A blue nail is a rather unpleasant sight that you want to get rid of as soon as possible. To do this, you need to know the cause of the blue nail. The reasons can be quite different, from a simple bruise to various hidden diseases of internal organs.
Trauma is the most common reason why the nail is blue. After a severe bruise that a person cannot, the nail turns blue. This is due to a hematoma that forms under the injured nail plate. To avoid such an unpleasant phenomenon, it is necessary to apply something cold to the finger in the first minutes after the injury, ideally ice. In this case, the swelling will decrease, and it will be possible to preserve the natural color of the nail.
If your finger hurts extremely badly, you should urgently consult a specialist, in this case, a surgeon. He will be able to remove the blood from under the nail and prescribe treatment. If necessary, the doctor can quickly remove the nail plate. This is done only as a last resort when the hematoma is dangerous. If the finger is not protected by the nail plate, it becomes more sensitive to external stimuli. This can be quite uncomfortable, even with normal shoe wear.
If it is not possible to consult a doctor, you can try to get rid of the hematoma yourself. To do this, you need a hot needle, which you need to pierce the nail plate. Then simply release the accumulated blood from the hematoma. This must be done very carefully so as not to worsen the condition of the sore finger. It is believed that if the blood is not released, the nail will soon begin to flake off. If you do everything correctly, there will be no pain, since the human nail has no nerve endings. The main thing is not to pierce the plate more than necessary, this can damage the sensitive and delicate tissues of the finger, then the pain will be much stronger than before. But it should be borne in mind that such an intervention is quite dangerous, since infection is possible, which can lead to very bad consequences. Therefore, if the nail turns blue from a blow, it is better to consult a specialist. If you do not take any action, after a couple of months it will regrow, and the blue will disappear after a few weeks. But at the same time, there is a very high probability that the nail will peel off the skin.
But there are also cases when the nails turn blue not from a bruise. This can be a minor injury to the finger or various diseases.
Quite often, patients complain that they have turned blue for no reason. There is always a reason, you can simply not notice it. For example, tight and uncomfortable shoes that put constant pressure on the toes, thereby traumatizing them, causing the toenail to turn blue. In order to avoid such phenomena, it is necessary to wear soft shoes of your size or even a little loose. The length of the sole should be slightly longer than the foot, and the width should be slightly less.
Also, the blue nail may be due to infection with a fungal infection. At the same time, in addition to the blueing of the nail, other symptoms appear, such as itching, the appearance of cracks in the skin. It is also possible the manifestation of grayish or on the nails. In this case, the nail plate becomes fragile and brittle, it exfoliates and is completely deformed. If there is even the slightest suspicion of a fungal infection, you should consult a dermatologist.
Often girls complain about blue fingernails. The reasons for this can be quite different, but the main one is the wrong manicure. The technician can cause a traumatic effect by severely cutting or pushing back the cuticle. This can lead not only to a blue nail, but also to its abnormal growth and wavy shape. To avoid this, you should contact trusted specialists or salons with a good reputation.
Blue fingernails can be the result of using low-quality cosmetics. If used frequently, the health of the nail plate can significantly deteriorate. It can not only acquire a blue or yellow tint, but also begin to crumble or exfoliate. To avoid this, it is necessary to use natural remedies. But if damage to the nails has already occurred, you must first abandon the use of chemistry and carry out medical procedures. For this, you can use masks and baths from natural cosmetics. You also need to start using special vitamin and mineral complexes that are aimed at strengthening nails. It is advisable to quit bad habits and change your diet.
Blue nails can not only be the cause of external exposure. It can lead to this. You can understand this if you look closely at your finger. Its tip also turns blue after the nail. This happens if the body develops a circulatory disorder or a chronic disease. As a result, the tissues suffer without receiving a sufficient volume of oxygen. The consequences of such violations can lead to gangrene. Therefore, in order to maintain healthy limbs, it is necessary to consult a doctor as soon as possible.
