359: Finger + Toe Nail Psoriasis vs Fungus Infection (How To Tell The Difference) w/ Dr. Jenny Bennett

The Healthy Skin Show

If you have discolored, yellow nails, you could be dealing with finger + toe nail psoriasis. Often, brittle, raised nails can be tricky to figure out what’s going on especially when you consider how similar nail psoriasis vs fungus nail infections can look.
Nail psoriasis actually forms under the nail bed and can be easy to miss! Eventually, though, the skin becomes red and inflamed, and the nail bed is damaged in the process.
And if you have psoriatic arthritis, your risk of developing finger + toe nail psoriasis is greater than 70%! So it’s crucial to know what the signs + symptoms of nail psoriasis as well as what nail psoriasis treatment options exist.
I’m excited to discuss this with returning guest Dr. Jenny Bennett, a naturopathic doctor, acupuncturist, and founder of Aria Integrative Medicine, an autoimmune specialty clinic in Seattle, WA. She utilizes treatments from both Eastern and Western medical practices to find the best approach for treating autoimmune diseases such as psoriatic arthritis, finger + toe nail psoriasis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, Graves’ Disease, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and scleroderma.
In This Episode:

• What should a healthy nail look like?
• What is finger + toe nail psoriasis?
• Nail changes in eczema cases (How is this different?)
• Is nail psoriasis a psoriatic arthritis symptom?
• Finger + toe nail psoriasis vs Fungal nail infections
• Nail psoriasis treatment options
• Nutrients linked to healing nail psoriasis

Quotes
"You get this kind of inflammatory process, you don't always see it because it's under the nail. So it can be kind of red and inflamed, and it damages the nail bed. And then your body starts to just make all of these extra skin cells underneath the nail bed. And if you build up enough of them, it can cause damage to the nail, it can actually thin the nail or decrease it. But oftentimes it looks like it's thickening.”
“Any kind of microbial changes will increase your risk of psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, and psoriatic nail changes. So if you have a fungal infection, or even sometimes a bacterial infection, in the nail, it will increase the risk of psoriasis happening in that nail.”
Links
Find Dr. Bennett online | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok
Healthy Skin Show ep. 217: Health Concerns Linked to Psoriasis (You SHOULD Know About)
Healthy Skin Show ep. 336: Early Signs & Symptoms Of Psoriatic Arthritis (Don’t Ignore These!) w/ Dr. Jenny Bennett

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1. Introduction (00:00:00)

2. Structure of nails + how finger and toe nails grow (00:01:40)

3. What is nail psoriasis and what are nail psoriasis symptoms? (00:05:18)

4. What do nail psoriasis + toe nail psoriasis look like? (00:08:53)

5. Nail changes in eczema cases (How is this different?) (00:10:00)

6. Is nail psoriasis a psoriatic arthritis symptom? (00:12:00)

7. Nail psoriasis vs nail fungus (00:13:49)

8. What to do if you notice a nail rash or nail changes (00:18:13)

9. Nail psoriasis treatment options (00:21:38)

10. Nutrients linked to healing nail psoriasis (00:28:19)

11. Final thoughts (00:29:34)