Beau's lines on finger nails

LittleGreyCat

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,238
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Diet drinks - the artificial sweeteners taste vile.
Having to forswear foods I have loved all my life.
Trying to find low carb meals when eating out.
I have in the last few months developed a ridge across my finger nails which is now 'growing out' and moving from the nail bed to the nail tip.

The ridge is most pronounced on my right thumb, but is also visible to a greater or lesser extent on all my nails.

Now I had no real idea what it was about, but a friend told me that it could be linked to poor diabetic control.

Google easily confirms the diagnosis of Beau's Lines with matching pictures, but is less forthcoming (and somewhat confusing) on the link to Diabetes.

The usually (un)reliable Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beau's_lines
links it with Hypoglaecemia which doesn't seem likely for a T2 backsliding on diet.

http://www.rightdiagnosis.com/sym/beau_s_lines_on_fingernails.htm
links with Diabetes Melitus and again with Hypoglycaemia.

Alternatives are various systemic shocks, chemotherapy, or physical damage such as extreme cold or being hit on the fingers (or possibly both).

[Note that if you Google from ridged nails to Beau's Lines you see very little mention of Diabetes - you have to specifically include Diabetes as a search term before you start to get significant hits]

http://www.ijdvl.com/article.asp?is...e=77;issue=6;spage=646;epage=651;aulast=Singh
Beau's lines

These are transverse depressions in the nail plate that occur after a stressful event that temporarily interrupts nail formation. [4] They appear first at the cuticle and move distally with nail growth. Beau's lines are more apparent on thumb and great toe nails. They have a margin parallel to the lunula, when caused by a systemic disease. The time of stress can be calculated after measuring the distance from the cuticle to the Beau's lines. [5],[6] Width of the furrow indicates duration of the illness. [1] Beau's lines have been described in systemic disorders like coronary thrombosis, measles, mumps, Kawasaki's disease, pneumonia, pulmonary embolism, and renal failure. [

Now if it takes a nail 6-9 months to grow out, and the ridge is just over half way up my thumb nail, then the 'incident' must have been around 3-4 months ago, or sometime during December 2013, possibly near the beginning depending on my rate of nail growth.

So I am quite puzzled - the only extreme action for me recently was in early to mid January when I went white water rafting and took a bit of a beating on some parts of the ride but this seems too recent.

I did go on holiday to NZ over December and January, and also started taking Healthspan Plant Sterols at the end of October as an alternative to statins.
My diet control weakened significantly over the holiday, such that I scared myself when I started testing again after returning home and am now back on the straight and very narrow.

So I seem to have several candidates, including a spike in BG over the holiday, but I don't recall seeing this particular reaction before even when I was first diagnosed.

So all in all a bit of a puzzler.

Has anyone else had these Beau's Lines?

If so, have you tracked down the likely cause?

Cheers

LGC

P.S. it isn't something well dressed people get - just named for Joseph Honoré Simon Beau who first studied it.

P.P.S. I am told that Kawasaki's disease does not involve enormous straight line speed but an inability to go round corners (bikers from the early '70s will understand).:cool:
 

hale710

Well-Known Member
Messages
2,903
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
I don't have an answer, but I'm bumping up your post so more people see it :)


Blogging at drivendiabetic.wordpress.com
 

Alanp35

Well-Known Member
Messages
895
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
Dislikes
Cricket, golf
Live and learn - i never realised that these dents had a name.
I have Beau's lines on my thumbnails - and they indicate my many flares of rheumatoid arthritis that I have. Some are very deep which fit in with ferocity of the flare and the length of the flare. On all of my nails I also have vertical ridges running nail bed to tip. Nails are quite a good gauge as to health.



Sent from the Diabetes Forum App
 

LittleGreyCat

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,238
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Diet drinks - the artificial sweeteners taste vile.
Having to forswear foods I have loved all my life.
Trying to find low carb meals when eating out.
My problem is tracking back the lines to a specific incident - I assume it could be a short(?) period of very poor BG control but I can't really pick out any specific episode.
 

LittleGreyCat

Well-Known Member
Messages
4,238
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Tablets (oral)
Dislikes
Diet drinks - the artificial sweeteners taste vile.
Having to forswear foods I have loved all my life.
Trying to find low carb meals when eating out.
Live and learn - i never realised that these dents had a name.
I have Beau's lines on my thumbnails - and they indicate my many flares of rheumatoid arthritis that I have. Some are very deep which fit in with ferocity of the flare and the length of the flare. On all of my nails I also have vertical ridges running nail bed to tip. Nails are quite a good gauge as to health.

As far as I know vertical lines do not indicate any problems - generally inherited and get more prominent as you get older.

Cheers

LGC