Salt

What are different nail problems and home remedies for treating them? – Part 2

Nails are made of keratin, the same type of protein in your hair.
Each nail actually consists of several parts, all of which play an important role in its health and growth:

- Nail plate
This is what you see as the fingernail.
- Nail bed
This lies below the nail plate; the two are attached. The capillaries in the nail bed nourish the nail and give it its pinkish color.
- Nail matrix
It’s below the cuticle at the base of the nail. Cells in the matrix produce the fingernail. If the matrix gets damaged, your nail will be not in shape or may even stop growing completely.
- Lunula
This is the part of the matrix that you can see. It’s the half-moon-shaped portion at the bottom of your nail.
- Cuticle
This fold of skin, made of dead cells, keeps foreign substances, such as infection-causing bacteria, out.
- Nail fold
This is the ridge of skin around the nail.

Facts about Nails:
- Nails can become brittle during the summer months in the sun and swimming.
- Sun and chlorine can make your nails brittle.
- To protect your fingernails while washing dishes, gardening, or cleaning with any type of harsh chemicals, wear gloves.
- If your nails are brittle, do not use perfumed lotions that have alcohol.
- This will cause the nails to become brittle.
- Do not bite your nails.
- Quit using your nails to scrape stuff off the counter top, or off of the dishes.
- Do not use them to open letters.
- Soaps and cleaners will dry out your hands and nails.
- Always use a hand lotion or cream after washing your hands.

Some of the causes of nail problem are:
- Iron deficiency will cause your nails to become spoon shaped.
- Your nails may become clubbed.
- Swelling around the ends of your fingers.
- Sometimes your toes are swollen.
- It might be if you have a respiratory or heart problem.
- If you have psoriasis your nails may become pitted.
- The biggest nail problem seen in toe nails is ingrown.
- Another nail problem is discoloration.
- As you get older your nails develop vertical ridges.

Main Home Remedies
- Avoid the culprits like the detergents and cleansers.
- Keep your nails short.
- Be careful of nail bangers in place of a screwdriver, a scraper, or other tool.
- Moisturize your nails. Your nails contain no fat, so they can’t naturally hold in moisture.
- Complex 15, Aquaderm, and Moisturel are some of the phosphates which can be tried.
- Avoid moisture when your nail becomes infected, particularly with a yeast organism.
- Care for your cuticles and don’t cut them with a mechanical instrument, which breaks down the cuticle’s natural protection from bacteria and moisture.
- Don’t pick or tear at hangnails by making a break in the skin where bacteria can enter and can cause infection.
- Realize the risk with nail cosmetics.
- Forget formaldehyde.
- Cut down on polish remover. Nail polish remover contains acetone, which dries nails.
- Don’t eat gelatin in a hope to build strong nails.
- Use of calcium. It helps build bones but has little or nothing to do with the hardness of your nails.

Home Remedies from the Cupboard
- Baking soda. Clean your nails and soften cuticles by scrubbing them with a nailbrush dipped in baking soda.
- Use Vinyl gloves, Cotton gloves
- Use Biotin
- Soaking painful ingrown nails in a warm saltwater solution will help ease the pain and relieve swelling.
- Add 1 tablespoon salt per quart of water and soak for 30 minutes.
- A saltwater soak can also make tough nails easier to trim.
- Try soaking nails in the same solution for five to ten minutes before trimming.

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Problems for human health associated with excessive use of salt

Salt is an essential ingredient of modern dietary practices, and you can find salt shakers on every table if you go out for eating at a restaurant. Salt or sodium chloride is primarily composed of sodium and chloride. In salt, sodium is present at around 40% by weight. Sodium is essential for the human body as it controls the blood volume and blood pressure in the body. In addition, salt enhances the food’s taste and also provides the body with the required quantity of salts. Have you ever imagined your diet without salt? It will certainly be a tasteless situation. Salt is used as a flavor enhancer but some people have to stop consuming it due to their habit of consuming excess salt, a habit which can lead to extreme problems for your health.
Some people have a habit of adding extra salt even when the food already has sufficient amount of salt. You must have noticed people shaking the salt and pepper shakers too often while having their meals. But this habit is not healthy as consuming excess salt can lead to some serious health condition.

Hypertension: If consumed in large quantity, this consumption of salt can lead to hypertension because of the sodium present in salt (sodium chloride). Hypertension, in turn, pressurizes the heart, something which is a threat to the normal functioning of the heart. One of the major risk factors for heart failure and other problems such as arterial aneurysm, stroke, myocardial infraction, and a leading cause of chronic kidney failure is persistent hypertension. Moderate increase of arterial blood pressure may also lead to shortened life expectancy. That’s why, hypertension patients are advised to cut down the quantity of dietary salt.

Cardiovascular diseases(CVD): Excess consumption of salt can also lead to cardiovascular diseases(CVD) and increases the risk of strokes and asthma. A high amount of dietary salt leads to the thickening of the arteries which hampers the natural flow of blood towards the heart, thereby increases the chances of cardiac failure. It is now scientifically proved that people who excessively consume salt on a daily basis are more likely to suffer from renal functional failure than others who don’t.

Obesity and Osteoporosis: In women, excess intake of common salt reduces the bone density which can lead to osteoporosis. Obesity is one more disorder that occurs due to excessive consumption of salt because of improper breakdown of sodium. High amounts of sodium is deposited in the stomach which can also cause stomach cancer if it remains for longer periods.

How to reduce salt consumption?
Our taste for salt is a habit. Gradually lower the amount of salt in diet and your taste will begin to change. After some time, food will begin to taste better without salt or less salt. Reductions of salt intake can be done in a number of ways :

Avoid using excess table salt while cooking and use spices instead which contains salt in them.
Avoid directly adding salt to food.
Do read package labels to learn about the sodium content of prepared foods while shopping food.
Keeping in mind all these harmful effects caused due to the excess consumtion of salt, it is advised to minimize the amount of salt to a moderate quantity. One should refrain from consuming salt in excess amount to live a healthy life.

Prescribed amount of salt: You very often add a pinch of salt to vegetable pinch of salt to your vegetable might quickly add up to unhealthy levels of sodium. Doctors say, moderate amount of salt consumptions on daily basis should be about 1¼ spoon which equals 500mg per day.