Other diseases of the body can also be indicated by blue fingernails. The reasons may lie in This ailment carries swollen small vessels and frozen blood in the venules. As a result, not only the nails turn blue, but also the tissues surrounding them. This disease is quite serious, therefore, having noticed the first signs, you should immediately contact a specialist.
Blue nails can be associated and In addition to these symptoms, headaches, rapid breathing and a rapid pulse can be observed. Very often, pulmonary failure manifests itself along with heart failure. An urgent need to consult a doctor if the patient has not only blue nails, but also general poor health.
Now it became clear that the blue nail can be for various reasons. They can be as simple and understandable, albeit unpleasant, or more complex, subtle, but very serious. Finding out the cause of the blue nails does not need to be postponed for later, it is better to immediately find out the reason and start treatment in order to avoid serious consequences in the future.
Sometimes it is suddenly discovered that the nail on the big toe has turned blue. You remember exactly that you did not hit anywhere, nothing fell on your leg. However, the nail is blue, and this is alarming. There can be a great variety of reasons for blue nails - from the most harmless to symptoms that signal serious health problems.
When a person sees a blue toenail, the first thought that comes to mind is that it is an injury. Perhaps you did not pay attention to a minor blow, or you step on your foot in transport. At best, such an injury will go away by itself, because a small hematoma will resolve in a few days.
With a more serious lesion, the nail turns blue to black due to the accumulation of blood formed under it. After a while, it will begin to flake and peel off. This process is lengthy, and the finger looks little aesthetic. Therefore, many try to remove the accumulated liquid from under the nail plate in order to avoid detachment of the nail plate. You can try to do it yourself without the help of a surgeon. In this case, you should remember about the need to use antiseptic agents in order to avoid infection and subsequent suppuration of soft tissues. Use sterilized instruments. But it is better to consult a surgeon.
A varied range of bluish shades can be observed due to the crushing of the fingers when wearing uncomfortable shoes. Tight, narrow or inappropriate in size and cut shoes when walking squeezes the foot, presses, and as a result - the nails on the big toes turn blue. Due to the anatomical structure, it is the thumbs that are more often injured. The final picture is exactly the same as with a bruise: the nail turns blue, and with severe damage it can peel off. To avoid this, you should wear comfortable shoes that are appropriate in size and weight. It's not just bruises on the toes; inappropriate footwear disfigures the feet in general. This is venous insufficiency, and deformation of the fingers, and painful protrusion of the hallux valgus.
If the bruises are small and mild, for a speedy recovery, you need to lubricate your fingers with bruise ointments with anticoagulant properties. If your fingers are seriously injured, you will have to expect nail peeling.
Manifestations of a traumatic nature can occur implicitly, for a long time, imperceptibly. For example, the legs are most stressed during prolonged or intense sports. As a result of heavy loads, capillaries burst, hemorrhage occurs in the soft tissues of the fingers or subungual areas. The result is a hematoma under the nail that has blue colour.
Pedicure trauma is a common cause of suppuration and blue discoloration of subungual soft tissues. Low-quality cosmetics can be the culprit for toenails turning blue. For example, long-term use of even ordinary varnishes leads to thinning and discoloration of the nail plate. What can we say about uncertified varnishes, creams and varnish removers. Often the extremely corrosive coloring pigment of nail polish is the cause of the bluish tint.
There is another unpleasant reason why nails turn blue. These are fungal diseases. The nail plate changes: it collapses, becomes thinner, changes its color. An unpleasant blue color indicates an extreme degree of neglect of the disease. Fungal disease is accompanied by itching, peeling of the skin, and an unpleasant odor.
One of the banal reasons why the nail turned blue is frost. Cold constricts blood vessels, there is a slowdown in blood circulation, blood outflow from tissues. The pallor and cyanosis of the skin and fingers from hypothermia will quickly disappear if the person is warm.
In rare cases, contact with household chemicals becomes the cause of blue nails. When working with chemicals without protective gloves, the skin and nail plates can become stained. Mostly copper compounds (copper sulfate) and some alkalis are blue in color.
