What Cold Sores or Ridged Finger Nails Tell Us

I just got the most fascinating email from an online doctor newsletter (Dr. Marcus Laux ND). He gives a list of physical indicators that can show internal problems. I have looked at my nails and wonder what a white spot it, or I notice my son's cold sores and wonder why he gets it sometimes and not others. Here is his list, hope you get something out of it too:

Sign: cracked, calloused feet

What this can signal: a deficiency in essential fatty acids (EFAs). To maintain suppleness and integrity, the skin needs these moisture-giving fats. “Tough” areas such as the feet, elbows, and knees will be the first to show signs of deficiency. If not corrected, EFA deficiency can affect hormone balance, heart health, and immune function.

What to do: To boost your dietary intake of EFAs, snack on nuts and pumpkin seeds and consume more fish and healthy oils (olive, avocado, and macadamia). To soothe your skin and speed the healing of sore feet or any other calloused area, apply a small amount of flaxseed oil or extra-virgin coconut oil directly to the affected area and massage.

Sign: cold sores

What this can signal: immune deficiency or poor calcium absorption. Immune deficiency can often be traced to poor antioxidant support.

What to do: Increase your intake of fruits and vegetables and supplement with a high-quality antioxidant. Two nutrients that help boost immune function and eliminate cold sores are:

• Selenium (100–300 mcg daily) boosts the body’s defenses against dangerous bacteria, viruses, and cancer cells. Onions are an excellent source of selenium, as is the powerful herb garlic.
  
  
• L-lysine (500–2,000 mg, two to three times per day) is an amino acid that helps prevent viruses from replicating, which can speed healing.

Sign: easy bruising, spontaneous nosebleeds,
or bleeding gums

What this can signal: early signs of vitamin K or vitamin C deficiencies. Vitamin K is necessary for forming prothrombin, which promotes healthy blood clotting. Easy bruising may also point to a deficiency in vitamin C, and suggest the need for more bioflavoiniods.

What to do: Boost your intake of green, leafy vegetables, and supplement with 5 mg per day of vitamin K for six weeks. As you notice improvement, reduce your intake to 300 mcg per day. Also, be sure you’re supplementing with 1–3 grams of vitamin C daily and that your multivitamin has adequate levels of bioflavonoids. For more bioflavonoid support, eat some of the rind and seeds from your oranges, lemons, and grapefruits.

Sign: dandruff and troubled skin

What this can signal: digestive system distress, leading to metabolic missteps. A diet high in refined sugars, processed foods, preservatives, saturated fats, and trans-fats can overwork the gastrointestinal tract with systemic effects. This can lead to poor functioning, slow waste removal and increase the toxic load on your skin.

What to do: Reduce your consumption of refined foods and increase your intake of EFAs. I recommend taking one tablespoon of fish oil, borage, black current, or flax oil per day, with a high quality multi-nutrient supplement, digestive enzymes, and probiotics for 2-3 months. Your skin can show improvement in days, and months later be completely renewed.

Sign: discolored or misshapen nails

What this can signal: diabetes, stress, allergies, immune deficiencies, or simple illness. Since nails are made of protein matrix and mineral synergy, they can be clear messengers of deficiencies. Specifically:

• Green nails could signal infection in the nail bed or in the system generally.
  
  
• Bluish nails point to lung trouble, such as emphysema or asthma. A simple dark blue line in the nail bed suggests skin cancer.
  
  
• Reddish-brown spots are indicative of folic acid, protein, or vitamin C deficiency, or injury.
  
  
• Yellow nails signal potential internal disorders, such as diabetes, respiratory problems, or liver dysfunction.
  
  
• White lines inside the nail may mean fever, heart trouble, kidney disorder, or in all likelihood, a lack of iron or zinc.
  
  
• Vertical ridges that can be felt on the nail warn of iron deficiency or poor absorption of nutrients.
  
  
• Horizontal ridges point to elevated levels of harmful stress hormones—indicating a need to control physical, mental, or emotional stress.
  
  
• Flat, thin nails suggest a deficiency of vitamin B12.
  
  
• Square, wide nails may be caused by hormonal imbalances.

What to do: See your nutritionally oriented doctor to help you pinpoint and address the underlying cause of your nail symptoms. Use the list above as a starting point.

