A vitamin deficiency?

[Canice]

I posted this on the Other Stuff board, but Martha wisely suggested I put it here, too:

I know someone who has recently developed vertical ridges along his fingernails and someone told him it's a symptom of vitamin C deficiency. Anyone know whether that's true? Other possible causes? TIA

[sneezles]

Found this list on nail problems:

When nails do not grow properly or have abnormalities, the cause is often a nutritional deficiency stemming from an unbalanced diet, digestive problems, absorption problems, or eating disorders. The following list includes nutritional factors affecting the nails when there is a lack of vitamins, minerals, and trace elements in the diet.

A lack of vitamin A and calcium causes dryness and brittleness.
A vitamin B deficiency causes fragility of the horizontal and vertical ridges in the nail.
A vitamin B12 deficiency leads to rounded and curved nails.
A lack of protein, folic acid, and/or vitamin C causes hangnails.
A lack of "friendly bacteria" (Lactobacillus sp.) leads to fungus under and around the nails.
A deficiency of hydrochloric acid contributes to splitting nails.
Low iron may cause concave or "spoon" nails and/or vertical ridges (see Iron Deficiency).

[funnybone]

Yikes :eek: :confused: With the expception of hangnails and fungas, most of those apply to me. :( :o I've always had weak and terrible nails. I'd better start taking those vitamins of mine on a daily basis, and not just when I feel like it.

[DocAgocs]

There aren't too many characteristic "slam dunk" diagnoses that can be made from the fingernails alone. Show your doctor to make sure it isn't one of the more serious things. A good multivitamin, preferably from whole foods rather than synthetics, and a good calcium supplement would be helpful for a general problem of this type. My recommendations for specirfic products would be Standard Process Catalyn (6/day) or Cyrofood Powder (1 scoop per day) for multivitamin choice and 6 Calcium Lactate by the same company per day. Second choice would be Metagenics Multigenics for multivitamin and Cal Apatite or Cal Apatite with Magnesium from Metagenics, too.