There are a number of life-threatening diseases as evidenced by blue nails.
Heart failure often presents itself in this way. Has your toenail turned blue? Take a close look at the skin around you, at your fingertips. If there is pallor, bluish or bluish tinge to the skin and nails, this symptom may indicate poor circulation. Stagnation of blood in the capillaries and small veins gives this color. Heart failure in itself is dangerous, and if there is stagnation of blood in the general circulation, then this is fraught with the formation of blood clots.
The picture of heart failure often occurs against the background of diabetes mellitus. In this case, bluish discoloration of nails and fingertips from stagnant blood may be the cause of the development of gangrene. The tissues are poorly supplied with oxygen, and this is a direct path to gangrene and amputation of fingers or limbs.
The syndrome of impaired copper metabolism in the body (Wilson-Konovalov disease) causes an imbalance in the central nervous system and blood circulation. As a result, there is an insufficient blood supply to organs and tissues, a bluish tint of the nails and skin of the fingers.
Cyanosis is the color of the skin and mucous membranes due to the high content of depleted hemoglobin in the blood. It is a clinical sign of a variety of diseases, from pulmonary to cardiovascular. In cardiac and pulmonary pathologies, some areas of the patient's skin, including hands, feet and nails, acquire blue color. Some liver ailments manifest themselves, including the blue discoloration of the nail socket.
An extremely serious disease, one of the signs of which is the blue discoloration of the nails and body tissues, is scleroderma. This is a connective tissue disease, a specific form of arthritis. The type of diffuse scleroderma "specializes" in the extremities, including nails. It is characterized by tissue hardening and staining them in blue.
Some medications give the nails a blue color. These are preparations containing silver.
If the blue nail does not indicate a serious illness, but is the result of mechanical injuries, it remains only to wait out the unpleasant time, but it will restore its original color. If the nail is badly bruised, it will most likely come off. This is a natural process of self-healing, rather long, but it is better not to interfere with it yourself. You can use the help of a surgeon. It is not particularly necessary to take care of the new growing nail, the main thing is to prevent its deformation so that it grows even. To do this, you need free shoes that do not squeeze the leg, you can glue your finger with a plaster.
In order to avoid injury to nails and feet in general, you should carefully consider the choice of shoes. Comfortable and suitable size shoes made of high quality natural materials are the key to healthy legs. Skinny high-heeled shoes should be a weekend option, not an everyday option.
In the case of staining nails with low-quality cosmetics, you will have to wait for a natural change in pigmentation and no longer use cheap or untested drugs. You can try whitening compresses with lemon juice or vinegar. Let your varnish, creams and other cosmetic and hygiene products be much more expensive in the future, but with a guarantee.
Medical diseases are dangerous to ignore. At the slightest suspicion of heart failure, diabetes and other pathologies, hurry to the doctor.
You should carefully listen to your body, because it timely signals about all the changes that occur to it. Any manifestations that go beyond the norm, including a change in the color and condition of the nails, should be a reason to pay attention to your health.
Blue nails on hands or feet for completely different reasons, with any change inside the body, the nail plates are the first to let you know about it. But fortunately, blue is not always the source of bad health, so before you diagnose yourself, remember what happened to you the day before. Perhaps there was some kind of injury, and the bruise resulted in certain bluish swelling. Either dye has leaked under the nail plates, or a rather strong hypothermia of the body or limbs has occurred.
If none of the options is suitable, then you should analyze the alarming symptoms of possible diseases. I would like to note right away that in addition to blue nails, other indicators must be present for this or that disease.
Why do the nails on the extremities of the hands or feet turn blue, or only on certain fingers? There are plenty of reasons not to worry, or, on the contrary, to consult with a specialist in the near future.
An absolutely healthy person has a smooth nail plate with a uniform pale pink tint without any blotches or streaks. Deviations in the color or structure of the nail (look at the photo) can serve as a signal of violations in the functioning of organs. But, as we have already figured out a little, the cause of the blue is not always associated with pathology.
