the longer my thesis gets, the shorter my nails are... My beautiful long nails are history. This week they are at their shortest. Hmmm, spooky. I wonder if it's my typing.

Anything else weird happens to others?

Yes, the longer I work on my PhD the more Niel Diamond songs I listen to. And I've started to eye up Kenny Rogers, too. To think, I used to listen to normal music. I'm also now an avid listener of File on 4, which isn't good.

Lol :-). hang in there Walminski. Hopefully it will all be done before you start listening to some original Hanson.

I appear to live in a parallel universe to you, 404 - i feel like my nails are growing scarily fast! Although my PhD was lab-based, so not wearing gloves for 8 hours a day helps a bit!

maybe there is only certain amount of nail that can be available to humanity at one time. I'll wait 'til you decide to have shorter nails in that case :-)

My nails are growing pretty quickly and are long, but seem to be forming, naturally, a kind of spoony shape, which I file down. I read the spooniness is down to iron deficiency, so that'll also be why I'm working at a snail's pace at the moment.

I'm also of the long nail variety - I'm now worrying about the length of my eventual thesis - they are such a pain that I have to keep filing them down as they intefere with typing - they never used to grow like this!

lol Stressed! Maybe it only happens in the last few weeks of submission. My nails were fine and growing madly until last week.
But then again, I managed to add 3000 more words to the thesis today. Maybe I should test by erasing some words permanently from it, and I might be able to watch my nails grow :p

If it is iron deficiency, maybe it's best to start getting supplements Eska? I have iron deficiency and over the counter iron supplements doesn't seem to do anything, but the stuff that the GP prescribes does wonders for nails and hair, and also tiredness.

Hmm, I have the tiniest bit of experience with koilonychia (or spoon shaped-nails) and I could talk about nails and nail care all day. The nails can often be interpreted as a window to systemic health. For instance, did you know that white spots on you nails, leukonychia (of which there are 3 types), can be indicative of arsenic poisoning? Or that big thick nails, onychochauxis, can indicate poor circulation?

Eska, does the colour of your hands and feet change colour and produce a burning sensation when you move from cold to hot environments - vice versa? It can sometimes be associated with various rheumatological conditions and malnutrition, too.

Hey, thanks folks, that's really good advice. I do feel tired a lot of the time, and have wondered if it is some kind of iron deficiency. I got some over the counter tablets, but feel no different, so I will go to the GP. Do they just give them to you or will I need tests etc?

Wal: I haven't noticed my hands etc changing colour with temperature extremes, but I will look out for that now. What kind of colour change would it be? Also, I have poor circulation in my legs and really thick big toe nails, so there we have it!

If you have poor circulation in your legs that can affect nail growth in your toes because the little capillaries increase in number, by way of compensation, which paradoxically increases the number of nail cells (onychocytes) in your nail beds meaning that your nails grow thicker. Thick toe nails can be annoying because they catch on tights and socks and you can cause a nail avulsion, where you dislodge the nail from the nail bed. You're also at increased risk of getting corns under the nails because of the increased susceptibility of your nails to intermittent compressive stress from the roof of you toe box. I know this is unsolicited advice and I'm waffling but make sure that you wear footwear with roomy toe boxes when you can and keep your nails filed down with a Black's file or just a standard nail file. I'd also make sure that the edges of you nails are rounded, so there's no risk of the catching. Another good trick with a thick nail is gently file the top surface of it, so as to reduce the overall thickness. If you do that, it'll stay nice and thin for at least 6 to 9 months. :-)

Oh, forgot to mention the colour change you asked about. It'll be triphasic, so your hands and feet can change from a purple/blue-ish colour to white and then red - and you feel a burning sensation. It's just Raynaud's disease and is usually harmless, so nothing to worry about. I have it. It's just there's an association between spoon shaped nails and that.

Good golly Wally, is there anything you don't know?! I am in awe here!

As for the iron deficiency, being Irish we have our own method - a good old pint of Guinness. It actually used to be prescribed medically for iron deficient people, and many doctors still recommend it today to people with deficiencies. It's absolutely chock full of iron!

======= Date Modified 15 Jun 2010 12:41:09 =======
Thank you Wally for your impressively well informed responses. I went to the doctor this morning, and am going for a 'fasting' blood test to check out various things, including iron deficiency tomorrow. The doc seemed sceptical that it was iron and said we could talk more about it after my blood test. I have a big history of thyroid problems and he was on about my last results, so maybe he thinks it's that. I'll find out soon anyhow.


In the meantime, I may get my self a bottle of guiness! Just in case, of course.