Can Proper Nutrition and Sun Exposure Speed Up Nail Growth?

[leroyjenkens]

I smashed my toe so bad that the nail fell off. I've been to the doctor and he's just waiting for it to grow out to see what it's going to do. Is there any way to make nails grow faster? I've tried taking biotin, but I can't tell if that does anything. Anyone have any other ideas?

 

[Monique]

Protect your toe from further impact, wear shoes that are loose fitting. That's probably the best you can do, that way your nail bed can work most efficiently.

 

[AlephZero]

From my own experience, it will stop hurting in less than a week, but it might take 6 months to regrow a complete nail.

If it doesn't stop hurting, probably there is a bit of broken nail stuck somewhere that it shouldn't be, so you need to get that removed (that's not exactly a high tech medical procedure, but can be hard to see what you are doing to your own feet so you probably need to get somebody else to do it!)

If you can't wiggle your toes inside your shoes they are too tight anyway, whether or not you have a broken nail.

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

Anytime I use Nivea for men aftershave my nails grow noticeably faster

 

[0xDEADBEEF]

Maybe you'll find something in this: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2249062/ The author has measured the growth of his fingernails for 35 years or so. Nail growth seems to be pretty constant unless you are sick. And apparently they grow faster for some time when they have to make up for lost growth due to illness.

 

[Monique]

I also think nail growth is pretty constant with proper nutrition, otherwise you'd get horizontal growth lines. The only time that my nails stopped growing was after a trip to the tropics. Probably either the strong sun or altered diet were to blame. Oh, another time was with wrong shoes: I thought I could walk them in, but ended up throwing them away.

It's well known that people who walk a lot can get nail problems, that's why the suggestion to take extra care in this time.