In rare cases, the cause may be more rare and serious diseases, for example, Westphal-Wilson disease, cirrhosis of the liver. Or Raynaud's disease, which is associated with slow blood circulation. With this disease, the limbs of the legs or arms, ears, lips become very sensitive and painful to the cold. Therefore, if the blue color of the hole does not disappear, you should definitely contact the medical center.
In addition to the above reasons, nails and fingers can turn blue on the hands for several more factors, which are interpreted in alternative medicine in their own way:
Similar symptoms can occur on both left and right fingers. And according to Tibetan healing, you can diagnose any ailment even by the shape and shape of the nails. In this medicine, blue holes often indicate a disorder in the liver.
Toenails often turn blue for the above or other reasons, among which there is also blue discoloration due to a blow. Hematoma is a common bruise reaction that doctors can easily identify.
But sometimes the skin under the toenails turns blue for other reasons, which are also quite common in medical practice:
A disease such as heart failure can also manifest itself on the toes, but in order to independently diagnose the disease, it is necessary to pay attention not only to the nail. You should carefully look at the skin around the nail plate, if it is also blue or bluish, then you should immediately consult a doctor.
What to do with a problem such as blue discoloration under toenails or fingernails? With your own hands, you can correct the situation in several cases. If the deformation or blue onset of the nail is due to wearing uncomfortable shoes, then you should choose a looser or more comfortable pair.
In addition to tight shoes, compression stockings can still press, which sometimes give complications in the form of pain in the nails and a slight blue discoloration. In order to avoid such discomfort, you should cut your nails very shortly, and after shortening as much as possible, the nail plates should also be sanded so as not to tear the elastic tissue.
Pregnancy often gives expectant mothers surprises and, unfortunately, not always pleasant ones. In particular, melanin dyschromia of the skin under the nail plates can sometimes be observed. Pregnant women should not be intimidated by this manifestation, but it is imperative to visit a gynecologist, dermatologist and mycologist.
A visit to the doctor cannot be avoided if the blue discoloration does not go away on its own on the second third day, or after hypothermia. With your own hands, you can only help a blue nail in the case of a household injury or bad shoes, the treatment of which we will describe below.
The following symptoms require medical intervention:
Bruises can appear periodically, which should also be recorded by specialists in medical institutions. An experienced doctor will help not only identify the problem, cure the ailment, but also restore the previous condition of the nails.
It is possible to neglect going to a specialist only in a few cases that do not promise serious health consequences. Such phenomena include blue discoloration due to bruising or pain from a sports career.
Also, with repeated manifestations of fungal diseases that have passed quite recently, the treatment course should be repeated and not resort to visiting a doctor.
Treatment of blue nails can be carried out at home, if no abnormalities in the work of the body were found during a medical examination. In this case, both folk remedies and medicines are allowed.
Often, experts advise taking vitamin or mineral complexes in certain courses after prolonged illnesses, which will help strengthen and grow the nail plates and hair.
With a little prevention, many of the problems associated with blue nails can be avoided. Simple rules will help prevent the development of such diseases that you don't even know about.
It is extremely dangerous to ignore rare diseases, but a simple illness in an advanced form will become no less dangerous. In order for your nails to please you with their appearance and general condition, follow simple recommendations.
Always listen carefully to the body, which in one form or another is capable of signaling problems or changes. And the slightest manifestations that go beyond the standard must be recorded and observed together with a specialist.
Everyone in life has come across such a manifestation of trauma as a hematoma. It so happens that it forms not only in an accessible place, but also under the nail, for example, on the big toe. True, it is not always the injury that causes the toe to turn blue. To save yourself from such an unpleasant manifestation, you should understand its nature and methods of treatment.
Any disease is characterized by a certain list of symptomatic manifestations. If the big toe turns blue, they will be as follows:
Not in all cases the reason why the toenail turns blue is a bruise. There are a number of points that can cause a finger to turn blue as a signal of the greatest problems in the body:
Important: if the reason why your thumbnails turn blue is one of the listed points, then it is best to seek help from a doctor. Some manifestations can lead to the formation of a purulent abscess, which often ends in amputation.
