What Is The Composition Of Our Finger Nails?

Had biting nails pained us, we would not ever have done so; or, the other way round if it hurt us to cut our nails there would be hundreds of thousands people with very long nails! Filing, cutting, biting do not hurt us. The rea-son being that these are made of dead cells. These are special starches that grow from the skin. The nails in general are composed of ‘Keratine’. This is a tough dead form of protein, and a horn-like material.

At the base and along the sides the nail is embedded in skin. Under the nail, the skin is just like any other skin, except for the presence of any of an elastic fibre. These fibres hold on the nails firmly at the other end. These are generally thick, except at the point near the roots beneath the skin where it is thin. This part appears white and is semicircular like half-moon. It is called the “lunule’. The yearly growth of finger nails is about two inches.

Among women, they are an object of beauty. They colour and polish the nails. The nails present problems too, for a number of people. The nail disorder creeps in on account of injuries caused to then. A burn or a frostbite, may injure nails, they may stop growing altogether.

Nails are brittle in nature, hard and tend to split caused due to many things: infections, a disturbance of the nutritional system, poor or irregular circulation of blood, or glandular disturbances. Women who complain of peeling off of the nails at the tips, may have themselves to be blamed in. They allow their nails to grow too long. Long nails are subject to shocks, and this can result in damage to the nails