What is the healthy color of nails

The vast majority of healthy nails are a uniform light pink and translucent color. If you press lightly with your fingertips, the nail surface will temporarily turn white. After releasing it, it will return to its original light pink color in 1-2 seconds. A clear-cut milky white half-moon mark can be seen mostly at the nail root. This is the currently clinically recognized standard for healthy nail color.

Speaking of which, this standard is not stuck. After all, people’s physiques and living habits are very different, so it is impossible to use one color number to apply to everyone. I met a mountaineering enthusiast who runs outdoors all year round at a dermatology clinic. His skin color is a healthy wheat color, and his nails are one color darker than those of us ordinary people who sit in the office, with a slight yellow tint. He himself read popular science and said that yellow nails are caused by liver disease. There are also people who are born with very white skin, and the pink of their nails will be lighter, even close to light pink and white. As long as they are not cold and the blood does not return after being pressed for a long time, they are healthy and there is no need to worry about whether they are anemic.

The idea of "nail color contrast disease" spread by many people on the Internet is actually quite outrageous. Few crescent moons mean kidney deficiency, and vertical lines mean liver disease. It's really not that absolute. Let’s just talk about the crescent moon. Some people are born with nail roots positioned far back, and the newly grown keratin has not yet been exposed, so naturally the crescent moon cannot be seen. You can’t say that people are born unhealthy, right? Last week, a female college student came over and said she had vertical lines on her fingernails. She was so anxious that she couldn't even sleep well. I asked her to apply hand cream on her nails when she went back, and put on cotton gloves to cover it at night. Within half a month, she sent a message saying that the vertical lines were basically invisible. It was caused by the dryness of the nails in autumn and winter, and it had nothing to do with the organ.

Of course, this does not mean that you don’t need to pay attention to changes in nail color. If your nails are normally light pink and suddenly become white and bloodless, and your hands and feet are usually cold all year round, it is most likely that you have poor peripheral circulation, or there is a real possibility of anemia. It is best to have a blood test. If grayish-yellow patches suddenly appear and the nails gradually become thicker and layered, it is most likely fungal infection and needs to be treated as soon as possible to prevent it from getting all over your hands. Also, if a black line suddenly appears on your nail and is slowly getting wider and deeper, you should see a dermatologist for investigation as soon as possible and don’t take it seriously.

To be honest, healthy nails are like small pink flakes covered with a layer of translucent frosting film. Evenness is much more important than "standard color number". When you are really unsure, it is much more reliable to ask a doctor to take a look than to guess at the comparison table in a short video.