Good but not excellent (alas).

I've always had decent nails. But I've been wearing acrylics for years since 10th grade on and off again. It's a love - hate relationship.

Funny you brought this up. I just found this from the FibroTv Facebook page:

http://positivemed.com/2013/05/20/detecting-nutritional-deficiencies/

It talks about skin/nail conditions and vitamin and mineral deficiencies.

I suppose my nails are "excellent." My girlfriends in the past were always jealous of them.

I used to grow out my right hand ones a little for playing acoustic guitar and the never split or anything. I don't paint them, though :)

Thank you wonderbaby. I am now taking magnesium. Let's see if that helps. I suppose I should also take zinc.

You're welcome hun. But just a blanket warning. Always check to see what is the daily limit to some of these supplements.

Zinc I believe you have to be careful with. Meaning, don't take a supplement if you are already taking daily vitamin w/ zinc in it. Just read up before you purchase them or ask your doc/pharmacist first.

Good luck, sure hope it helps!
Zinc is also great at the beginning of a cold or if you have been exposed to someone else with a cold. Keeps the symptoms low or at bay.

Fair. My thyroid is a problem...

Excellent. It pisses off my nail techs that I have them taken down to fingertip length with each manicure because I spend so much time on a keyboard. They always tell me how they would love to have my nails.

Poor....dark ridges and sometimes the ridges break down to the cuticle. I used to have beautiufl nails!

Mine are pretty bad, but I usually wear acrylics so even if I don't feel well enough to put my make up my hands will still look pretty haha.
If you have weak nails I recommend taking biotin (at natural grocers, etc.) It really has helped strengthen and lengthen my nails a lot.

My nails are great. They've always been strong. Since I started taking Biotin for hair loss, my nails grow about 3 or 4 times faster!

Hi Emily,

Dreadful...Mine are exactly as you described your nails...I have to keep them as short as possible or they just tear lengthwise and split.

I have been recently diagnosed with psoriatic arthritis and one of the first things my rheumatologist noticed were my nails. He said this is a very common symptom of psoriasis.

Emily, my nails are just like yours...split, tear, etc. I can't even use a necklace clasp because the little mechanism tears my nails.

I have found that using a good hand cream several times a day helps strengthen my nails. I massage the cream into my nails and all around them. I make sure to get hand cream that does NOT contain any alcohol because the alcohol dries the nails and skin.

Ok, so bad nails does not seem to be associated with fibro because people are all over the place with this!

But, I do appreciate the feedback and will try more lotion, biotin (after all, I already take a dozen pills, one more wont hurt) and read up on psoriatic arthritis.

Who knows, in a few monts i might be in pain, but will have gorgeous nail. You got to find humor where you can.

Keep the responses coming. I have promised myself to make profiles to see if I can find subgroups of people with fibro. In other words, people who have bad nails also xxxx and yyyy and they respond better to bbbb treatment than people with good nails. Going crazy here, but we each have our thing, no?

Emily, you're too funny!

Emily, you should be a researcher!!