Brittle Nails and Menopause

As if hot flashes and sleeplessness weren’t enough, your skin is dry, your hair is thin and now even you’re nails are brittle.  It might just all seem like a lot of bad luck, but the hormonal changes that have brought you into menopause are affecting your appearance too and yes, even your nails.

Brittle nails are just another sign of less than optimal health.  Let’s start by understanding how nails grow.  The thin, white semi-circle at the base of the nail is known as the lunula.  Roots underneath the lunula are the source of nail growth, utilizing keratin, a protein to produce a sort of armor for your nail bed.  When you’re in good health, your nails will grow stronger, faster, when you are unhealthy, your nails grow less and break easily.  Often due to inhibited keratin production, there are many causes of brittle nails, hormones being one of the most significant.

Beyond being easily broken, split or chipped, you may notice that your nails feel dry, are sunken in appearance, curl around the finger tip, are bumpy or have ridges, and may even have changed color.  A lack of moisture in your body may be the problem.  Among all its other uses, estrogen plays a vital role in body water retention and regulation.  Low estrogen levels can cause the dehydration that leads to brittle nails.  Additionally, yellow nails can be point to diabetes and ridges in your nails can be especially indicative of a thyroid disorder.

Stress and nutritional deficiencies are also common causes of brittle nails.  For healthy nail growth, your body needs vitamin C, calcium, protein, iron, folic acid and fat.  So if you notice that your nails are brittle, it may be wise to alter your diet to include more of these nutrients and to practice some stress management.

Balancing estrogen can also remove the dehydration that may be causing your nail problems, but if brittle nails are your only problem, then hormone therapy is certainly not the answer.  Nail, skin and hair health are added bonuses of hormone therapy – your body’s physical representation of internal health.  If you’re suffering with severe hormonal imbalance symptoms and brittle nails are among your smallest concern, then it may be worth looking into bioidentical hormones to cure your problems, both big and small.