Analyzing your nails.

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Nails can provide indications of underlying health problems. So what does it all mean?

Nail discoloration can signal disease. Abnormally white fingernails may be due to anemia or kidney problems.

A deep blue nail beds signal pulmonary obstruction or emphysema.

Yellow nails, while often a result of tobacco staining, may suggest liver problems, diabetes, respiratory disorders, problems with the lymphatic system, renal disease, syphilis, cancer or exposure to toxins.

Thick nails may indicate that blood is not circulating properly.

Spoon-shaped nails (a condition called koilonychias from the Greek ‘koilo’ for spoon) may result from vitamin B12 deficiency.

A vitamin B12 deficiency along with thyroid problems, impaired kidneys and problems with circulation, can also make nails brittle.

Very ‘bendable’ nails may be a sign of rheumatoid arthritis.

If a person has suffered from a serious disease or a physical or emotional trauma, evidence may show up in their nails. Considering the relatively small amount of tissue implicated, nail growth requires a lot of metabolic energy. Because of this, the nail-production system is very sensitive to happenings in other bodily systems. Thus, serious illness and physical or emotional trauma can hinder or even fully arrest nail growth, resulting in horizontal ridges in the nail (called Beau’s lines) marking the period of disease. Beau’s lines become visible as the nail grows out, and the approximate timing of the illness/trauma that caused the lines may be calculated from their ‘height’ in the nail: it can take three to six months to grow a fingernail and a year to a year and a half to grow a toenail, so a Beau’s line half-way up the nail indicates a trauma or disease that occurred a few months before.

Source: Do Discolored Nails Mean Something?

Disclaimer: These nail observations are tools that can be used to detect several health conditions. A real assessment should be done by health and medical personnel.

I recently went on a one week trip to Disneyworld. I spend a lot of time walking. My shoes were new and were too tight around the toes. As a result my toes underneath the nails turned black and blue on four toes. As time went on, the injury produced horizontal ridges marking the event and injury.

^That sounds painful.

I'm wondering - what do vertical lines on fingernails mean?

I used to get the occasional white spot on my fingernails.
I started eating loads of fruit and veg. Now my fingernails are clear if that's of any interest to you.

Vertical ridges are furrows that run from the tip of your fingernail down to the cuticle. They are sometimes called longitudinal striations or bands.

Slight vertical ridges in fingernails often develop in older adults, possibly due to a slowing of cell turnover. This is when new skin cells produced below the surface of your skin rise up to take the place of dead cells that are discarded from the surface.

If you experience other symptoms like color or texture changes in your nails, it may be caused by a medical condition. In trachyonychia, or 20-nail dystrophy, the ridges may be accompanied by a change in color to your nails, or your nails may become rough or brittle.

Iron deficiency anemia can also trigger vertical ridges and changes to your nails that make them concave, or spoon-shaped.

Source: Why Do I Have Ridges in My Fingernails?

I chew and bite my nails constantly, been doing it as long as I can remember.

Good doctors still know that the state of somebody's nails and hair can give them a lot of information. Bad ones tend to dismiss it as minor or "vanity" complains, especially coming from women.