I am 60 years old and have suffered from brittle nails for a while. That’s why I take oyster lime and glucosamine with chondroitin and MSM. What else could I be lacking?
Joris Bartstra, journalist with a medical degree.
Brittle nails are very rarely caused by a deficiency of something. And if a deficiency plays a role, it is iron. Nails are just like your skin and hair: they gradually change with age, as your ability to make building materials for your body decreases. Brittle nails are especially common in women. About a quarter suffer from it. Part of this has to do with how you handle your nails. Soap, nail polish remover and other degreasing agents weaken nails. So it makes sense to be careful with your nails. That means wearing gloves when cleaning, greasing the nails regularly, keeping them short so that you don’t bump them as much, and don’t file them ‘thin’.
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