The "hangnails" on your fingers can't be pulled out

Introduction: I believe everyone has had the experience of growing hangnails. Some people will cut them off immediately, some will ignore them, and some impatient people will pull them out by the roots with their hands! Should the hangnails on the hands be pulled out?

1. Netizen: Happy 36-year-old teacher

I once tried to pull out a hangnail, but the result was "tragic".

For some reason, I always get hangnails on my fingers. Everyone said it was a sign of vitamin deficiency, but I took vitamin tablets every day and it didn't help. I used to cut them off with nail clippers, but I was very unhappy when the barbs grew back again, so I tried to pull them out by the roots. It was successful the first few times, but one time I used too much force and it tore! It was such a painful experience! Later it got infected, which made my hands inconvenient and I felt very uncomfortable. I will never dare to pull out the barbs on my hands again.

2. Netizen: Yu Shuixianjin, 24-year-old telephone operator

I often pull out hangnails and am successful every time.

I always have hangnails on my hands and I am always pulling them out. I think removing hangnails is a technical job, which does not depend on strength but on dexterity and methods. Although it will be painful at the moment of extraction, you will have no worries after it is done. So, I think the hangnails on my fingers must be removed.

1. It is not recommended to remove the thorns on your fingers. This action will damage the surrounding skin and even cause hand infection.

Hangnails are common and usually grow next to or under the nails. If you have hangnails, the most taboo thing is to tear them off with your hands. The structure of the nail epithelium is connected downward and backward. Pulling and tearing it hard will cause further tearing of the barb, which will become larger and deeper, causing further damage to the deep skin layer and even the risk of skin infection and paronychia. The groove where the nail and the surrounding skin meet is called the nail groove. Once the hangnail is infected, it will spread to the nail groove and cause paronychia, causing local redness, swelling, pain and even suppuration.

2. How to properly deal with hangnails on your hands

(1) Do not peel or bite off the barbs, as this may cause skin tears and infection.

(2) Soak your hands with hangnails in water to soften the nails and surrounding skin.

(3) Use sharp and clean nail clippers or small scissors to neatly cut off the hangnails.

(4) Apply hand cream evenly after washing your hands.

(5) You can also use a nourishing oil containing vitamin E to massage the area around your nails and knuckles to remove hangnails and soften rough skin.

3. The main causes of hangnails are dry skin, cracks and habitual nail biting.

These "barbs" are medically called "reverse peeling", which refers to small pieces of long triangular epidermis that are cracked and raised from the proximal or lateral edge of the nail fold. The main causes of hangnails are dry skin, cracks and habitual nail biting. The stratum corneum is a thin layer of "dead skin" on the surface of the skin and is the first barrier of the skin. There is a layer of sebum on the surface of the stratum corneum, which is the skin's natural moisturizer. It can reduce the evaporation of water in the stratum corneum, ensure its appropriate water content, and make the stratum corneum and the skin underneath fit closely together. Soap, detergents, or physical friction remove the sebum on the skin surface, causing the stratum corneum to lose its protection and excessive evaporation of water, resulting in dryness and peeling.

Hangnails on your hands are actually caused by dry skin and cracks in the stratum corneum. If they do not heal after a long time, it is due to a lack of vitamin C. This kind of "hangnail" is only a superficial injury to the skin and is not a big deal. Therefore, when you have a hangnail on your hand, don't always rush to pull it out. Barbs are connected to the muscles. When you tear off the barbs with your hands or other tools, it will not only be painful, but will also injure the surrounding skin and even cause bleeding and lead to hand infection.

4. How to prevent hangnails

Girls all have a common problem: they love cleanliness, love washing hands, and love applying hand cream. In fact, sebum is the best moisturizer for the human body. No matter what kind of hand cream it is, it can only simulate the effect of sebum. Therefore, for some occupational skin problems, wearing latex gloves is a better choice. This can reduce the number of hand washing and reduce the loss of sebum. Of course, there are exceptions for students who are allergic to latex.

For physical friction and unavoidable hand washing, hand cream should be applied immediately after washing hands to protect the moist cuticle. The main ingredients of hand cream are mostly a uniform mixture of silicone oil (dimethylsiloxane), hydrophobic ingredients such as lanolin and hydrophilic ingredients such as glycerin. Glycerin can "attract" the surrounding water molecules to ensure moderate moisture of the skin, and oil can prevent water evaporation, thereby protecting the skin.

It should be noted that when the air is particularly dry, pure glycerin solution will absorb moisture from the skin and will not have a moisturizing effect. Therefore, for people who often get hangnails, it is not recommended to use glycerin solution alone to protect the skin.

5. Hangnails alone have nothing to do with vitamin deficiency

Vitamin deficiency can indeed cause a series of skin problems. For example, lack of vitamin A can lead to excessive keratinization of hair follicles, lack of B vitamins such as vitamin B2 and B6 can lead to seborrheic dermatitis and chapped lips, and lack of vitamin C can lead to poor wound healing and easy cracking.

However, in modern society, nutritional diseases caused by vitamin deficiency are becoming less and less common. As long as the vast majority of people eat normally, they will not develop vitamin deficiency diseases. Moreover, if there is indeed a vitamin deficiency, absorption or utilization disorder, not only skin problems will occur, but also other symptoms. For example, vitamin A deficiency can cause eye and vision abnormalities (referring to conjunctival and corneal dryness, dry eye disease and corneal softening, etc., not myopia), nervous system abnormalities caused by deficiency of B vitamins, scurvy caused by deficiency of vitamin C, etc.

If you just have hangnails around the nails, most of the time it is just a local skin abnormality, not a reflection of systemic disease, and it is not caused by vitamin deficiency.

Most people believe that vitamin deficiency will make people sick, so they might as well supplement it, which will not harm them anyway. But the fact is that more vitamins are not necessarily better. Excessive intake of some vitamins (such as vitamin A and vitamin B6) can lead to various diseases and even poisoning. Studies have shown that taking selenium, beta-carotene and vitamin E will increase the risk of esophageal cancer in the elderly, while taking vitamin D and calcium will increase the risk of kidney stones. In a clinical trial, a group of subjects who took multivitamin tablets had a higher rate of prostate cancer.

The important physiological role of vitamins cannot be denied, but these experiments also remind us from the side that balanced nutritional intake is the most important thing and too much is as bad as too little.