Health Reminder of New Year's Beauty丨 Nail art will destroy the integrity of nails and increase the risk of fungal bacterial infection

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The nail art in the fairy 'New Year three-piece set' has always been the favorite of many girls. However, improper manicure will not only damage the nail structure, increase the risk of infection, but also affect the health of the newborn nail.

"The most direct harm of nail art is damage to the nail deck." Yang Shuxia, chief physician of the Department of Dermatology and Venereology of Peking University First Hospital, introduced that the nail itself is a hard keratinous structure, and its integrity is very important for the deck to maintain health. When doing nail art, in order to increase the adhesion of nail polish, the oil on the surface of the nail will be removed and the surface of the nail will be roughened. "These operations not only lead to thinning, decreased toughness and brittleness of the nails, but also increase the risk of infection because they destroy the integrity of the deck, such as nail fungus (fungal infection of the nail, or onychomycosis).

When doing nail art, the manicurist usually peels off the small skin and subaridal skin. The nail skin is a thin, translucent curved protective film on the surface of the nail root, and the subparathyroid skin is a layer of cornea in the nail seam. Although these two structures are inconspicuous, they can act as a role in sealing the gap between the deck and the peri-nail skin, protecting the nails from harmful factors in the environment. Yang Shuxia said that peeling is easy to let some harmful substances, irritating substances, microorganisms, etc. directly damage the newborn nails, nail beds, nail matrix and so on. The nail skin is seriously damaged, and the new nails can grow uneven; if the subparathyroid skin is seriously damaged, it is easy to form nail separation. In addition, if there is damage to the nail groove on both sides of the nail, it will also increase the risk of infection of pathogenic microorganisms, including bacteria, viruses, and fungi, which can cause paronychia, subponyllymal warts, nail fungus, etc.

"The organic solvents used in nail art are more volatile, and inhaling these ingredients can cause irritation to the respiratory tract. Nail polish, hardeners also often contain acetone, formaldehyde and other harmful substances, often or a lot of use will also cause certain damage to the body. Yang Shuxia stressed that the colorant that dyes nails contain heavy metals, and if used too frequently, it will increase the risk of heavy metal poisoning. Nail polish can also cause allergic reactions in sensitive individuals, resulting in repeated redness, water, desquamation around the nails, and even some people touch the eyes and face with their nailed hands, causing allergic dermatitis on the face.

For nail patches, Yang Shuxia said that the adhesive used in nail patches may also cause irritation and allergies. In addition, the nail plate itself is relatively hard and relatively long, if you do not pay attention to it in daily life, the nail piece is susceptible to the external force of the top bump and the flip-up, resulting in damage to the nail bed and the nail mother.

"In daily life, there are more hand activities, such as tapping the keyboard, scrubbing or carrying things, etc., try to do as little or no nail art as possible." Yang Shuxia pointed out that people whose hands are often soaked in water are prone to greening parts of their nails, which is due to the green nail syndrome. There is a normal skin parasite called Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which is prone to overproliferation under moist and damaged nails, and the pigment produced by the bacteria causes the deck to turn green.

Nail art is also not recommended for patients with diabetes mellitus, finger-vessel neurotrophic disorders, such as Raynaud's syndrome, scleroderma and other diseases. "On the one hand, these patients have a high risk of infection after local injury, and on the other hand, they have poor healing ability after trauma." Yang Shuxia reminded that people with athlete's foot and nail fungus are not recommended for nail art, which is not only easy to lead to self-infection, but also may increase the risk of cross-infection because of the mixed use of nail tools, such as warts (commonly known as "leprosy"), hepatitis B, syphilis and so on.

Beijing News reporter Liu Xu

Proofread by Zhao Lin