If why the fingers turn blue is provoked by a bruise, then this should not cause much concern. If in doubt about these symptoms, you should visit a doctor for an examination. The following steps should be taken to get rid of blue toe:
In some cases, when there is confidence that the symptoms appeared due to mechanical action, and are not a signal for any other diseases, there is a quick way to get rid of. , you can resort to self-elimination of such symptoms, which is not recommended due to the unsafe procedure.
It is necessary to pierce the horny part of the nail plate. This should be done with a disinfected blade or needle, but you can also carry out such procedures in a hospital. There are several options for getting rid of a damaged nail in a medical facility:
Important: after one of the procedures to get rid of the hematoma under the thumbnail, it is recommended to carry out foot baths containing Epsom salts. They need to be repeated three times a day, after which the nail is treated with an antibiotic and a bandage is applied.
The duration of treatment depends on the severity of the disease. It should be taken into account that in any case you will have to wait for the moment when the nail plate will grow back and will have a healthy appearance. It will take from three months to six months.
In order not to ever face injuries to the big toe, which can manifest itself in the form of a blue toe, it is better to adhere to some preventive measures:
It is worth paying close attention to the health of the legs, as well as to the entire body. Having discovered an unusual state of the nail plate on the big toe, you should immediately take action and find out what caused such symptoms.
The health of nails reflects the state of the whole organism and often some negative manifestations and changes indicate a violation of its systems. You need to notice this in time and react in the right way.
On the feet, the nails are very vulnerable and often suffer from stress and fungus. Often, many are faced with a blue toe for various reasons. Most often it provokes a change in the color of the hematoma. But sometimes there is another explanation for this. In order to notice in time and seek help, you should know why the nail on the big toe turns blue.
The nail can turn blue for the following reasons:
In addition, the development of permanent stagnant processes in the vessels leads to blue discoloration, which disrupts the entire blood supply cycle. As a result, the blood ceases to flow normally to the lower extremities, which is why the toe on the big toe turns blue, an additional cause of the pathology may be vascular and heart diseases.
What is this article about?
Often one of the symptoms of a fungal infection is a blue nail. With onychomycosis, not only a new color is acquired, but also other characteristic symptoms are observed.
Manifestations of fungal infection include: burning of the finger, itching, discomfort, changes in the structure of the plate, detachment of the nail.
If these signs are observed, there is a fungus. It is worth noting that the color change is observed later and is considered a sign of moderate infection. A nail that has been affected by a fungal infection begins to exfoliate and crumble.
There are many methods of treatment, including traditional and alternative medicine. Basically, therapy is carried out with the help of medicinal ointments, and pills are also taken.
They complement the treatment with folk recipes that complement the effect of medications.
The manifestations that accompany the blue discoloration of the thumbnail include:
If at least one symptom of the above is observed, you should immediately contact a specialist to find out the nature of the origin of the pathological process. When the toenail turns blue, many do not know what to do.
If your toenail turns blue due to a bruise, there is nothing to worry about. A number of treatments should be performed to speed up the healing process. For this, various ointments and creams should be used for quick regeneration. If the blue does not disappear after the procedures, you need to go to the hospital.
For quick healing, you need to pierce the nail plate so that the accumulated blood flows out. This procedure can be done at home, but it is better to contact a medical facility. Self-piercing is not recommended due to the high risk of infection. As for the hospital, several puncture methods are offered there:
After the procedure, you should consolidate the result by taking a foot bath with Epsom salt. You also need to wash your feet in herbs, which will not only speed up regeneration, but also give an antiseptic effect.
In case of fungus, special ointments and gels should be used. They are highly effective, but are best used in combination with traditional medicine methods.
It can be compresses, baths, lotions.
The best remedy for blue nails is prevention. It is not difficult, but it can save you from many consequences. The health of nails is not only a good and well-groomed appearance, but also the normal state of all body systems.
In order for the nails to no longer turn blue, you should follow these simple rules: