteria.
asserted
Author → note → bacteria
But exactly why red mini-moons on your nails are connected to any of these conditions “remains unclear,” authors say.
uncertain
authors → connect → conditions
They do point out though, that the association only exists if multiple fingernails have red lunulae — if it’s just one, something local like an injury under that nail, is more common.
asserted
something → point → nail
It’s also important to note that having a red lunulae doesn’t necessarily mean something’s wrong, just as having white ones doesn’t mean you’re perfectly healthy.
asserted
you → ’ → ones
Authors say that the review simply shows support for more investigation if a patient comes in with red lunulae.
asserted
patient → say → lunulae
“Given the rarity of the occurrence, its potential diagnostic relevance is often overlooked,” write the researchers.
asserted
researchers → give → occurrence
“When identifying red lunulae, clinicians should consider connections to underlying systemic or dermatologic disease.
asserted
clinicians → identify → disease
This subtle clinical sign may facilitate early detection and identification of salient systemic disease.”
uncertain
sign → facilitate → disease
The Aporia
