When your body lacks calcium, your nails become thinner, weaker, and brittle. You may notice that they break easily and just don't look as healthy as they used to. Although nails and bones are made up of different substances, they're similar enough that poor nail health may be an early marker of bone density problems.
Talk with a doctor about steps to improve nail strength if home remedies are not working. Brittle, weak, or slow-growing nails may indicate a calcium deficiency.
Without it, your nails will brittle easily and feel weak – not a good look. Start eating cheese, seeds, yoghurt, beans etc. to increase your calcium intake.
White nails can be the result of anemia and pink or red nails may suggest malnutrition with several nutrient and vitamin deficiencies. Additionally, biotin deficiency can increase the risk of fungal nail infections and subsequent nail plate discoloration. Changes in nail shape and surface.
Well, turns out that this commonly believed 'fact' is actually a myth. That is because those white spots on your nail beds are not due to calcium deficiency but because of a zinc deficiency.
Contrary to popular opinion, white spots on the nails is rarely the sign of a vitamin or mineral deficiency.
If your nails are peeling, brittle, or have vertical ridges, you may be vitamin D deficient. Dubbed “the sunshine vitamin,” one of the best sources is sunlight. It can also be found in fatty fish, beef, liver, egg yolk, and fortified dairy, orange juice, and cereals.
Signs of a protein deficiency
Common signs that your body is extremely low on protein include: Brittle hair and nails, often the first sign of deficiency.
2 Nail changes in vitamin B12 deficiency present as hyperpigmentation of nails like bluish discoloration of nails, blue-black pigmentation with dark longitudinal streaks, and longitudinal and reticulate darkened streaks. The nail pigmentation associated with B12 deficiency is more frequent in patients with dark skin.
Koilonychia is an abnormal shape of the fingernail. The nail has raised ridges and is thin and curved inward. This disorder is associated with iron deficiency anemia.
“Calcium is better known for its assistance with bone growth, but it's also important for nail health," Gray says. "Stunted growth as well as white dots on the nails can be signs of a deficiency." Don't do dairy? Get your calcium fix from fortified soy milk or orange juice, tofu, turnip greens, kale, and bok choy.
Your nails are made from hardened keratin, which is the protein that also makes up your hair strands, but they also contain calcium deposits. Calcium is a key mineral when it comes to maintaining the hardness and structure of nails, as well as keeping the tissues of the nail bed healthy.
Therefore, to maintain the health of your skin, it is important to include calcium-rich foods in your diet. It is also important for the health of your hair as one of the main reasons for hair loss is calcium deficiency. If you are experiencing hair thinning or hair loss, you should have foods that are rich in calcium.
Calcium and Hair Growth
There are many nutrients that are important for hair growth, but there is one seldom mentioned – calcium. A lack of calcium is a very common factor for hair loss but not many people pay enough attention to it.
Vitamin B12, iron, zinc, or magnesium deficiencies can cause vertical ridges on the nail beds. While vitamins A and C deficiencies can cause nails to crumble or break easily.
One of the most common nutrient deficiencies to show up in nails is a zinc deficiency. More prevalent in school-age children, this deficiency can present as scattered white spots. Usually, people can take a zinc supplement for a short amount of time to clear up these white marks.
Zinc deficiency can cause Beau's lines and white spots on your nails. Iron deficiency can cause vertical nail ridges and koilonychia (spoon nails). Spoon nails have a depression in the middle, like the center of your nail was scooped out.
You might notice that pregnant women who take a prenatal vitamin supplement start to grow very long, healthy nails, which brings us to our main point… If you have a vitamin or mineral deficiency, it can show up as dry, cracked, brittle, and irregularly shaped nails.
Ridges in your nails may be age-related. Horizontal ridges, also known as Beau's lines, that run across the nail indicate that your nail growth slowed or stopped and that it could be related to a health condition. Common causes include high fever, vitamin deficiency, injury, diabetes and peripheral vascular disease.
This article explains that vitamin D is metabolized in the skin by keratinocytes, the cells that produce keratin, the protein found in hair, nails and skin. Without enough vitamin D, the keratinocytes in hair follicles may not properly function, resulting in disruption in the hair growth to hair shedding cycle.
Leukonychia on finger nails as a marker of calcium and/or zinc deficiency.
White nails, also known as leukonychia, describes fingernails that are partially or completely white in color. The white color could be the result of several things such as trauma, anemia, dietary deficiencies, heart or kidney disease, or even poisoning.