Does anyone know about nails?

[Hairymunter]

I've always had decent nails, been able to grow them to a fairly long and manageable length. The last two or three years my pinkie nails have had a 'fault' and will split vertically when about 2 or 3 mil. I can see fault line running the length of my nail. This fault is now moving to my ring fingers. I don't get gel nails, I've a varied diet. What's going on? I take magnesium for menopause but can I do anything different to help my nails?

Take biotin and rub oil into them every night and as often during the day as you can.

That’s weird because one of my nails is like this and I have no idea why. As soon as it grows the vertical split happens. I assume I’m a similar age to you OP.

@Ilovemyshed thanks, any particular type of oil? I have some castor oil, would that work?

If it’s running the full length of your nail, ie you can see it from where your nail emerges from the cuticle then the issue is happens as the nail forms. This could be either from trauma to your finger that has damaged the matrix, which is where the nail grows from, or a sign of some underlying health issue. The fact that you say it has started happening on a second nail would suggest the latter.

it doesn’t sound fungal, as that would often have some discolouration.

you say you have a varied diet, but that doesn’t mean that your body might not benefit from a higher amount of a particular vitamin/mineral - some people do need slightly more of something than the usual guidelines.

it might be worth asking your GP for some blood tests to see if there is anything obvious. If not, then look at anything that’s at the lower end of the normal range, or is lower than any previous tests you might have to compare to.