What are your nails telling you?

 

Nail health is on the menu for menopause this month, though really these tips will help anyone with nail problems.

I don’t know about you, but I always feel extremely irritated if my nails get chipped and snag on clothes or my hair so was fascinated to learn that our nails are the most photon dense part of us. This means they both radiate and respond to light.

I almost pathologically have to tidy a chipped nail and will whip out an emery board as soon as I can to feel comfortable and in my element again.

Getting feisty

Learning about the photons took me to thinking that perhaps we ‘read’ the environment with our nails, much a like a horned cow or deer is considered to. If you think about reaching towards a fruit to feel it’s texture, ripeness, it’s your nails that get there first.

Are out nails in fact ‘reading’ what’s to come?

Male deer grow horns and then fight each other for prowess and the female. A feisty cow might have her horns removed to tame her. Are nails intrinsically linked to our feisty hormones?

Chinese Emperors had long nails, demonstrating they were not manual workers, but perhaps also showing a connection to divinity and spiritual practice.

These days we decorate our nails ever more elaborately, radiating beautifully to attract, though perhaps also dimming our light and our ‘reading’ capacities with the gel polish?

Or do we ‘read’ better with gels as an extension of ourselves?

We need some studies!

Dry, flakey, brittle nails?

In traditional Chinese Medicine the health of both toenails & fingernails are related to health of the liver.

Dry, flakey, brittle and splitting nails mean a dry, slow functioning liver.

Fungal nails mean – oops – a big need to cleanse and detox the liver and perhaps indicate heavy metal toxicity.

My all time favourite supplement for nail health is Aquasource Fatty Acid Complex. My story is that I’d been taking it for years and got swayed by a friend’s enthusiastic recommendation of fermented butter and cod liver oil. At the time it was considered to be the new ‘must have’.

I took this supplement for 5 months, during which time I developed a split in my middle fingernail that I’d not seen in years. One day it dawned on me that this shouldn’t be happening if I was taking a good essential fatty acid.

I went back to my trusted Fatty Acid Complex and within 5 days the split had mended and to date (10 years on) it’s never come back.

The moral being, when you find the essential fatty acid that works for you, don’t abandon it.

A good essential fatty acid should mean no more dryness, no more splits, no more bendy or brittle nails. And your liver will say thank you for the nourishment too.

We have meridians (energy lines) that run through all our digits so a persistent issue with a particular nail could indicate an organ or system that needs extra support.

Trauma to a nailbed or a bone break might also affect a nail. If your nails don’t get healthier with what I’m sharing then a more personalised prescription from a homeopath or a naturopath would be the next step.

Fungal nail fixes

For fungal nails take a daily essential fatty acid and massage Neem Oil onto your nails daily. I can give you a 15% discount code on all products at the Natural Dispensary.

If you are keen to make your own ointment for fungal nails I can highly recommend Plantain Salve. I make this every year for clients. Message me if you’d like a pot, otherwise here’s the recipe if you’d like to get brewing.

Another great tip for fungal nails is to soak nails for 20 minutes a day in apple cider vinegar or organic beer. You can store the liquid in a foot or hand-sized plastic container and use for up to a week before preparing a new brew.

Beyond essential fatty acids, Renew Skin Hair & Nails is my go to supplement. You can use code WONDERHORSEHEALTH to save on either of these links UK/Europe & USA/Canada

Foods rich in biotin, B vitamins, iron, magnesium and eating adequate protein and Vitamin C will help with nail health.

If you have discolouration or horizontal ridges I recommend seeing a practitioner as a more serious issue could be indicated.

Skin & your hormones

In case you missed it here’s me and Fiona Eadie talking about skin at menopause. We share insights around what our bodies are trying to tell us and some tips on how to manage skin symptoms.

Fiona & I run The Natural Menopause Course together so listen out for our 2025 dates coming soon.

Here’s what women said about our June 2024 course

“My nails seem to be better, the skin of my face looks much better too. I haven’t had cold feet going to bed… A great improvement. And so much more energy too!”

“I really learned to hear my inner voice, to heal. Thank you!! My biggest change is mood and anxiety”

“It’s so rare to hear women confidently speak of their positive experience on the all-natural approach, such as you two. I wish there were more women sharing on this”

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