So here's another daily do from your friendly local dermatologist!
All right,
so let's talk about how to strengthen your nails because especially as we get wiser through the years,
then our nails can become more and more brittle.
So tip number one is talk to your doctor because there are some medical conditions that can result in
brittle nails and we want to make sure that you don't have any of those and if you do that
we're properly educating and treating that disease condition and then maybe =, quite possibly,
that's all you'll need to get good healthy nails again.
So after you've spoken to your doctor and make sure nothing is going on internally,
then we got to really make sure that we're paying attention to what we're doing with our hands all day long.
So are we constantly washing them with soap and water. Are we
not putting moisturizers on? Are our hands so dry that when we move them they crack from dryness because
the protein that makes up a nail, It's
basically, a little different, but basically the same protein that is on our skin and if this is dry and cracked and fragile and brittle
because it's dry, because we're washing it too much, we're not taking care of it,
then these are going to be just as dry, cracked, brittle, all that stuff because we're not washing them properly or caring for them properly.
So make sure you're washing your hands when you can see the dirt on them.
Now those of us in the medical profession, you know
we have to do things a little bit different but most people aren't in the medical profession.
So when you see dirt on your hands or after using the bathroom,
wash with soap and water,
but if you're washing more than 10 times a day
then you are destroying the protective layer of your skin and nails and you're gonna be causing problems. The waterless hand
sanitizers, by the way, they work just as well
for
disinfecting your hands as soap and water does as long as you can't see any dirt on them.
So if you need to wash your hands a lot
then try the waterless hand sanitizers and I use stuff that has built and moisturizers
so that I'm keeping my skin protected while I'm protecting my patients and gosh
I probably do that a couple hundred times a day and these guys they're doing good
but I also put moisturizers on at night, most
importantly, before I go to sleep at night and I do make sure that my nails get moisturized as well.
So if we can care for our hands treat them well and
appropriate to keep other people and ourselves safe. You're probably not going to have as many issues.
Now if you've spoken to a provider, you're doing proper maintenance, daily maintenance, washing/moisturizing with your hands.
You can also try things like biotin, its over-the-counter, its a B vitamin. Talk to your primary care provider,
make sure it's ok with you but it's generally safe for most people because it's a water-soluble vitamin and
if you take too much of it, you'll just pee it out. Now
you don't want to go to ridiculous extremes, but talk to your doctor about it.
We can give you some good tips and recommendations, and I'm not a hundred percent sure if it works
but anecdotally a lot of my patients say it does help.
Now last there are some paint on like oils that you can use for your nail.
Please make sure you go to the Environmental Working Group and make sure that whatever product it is is okay
because a lot of paint on nail stuff has all sorts of horrible
ingredients in it that will actually cause cancers or birth defects in children.
So,
please make sure, whether it's nail polish, and nail polish remover or just a simple moisturizer that you put on, that the Environmental Working Group
has said it's okay for you to use.
All right, guys, it's a big topic but these, man they're sticking out there all day long.
We use them all day long, especially even to hitchhike and you got to have it looking good.