Finger nail problems.

[beandrummo]

My finger nails have ridges and over the last few days I've noticed the white part at the cutting end has become uneven and is spreading down the nails. My GP said it's vitamin deficiency and to eat healthy diet. I told her I do, never had it before although been hypo for years and currently on 75 mg Levothyroxine.

[salshep]

I will be interested to see if anyone can advise on this, I have had the same problem for many years regardless of what dose I'm on or supplements I am taking. A couple of my nails have lifted so much there is only a few millimetres that appear to be attached to the nail bed now

[dang in reply to salshep]

Please see my reply to beandrummo, this is vitamin deficiency and common in hypos

[dang]

This is most likely due to a deficiency in B12, folate and iron. Have you had your vitamins and minerals tested recently? This is very common with hypo's. I have it too. Taking supplements is repairing the problem.

Make sure to get your vit D, B12, folate, ferritin, iron tested. Keep your results and post them here since doctors will only prescribe supplements if your seriously deficient, often for hypos even if we are not "deficient" but low in the range that's enough to cause us issues.

It's very likely this is your issue, it's very common.

[beandrummo in reply to dang]

Thank you, found your reply helpful. I usually include dried fruit in my diet and gave it up for Lent, could result in B12 deficiency!

[dang in reply to beandrummo]

I'm not sure how much B12 is in dried fruit, could be. It could also be iron and folate. Have you had a recent blood test for these vitamins? If not I would suggest going to get them done and correcting any deficiencies, it goes a long way to helping with symptoms and overall health

[helvella Administrator in reply to dang]

As I understand there are NO plant sources of B12. There some plants which have similar substances but they do not act as B12 in humans.

Posts about B12 are on-topic here in Thyroid UK and perfectly reasonable. However, the Pernicious Anaemia Society forum is where there is much experience and knowledge about B12. You can find the forum by following this link:

healthunlocked.com/pasoc

Perhaps Gambit62 has a link to the "no plant sources"?

[helvella Administrator in reply to helvella]

Perhaps this:

vegansociety.com/resources/...

[Gambit62 in reply to helvella]

yes that is a good source.

beandrummo , no B12 in dried fruit - thoughprobably lots of other B vitamins. Unlikely that giving up anything for lent - even meat, fish and dairy -the dietary sources of B12 - would cause a deficiency as you normally have 3 months + of B12 stored in your liver, so a deficiency (either caused by dietary lack) or by an absorption problem - much more likely cause of a deficiency) tends to develop slowly over a very long period of time.Did your GP tell you what vitamin deficiency he thoughtwas involved?

I'm not aware of B12 deficiency leading to the sort of separation from the nail that is discribed above - generally causees brittle nails.

These are some articles on nail problems that may be relevant - sounds like you are describing Onychomycosis

medicinenet.com/vertical_ri...

medicinenet.com/nail_separa...

medicinenet.com/image-colle...

[beandrummo in reply to dang]

Yes I have, I was actually getting blood results when I told GP about my nails. Bloods were "normal".

[dang in reply to beandrummo]

"Normal" doesn't mean much. "Normal" is how the doctor decides to read your tests, most doctors would be happy if you're in range or even just close to the range! What you need is to have optimal levels. So for B12 that usually means a result of 800+ whereas a doctor would consider 200 "normal". For D you need to be around 100, but a doctor might b happy with 35-40...

For us hypos just being "in range" is not good enough to get our bodies to convert the medication properly and to get our metabolism working properly again. I would recommend you post the results so that we can help.

Just so you know I also had brittle nails, doctors only treated my vit D deficiency but nothing else, they left me anemic, folate deficient, low B12, b1 deficient. Only after following the advice on this forum and supplementing the other vitamins did my nails start to come back to normal. For the first time in 10-15 years I have a half-moon on one nail and they're starting to grow back on others. And my ridges are starting to go away, no help from doctors.

[beandrummo in reply to dang]

Thank you Dang, I'm going to chase up results. Could be due to probs I had November last year. Had total hip replacement, had haematoma so had second op to flush wound out then got infection, Seratia, was on heavy duty antibiotics. All good now.

[dang in reply to beandrummo]

Wow sounds like quite the battle, I'm glad to hear you're all good now!

[Zephyrbear]

If your nails are lifting from the nail bed, this could be down to too much thyroxine. I had this year's ago when my dose was raised too high and this started happening. They tested for all sorts of causes, including fungal, but nothing showed up. Then I watched an episode of Chicago Hope in which one of the characters was offering help to another regarding his possible excess level of thyroxine causing, amongst other things, his nails lifting off the nail beds... As soon as I reduced my dose of thyroxine, the problem went away and my nails returned to normal. The rest of my health didn't, however, and I was finally prescribed T3 alongside a drastically reduced dose of T4 and I haven't looked back since!

[beandrummo in reply to Zephyrbear]

Thank you

[SilverAvocado]

My nails have a range of different crumples and ridges. I showed one of my nails to Dr P, it's a single nail on one hand covered in tiny little pits. Looks exactly like what a kitten will do to action man's hand if it gets a chance to chew on it. He just sighed and said "You've been on the wrong dose for a long time". I think being hypo (or hyper) just messes nails up. Now I'm on NDT my pitted nail is slowly reducing, every month or so I notice the pits are shallower.

[Silver_Fairy]

Helvella put up this link when I posted a photo of my curved nails

healthunlocked.com/api/redi...

[beandrummo]

Thank you, will do