What your skin, hair, nails etc say about your health

Below I am including more material from The Naturopathy Workbook by Stephen Langley. These are primarily diagnostic tools used by fully qualified Naturopaths. However, knowledge is power, so check yourself and use it as a guide with which to seek further medical tests if necessary. Right, off to choir soon.

NATUROPATHY

CLINICAL DIAGNOSIS:

SKIN

· Normal/ healthy skin: colour normal (netheir too pale or too red) and influenced by ethnic background. Skin turgor (elasticity) in relationship to age and neither clammy or dry.

· Skin colour & pigmentation

*Pallor: cold, deficiency, and lack of vital force
*Abnormal redness: infection or inflammation
*Flushing: heat has entered the blood
*Cyanosis: extreme cold deficiency, stagnation of blood
*Jaundice: liver/gallbladder dysfunction
*Yellow palms & soles: possible hypothyroid, carotenosis

· Skin condition

*Oily: (caused by overactive sebaceous glands) Liver detox/diet and removal of oral contraceptive pill and steroids
*Excessively dry/flaky: deficiency of blood or body fluids, essential fatty acids, possible hypothyroid
*Sweaty/clammy palms: adrenal glands
*Cracked: lack of vitamins A and C, zinc and essential fatty acids
*Thin skin: can occur from long-term steroid use. Bioflavonoids are indicated, especially rutin.
*Hard skin: lack of essential fatty acids
*Elephant skin: ruled by lung qi, seen in long-term smokers
*Moist: Lung disharmony
*Swollen: skin that pits when pressed is a sign of oedema and excess fluids
*Withered: a sign that the fluids are injured
*Stretch marks: loss of elasticity in skin. Vitamin E cream, bioflavonoids and cell salt program during pregnancy (especially calc.fluor)
*Cellulitis: toxic buildup in cells. Clean out lymphatic system with skin brushing, exercise, herbs, lymphatic drainage etc.

HAIR

· Normal hair colour and texture: strong, thick and lustrous. The Kidney controls the stregth and thickness and lung controls sheen.
· Dry hair: excess, heat or stress, possible hypothyroid
· Oily hair: overacidity, reduce refined carbohydrates (sugar, soft drinks etc)
· Excessive hair loss and Alopecia: may be a lack of B vitamins, especially biotin, inositol, zinc, iron and especially lack of protein
· Dry/itchy scalp: lack of essential fatty acids
· Dandruff: controlled by spleen (pancreas) in TCM [Traditional Chinese Medicine] too many refined carbohydrates in the diet
· Greying: lack of B5, PABA, zinc, copper, extreme stress

NAILS

· Normal/healthy nails: pink nail beds and strong, smooth nails
· Nails and systemic diseases

*Splinter haemorrhages (longitudinal dark specks that look like splinters): suggests possible Bacterial endocarditis
*Terry’s nails (proximal ½ of nail is white and distal ½ is normal colour): suggests chronic Liver disease
*Pale: Anaemia (When hands are stretched out, nails should go white when tensed and return to pink when relaxed. If they remain white suggests Anaemia)
*Brown nail beds: Chronic Liver disease

· Nail matrix abnormalities
No ½ moons: lung or colon problem

· Nail and nail-bed abnormalities

*White marks (spots): zinc or vitamin A deficiency
*Ridges and splitting: silica deficiency
*Thick nails: fungal infections
*White nails: liver problems
*Spoon-shaped nails (concave & brittle): severe Iron or zinc deficiency
*Curved nails: usually a variant from normal nails and are not significant (not to be confused with clubbed nails, where the angle between nail and nail base is greatly increased)
*Soft nails: calcium deficiency
*Soft, crumbly and white: fungal infections
*Split nails: mineral deficiencies, especially calcium, magnesium and boron
*Clubbed nails (growing around swollen ends of fingers): respiratory or heart problems among other conditions.
*Pitting: psoriasis (in absence of trauma)
*Ridging (vertical): old age, poor absorption of vitamins A, B & C, calcium, zinc, magnesium and essential fatty acids.
*Ridging (horizontal): injury or infection
*Brittle: deficiency of silica, zinc, Iron, calcium or B12 (Hypothyroid)
*Beau’s lines: transverse depressions in the nails associated with acute, severe illness, usually appearing some weeks later.

FACE

· Correlation between face and body organs

*Weak lungs: will show up as shadows of different colours on the cheeks
*Corrugated cardboard lines across the forehead: indicate toxicity in the Large intestine. The deeper they are, the longer the toxicity has been present. Also can be related to digestion and therefore spleen.
*Small intestine: one deep line on the forehead
*Kidney and adrenal exhaustion: will show up as blue/black shadows under the eyes and ‘bags’ indicating fluid retention.
*Bladder: represented by a dry, red forehead
*Stomach deficiency: will show up as a vertical line between the eyebrows.
*Liver problems (often seen in alcoholics): present as two vertical lines between the eyebrows (either side of stomach line), often a lot of suppressed anger.
*Gall bladder: indicated in receding hairline.
*‘Purse strings’ on upper lip: often seen in women after menopause, and point to a weakness in the reproductive organs-ovaries.
*Cheeks: yellow/grey = constipation, green = liver problem
*Cracks around mouth: possible iron deficiency
*Butterfly rash around mouth: possible iron deficiency
*Butterfly rash around nose: possible B3 deficiency, rosacea

EYES

*Normal/healthy: Clear and bright indicating healthy liver and heart
*Yellow/jaundiced: liver or gallbladder stagnation
*Bloodshot: inability to sleep properly, liver disharmony
*Swollen: liver problem
*Dry: common allergy problem, especially to gluten
*Red: liver problem (excess heat in liver)
*Proptosis of eyes: (bulging of eye ball): possible thyroid problem
*Cataracts (clouding of lens): lack of bioflavonoids and vitamin E
*Bags under the eyes: kidney or adrenal insufficiency
*Floaters/spots: blood deficiency-liver detox
*Dark circles under eyes: possible B3 deficiency
*Itchy or watery: Candida albicans