Sign: Poor night vision

What this can signal: low levels of carotenes, the precursors to vitamin A. Vitamin A is responsible for good vision, especially in dim light, and for the formation and maintenance of healthy teeth, skeletal and soft tissue, mucus membranes, and skin.

What to do: Make sure you’re supplementing with at least 7,500–10,000 IU of vitamin A daily. Boost your dietary intake with liver, organic eggs, and pro-vitamin A carotenoids, which are found in green leafy vegetables and orange and red produce.

Sign: yellowing of eyes or skin

What this can signal: liver or gallbladder disease or even high levels of carrot juice consumption. If none of these are the culprits, you could be experiencing a B12 deficiency. Vitamin B12 helps manufacture DNA, which is essential to growth and development. It’s also a key player in many enzymatic functions, the formation of red blood cells, and the maintenance of a healthy nervous system. Severe cases of B12 deficiency can lead to immune weakness, congestive heart failure, impaired vision, or impotence.

What to do: Determining if a lack of B12 is a problem is as simple as a blood serum test ordered by your doctor. If you need to improve your B12 levels, increase your intake of soy foods such as tempeh and tofu. Meat, shellfish, clams, and crab are excellent dietary sources as well. Your doctor can also prescribe monthly B12 injections, or you can try Big Shot B-12 oral supplements from Naturally Vitamins, which are available through numerous online retailers and health food stores.

Sign: blurred vision, reduced peripheral vision,
black spots, or light halos

What this can signal: an early warning sign of diabetes. The onset of diabetes weakens blood vessels. Since blood vessels in the eyes are tiny and fragile, they can easily leak, burst, or become blocked, and damage vision. The most serious eye condition that develops as a result of diabetes is diabetic retinopathy. Others include glaucoma or cataracts.

What to do: The best thing to do when you notice any change in vision is to visit your eye doctor ASAP. After that, make your family practitioner aware of your vision changes and request further examination, including blood sugar and blood pressure workup. When caught early, diabetes and the many outlying effects can be controlled, and then reversed. Don’t wait or ignore the symptoms—take definitive action. The sooner you make a commitment to live a healthier lifestyle, the better off you’ll be!

Sign: bloating and other gastrointestinal disturbances

What this can signal: Possibly, a Candida (yeast) overgrowth. When allowed to proliferate, Candida can cause inflammation of the intestinal mucosa leading to mucosal damage and eventually to a “leaky gut,” food allergies, and poor nutrient absorption.

What to do: Combating Candida is a two-step process. First, boost the beneficial microflora of your intestines by taking a quality probiotics supplement such as my BioComplete GI or Enzymatic Therapy’s Acidophilus Pearls (www.enzy.com or 1-800-783-2286) Then, identify existing food allergies and begin to eliminate them. Intestinal allergic reactions only feed a cycle that will continue to breed Candida.

Sign: swollen ankles

What this can signal: increasingly poor heart function, hormonal imbalances, and kidney problems. A weakened heart often leads to a condition known as edema, or an abnormal accumulation of fluid in the body tissues. This is especially true for the ankles and legs, where the laws of gravity allow the blood to pool.

What to do: The first thing to do is have your heart checked out. If you get a clean bill of health, you can turn to other solutions for reducing edema—including daily exercising, compression socks, elevating your ankles above your waist several times a day, and practicing deep diaphragmatic breathing throughout the day. Breathing deep into your belly will help increase circulation and can reduce the effects of edema. Also, natural recommendations such as Hawthorne, CoQ10, magnesium and ribose can help to strengthen your heart, and clear out any excess fluids.

Sign: swelling of the hands and tissues around the eyes,
especially first thing in the morning

What this can signal: kidney disease. Other symptoms of kidney dysfunction include decreased urination, blood in the urine (tea-colored or bright red), nausea and vomiting, itching, sleep disturbances, back pain, lack of energy, and loss of appetite.

What to do: To help maintain healthy kidneys, drink plenty of pure, fresh water every day—8 to 10 eight-ounce glasses. Once every three months or so, go on a 24-hour fast. During your fast, drink fresh juices, both fruit and vegetable, like organic apple juice mixed with small amounts of cranberry or carrot. Both support kidney cleaning and clearing. Melon juice, coconut water, or diluted orange juice are also favorites that can support healthy kidney function.