How to Have Naturally Healthy Fingernails

The fingernails allow protection of the tips of fingers from injury. Fingernails are made of a combination of keratin (a tough and strong protein of amino acids), sulfur and nitrogen. It is possible to have your own healthy fingernails naturally by taking proper care of them with these tips and allowing the fingernails to grow at the average rate of 3.4mm/month.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Common sense
• Desire for naturally healthy fingernails
• Balanced diet
• Gloves/natural cleaners
• Cuticle oil
• Increased circulation
• Manicure

1. 
   Use common sense for naturally healthy fingernails

   Common Sense
   In order to have naturally healthy fingernails, understand that applying artificial and acrylic nails can block air from reaching the nail bed causing an increased risk of developing fungus on the nail. Fungus feeds on the keratin as a natural element of fingernails. To avoid this, simply resting the nail from artificial applications and allowing at least a full week of air to hit the nail will increase the health of the entire fingernail including the nail bed and nail plate.

2. 
   don't bite the fingernails

   Desire for naturally healthy nails
   Be careful with the fingernails and avoid using them as tools to open items, don't bite, scrape or pick them. Use the fingers or an actual tool instead of the fingernails.

3. 
   balanced diet will help grow fingernails

   Balanced Diet
   To have and grow naturally healthy fingernails be sure that the daily diet is balanced and includes plenty of
   Protein: meat, poultry, eggs,beans,rice, milk and vegetables.
   
   Sulfur: meat, fish, egg yolk, onion, garlic, kale, cabbage and cranberries.
   
   Nitrogen: eggs, milk, meat, corn, soybean, wheat, oats,bran and beans.

4. 
   use gloves to protect the fingernails

   Gloves/natural cleaners
   Wear gloves to do household chores and always avoid using chemicals which are too harsh for the skin and fingernails and aid in breakage, cracking and splitting. Choose natural cleansers for the most healthy fingernails.

5. 
   apply cuticle oil to nail plate and nail bed

   Cuticle Oil
   Applying cuticle oil to the fingernail bed, plate and surrounding area weekly will assist the fingernails from splitting, breaking as well as help to minimize soft, brittle nails.

6. 
   massage fingers and fingernails

   Increased circulation
   Massaging the fingernails daily with the cuticle oil and chemical free botanical lotions will increase the blood flow and circulation needed for proper nail growth.

7. 
   keep fingernails manicured

   Manicure
   Keep the fingernails manicured weekly by trimming and filing. Trim evenly using a nailfile, always moving in one direction instead of back and forth. This will prevent nail splitting and assist naturally healthy fingernails.

Resources

• rnhealthinfo

[shenandoah]

on 8/31/2009 Good advice on how to have naturally healthy fingernails.

[mvalora]

on 8/29/2009 My wife said she liked the advice in this article. Thanks!

[sonni57]

on 8/28/2009 Great info on how to have healthy nails it makes sense to me.