Gluten Free Works: TREATMENT GUIDE Get well and stay healthy living gluten free
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Beau”s lines in a thin nail. (The tiny brown streaks are splinter hemorrhages due to vitamin C deficiency.)
What Are Horizontal Ridges In Fragile Nails?
Horizontal ridges, also called “beau’s lines,” are abnormalities of the nail plate that appear as rumpling from the base to the tips of nails and are characterized by poor nail structure of both fingernails and toenails.
The nail plate is the hard keratin cover of the finger tip and toe tip which we ordinarily call “nails.” The nail plate is produced by the nail matrix.
Q: Why do Beau’s lines develop in nails?
A: Beau’s lines occur due to temporary cessation of proliferation (growth) of proximal nail matrix at the nail base. As the finger nail grows at the rate of 0.1 mm/day, the time course of the illness can be estimated from the position of the Beau’s line from proximal nail fold.1
Nail Anatomy. 
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A. Nail plate; B. lunula; C. root; D. sinus; E. matrix; F. nail bed; G. hyponychium; H. free margin. Courtesy Wikipedia.
Beau’s lines are frequently seen in nutritional deficiency states, bacterial illness, acute stress, and systemic disease. The conditions where Beau’s lines have been described include severe systemic illness, chemotherapy, malnutrition, zinc deficiency, trauma, paronychia, pemphigus, and Kawasaki disease.2 Beau’s lines are commonly seen in patients undergoing chemotherapy.3
This condition of nails was named after Joseph Honoré Simon Beau (1806-1865).
What Are Horizontal Nail Ridges In Celiac Disease and/or Gluten Sensitivity?
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- Naik GS1, Harikrishna J. Beau’s lines. Indian J Med Res. 2013 Jan;137(1):220. [↩]
- Naik GS1, Harikrishna J. Beau’s lines. Indian J Med Res. 2013 Jan;137(1):220. [↩]
- Patel LM, Lambert PJ, Gagna CE, Maghari A, Lambert WC. Cutaneous signs of systemic disease. Clin Dermatol. 2011 Sep-Oct;29(5):511-22. doi: 10.1016/j.clindermatol.2011.01.019. [↩]
