why do doctors often examine nails?

yes nails,pulse and tongue all give information of the body functioning. but experience is needed to interprete the symptoms. My ex-roomie who is doing MD in ayurveda told me that there are more than 20 pulse rhythm and he can figure out the disease by observing the pulse.

The color and the shape of the nails tell them if you are anemic or not.

To check the color of your nail not the nail polish but the color from deep inside,if yellowish, or blue,, then they can detect that you are sick or wsomething wrong.

Yeah i think that doctors can tell if your body is lacking incertain nutrients as well from looking at your nails. I think that if there are white speckles it relates to a lack of calcium. Im not 100% sure but there are defiantely things that can be seen from looking at your nails

yes your mom is right about why doctors look at nails as a part of their examination. mostly for anaemia, to identify its type and start the therapy long before the investigations, if your nails are spoon shaped(koilonychia) the most common anaemia you are having is iron deficiency. also they look a condition known as clubbing where the nails become flat to identify a number of conditions prior to investigations to reach to a diagnosis. no one can be compared next to God, there is none comparable to him.

Hi, I am a doctor (a cosmetic surgeon). It is true that we doctors can get a lot of information by looking at one's nails. Some of the conditions that can be diagnosed by looking at the nails include: Anemia: Lack of haemoglobin in the blood, reflected as pale nails which take a long time to regain color after being blanched. Jaundice: Yellowish discoloration of nails in liver diseases. Calcium deficiencies: White streaks across the nails. Lung disorders: In conditions like emphysema, bronchiectasis (a condition characterised by severe thick secretions trapped in lung tubes) and lung tumors, the tissue just below the nail grows faster than the nail and causes the nails to bulge and we call this clubbing of nails. We also check for brittleness of the nails. Finally fungal infections can be present in nails, a condition called as onychomycosis. If face is the index of the mind, then nails are an index of health!!

Ridges or softness in your fingernails can indicate vitamin deficiencies as well as other medical problems.

hi rinku! i missed you. ^__^ i didn't know that doctors do this. well, i have only been to a clinic for a few times and had the doctor checked me up but i can't remember any instances that he checked my nails. although i have heard somewhere that looking at the nails can really give you an idea about the blood flow and the condition of the heart. i just couldn't be sure because i don't remember where i have heard it. ^__^;; anyways, thanks for this info rinku. i'll make it a point to think about this when i go to a doctor. ^__^

Mostly docotrs do this kind of examination to make a cursory check of blood circulation in our system. If you press the nail slightly, you'll notice that the nail bed becomes white, which indicates that circulation has met with an obstruction. Once you remove the pressure, the nail bed regains its original flush of redness. This confirms, at least superficially, that your circulation is working fine. There may also be a few other intricate details behind this examination. I have no idea regarding them though.

same as the other reasons already posted here. bu i'd like to add something... that's the reason why we should not paint our nails :-)

Yes ,doctors always examing nails. When I learn more about things , when my teather ask me when I grow up want to do what job, my answer is the doctor. May be this is the love from the born.