Are white spots on fingernails really a sign of poor nutrition or vitamin deficiencies?

I have also heard this. Lack of zinc I think I was told. I couldn’t tell you if it is true though I’m sorry.

Short answer: (from webmd): No, they are not. They are cause by mild trauma (like hitting your finger against a table or something).

Cant be true I have no nutrition and very few v’s and I don’t have them.

I agree with Les. This is the medical term for it Leukonychia.

My mother used to tell me that they were white lies. Yeow! I agree that they are little traumas.

LOL white lies.

Both Les and Gabygalll are spot on!

Another common thing to see from fingernail trauma are splinter hemorrhages, which lots and lots of people can have (especially if you hurt your hands alot, or play sports like basketball, baseball and football). Rarely, splinter hemorrhages (see panel A) can be a sign of endocarditis, a serious heart valve and blood stream infection.

Or it could be the beginning of onychomycosis. WARNING: don’t look if you are squeamish.

Scamp. That ain’t the worse. Remember this condition? This was the very first question I answered way back when…

@SHILOLO WHAT IS THAT.

@shilolo and ezraglenn:

That condition is false. I looked it up on Snopes and found this.

It’s a good website to check out circulating emails on the internet. It’s unbelievable how many emails that are circulating are false.

Thanks BabyGalll. I love snopes for that kind of stuff. Anyway, that was exactly my answer 6 weeks ago.

Oh ok. I never saw that question.

That will haunt my dreams forever.

This is may haunt you as well. Someone sent this to me and believed it for the longest time. Crazy!

ha ha shilolo !! yes I remember that very well!!

If your nails start to show lengthwise ridges as well, it could be the onset of psoriasis. But don’t get spooked by all these “what ifs”. It is probably just stress or impacts.

It’s called Leukonychia…
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leukonychia

…a symptom of anything from certain antibiotics to chemotherapy to liver failure to nail biting or recent trauma to a zinc deficiency.

Check out the website I listed. It provides links to diagnosis and treatment, references, and external links to more info. The medical websites that I like to research in are webmd.com and mayoclinic.com (my fave).