Nails

Don’t bite them!

Nails help protect the soft top part of fingers and toes and are found on humans and some animals.
Nails are made of keratin, a protein that is also found in hair and skin, and animal horns and hooves.
Nails consist of a ‘nail plate’, which is the hardest part of the nail; a ‘nail bed’, which is the softer skin underneath the nail; and the ‘matrix’, which is the soft tissue that the nail protects underneath the base of the nail that contains blood vessels, nerves and lymph (a type of fluid).
Nails grow an average of 2 – 3 mm (0.08 – 0.12 inches) per month, and fingernails can double their length (regrow) in three to six months, and toenails, which are slower growing, can double in length (regrow) in twelve to eighteen months.
The white half moons on nails that are most visible on thumbs, are called ‘lunula’, and under the lunula is the section of the matrix that you can see.

Nails are said to grow quickest in the summer months, especially when exposed to sunlight because they need vitamin D to grow, but other factors, such as age, gender, and health, can make nails grow quicker.
Sometimes nails fall off due to disease or injury, but they generally regrow.
Unhealthy nails that look sick in colour, or are brittle and break easily, are usually a sign that your body is lacking in vital nutrients, or that there is an internal health problem.
Indian Shridhar Chillal holds the world record for the longest nails on a single hand, with a combined total of 6.15 meters (20 feet 2.25 inches) of fingernails on one hand, and the length of his thumb nail was over 1.20 meters (4 feet) long.
There is a theory that white spots on your nails are from a calcium or zinc deficiency, however the spots, called Leukonychia, are generally caused by minor injury to the base of the nail (matrix), and they will normally grow out.