How to Treat Cracked Nails

Nails are one of the most beautiful feature of our body! In fact, I would say that, well-grown, clean and maintained nails signify your concerns towards personal hygiene and beauty. But, as I always say that our body is a complex mechanism and it is prone to pain, damage and rupture, when we tend to ignore about its care and welfare. Cracking of nails is one such problem, encountered by many people in this world. Nails look beautiful, when they are healthy and they do not lose their natural color. No matter, however hard you work on their shining appearance, if you do not maintain them properly, none of the cosmetics work! It is not only malnutrition and improper nail care that leads to the cracking of nails. There are many other causes, which will be discussed further.

Causes Cracked Nails

Along with lack of good diet and bad nail care, some of the most important causes of cracking of nails are given below.

• Improper Diet: Let us first cover the most common cause of cracked nail. Non inclusion of foods rich in vitamin C, vitamin A and vitamin B12, minerals such as calcium, biotin rich foods such as, bananas, mushrooms, egg yolks are some of the features of an incomplete diet leading to cracked nails. In many cases, lack of sufficient amounts of iron has resulted in cracking of nails.
• Moisture Deficiency: Nails mostly crack due to over drying. Such an over drying is mainly caused due to lack of moisture in the skin and nails.
• Ignorance Towards Nail Care: Nail care is an important pre-requisite to maintain the beauty and health of nails. An ignorance towards it can lead to nail cracking, loss of moisture, loss of natural color and brittleness.
• Menopause: Menopause actually brings in many changes in a woman's body. One of these important changes is, cracking of nails. Therefore, in many cases, menopause is figured out to be a significant cause, leading to cracking in nails.

Remedy for Cracked Nails

We have just seen the common causes of cracked nails, deficiency of vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients, ignorance towards nail care are some of them. We will now look into treatment for cracked nails. The remedy mostly depends upon the cause.

• If, lack of moisture is the main reason behind, cracked nails, then applying a good quality moisturizer to the nails is an effective remedy to it. This would prevent the nails from cracking and also would enhance their look.
• You can obtain moisture even by using vegetable oil to your nails. All you need to do is, dip the cotton swab in some vegetable oil and then apply it to your nails. You can do this for about 2 - 3 times a day.
• Including foods rich in minerals, vitamins etc is another important treatment for cracked nails. Doing so, would provide all the essential nutrients to your nails and maintain health and beauty. In short, a balanced diet is the need for curing cracked nails.
• Do not bite your nails or cut them in a hap hazard manner. If done so, your nails would grow anyhow and then it would become difficult to re shape them. Although, this is not a treatment measure, this surely can become a good preventive measure for cracking of nails.

Cracked nails is not a serious problem. In fact, some people do not even care to look for them, because that doesn't affect their lifestyle at all! However, if you are conscious about your nails, then you need to follow the above treatment measures and preventive measures with the doctor's prescription. Not only humans, but pets also suffer from the problem of cracked nails, so if cracked nails in dogs is your concern, then you can meet the local veterinary doctor and know about the exact causes and treatments measures for it. You can consult your doctor for more information on the best lotions and moisturizer in the market or can also refer to expert reviews that pertain to the same.