Any advice for my poor nails?

[Guest user]

Hi I just completed all my treatment (2 surgeries, 5 months of chemo and 19 days of radiotherapy). During chemo my nails went black, split and then would fall out. It was really difficult to handle anything but my chemo nurse told me that while you have the chemo its good to use a dark coloured, opaque nail varnish to protect the nails. This advice came a bit too late for me but if there is anyone who is about to start chemo then hopefully it will be useful to you. Also, keep your nails as short as is comfortable. this will prevent splitting. Oh, and lots of moisturiser needed. The good news is that they do go back to normal after time.

[Guest user]

I also found having shellac/gel nails put on really helped-strengthened them and helped them get stronger. Having a rest from it now so shall try the kelp! -

[kazann2009]

Hi All
Had my surgery about 15 months ago and my RT a year ago. I have been taking Tamoxifen since my surgery, but now my finger nails are curling down over the ends of my fingers which is really ugly.
I have an underactive Thyroid so dont know whether I can take Kelp tablets.
On a lighter note, because of the night sweats with Tamoxifen, my OH fitted a ceiling fan over our bed which is great for keeping cool but the other night OH was so cold he came to bed in a hat and scarf!!!

[Guest user]

Hi all

I took the kelp extract and it worked a treat a few weeks and my nails were better than they had ever been! And I think it gave my hair a boost when it was at that post chemo growing in stage.

Good luck ladies.

Anne x x

[scobie]

Hi everyone also just noticed this post and my nails are tererible just now so will try your remedies Thanks all.Joyce

[Anthi]

Hello everyone. Just spotted this post.

Hair and Nails tablets from Healthspan are good too. Another really good find is Rimmel Nail Rescue - colourless stuff you paint on. It doesn't cost very much but has really helped my nails.

Good luck everyone.
Anthi x

[Guest user]

Hello everyone. An update on my post from early June.

I've been taking the kelp (just one tablet a day) for about 5 weeks now, and my nails are nearly back to normal. Still keeping them fairly short, but the flaking seems to have gone. Wonderful! Perhaps I should give credit to Burt's Bees cuticle cream too.

Best wishes to all

Limey

[Guest user]

Hi all

I hope you are all OK. My nails are starting to look really good now. Like you Lenny not 100% but much much better.

It's been a bit of a roller coaster though. Nails started growing after about 3 weeks and then stopped again!!! Wondered at that point if the kelp was a waste of time but anyway I decided to carry on until I'd finished the bottle I bought. Good job I did because they are growing properly now like they did before BC. I'm sooo pleased.

Also the polishing block is very good it does seems to strengthen my nails. Think it was you everydaymatters who recommended it so thanks for that.

Carry on with the kelp girls.

Be happy

J xxx {{{ }}}

[Lenny]

yes.... the kelp definately works, my nails are soo much better, not 100% but the best they have been in about a year. also i think my eyebrows are growing fuller at last, it is so good to be on my way to being something like i was before.... who knows with the reconstruction work i might be better!!

keep taking the pills girls,

love

lenny
xxxx

[peacock]

Hello all
My nails kept fine all through chemo which I finished in Oct 08, but since then they have been pretty bad, splitting low down, bruised and black looking and generally very weak.

Finally this week the blackness seems to be going and I almost have a nail above the finger tip (almost). They still seem weak but I keep painting them with the silicone varnish I used through chemo with is a strengthener.

I'm taking vit B1, and Magnesium/Calcium tablets so am not sure if that has helped.

[Guest user]

Hi everyone

My nails are better too. Been taking kelp for quite a few weeks now. My nails are stronger, still a bit flaky but improving now week by week. An added bonus is that my hair is in really condition.

Hope you are all OK

Love and hugs

Jan x x

[Guest user]

Hi all

I have found a definate improvement in my nails but left my kelp extract whilst on holiday last weekend so have missed taking it for a week and now my nails are splitting and breaking again.

Have ordered more Kelp but proof to me that the kelp was responsible for improvement. keep popping the pills ladies!

Anne xx

[Guest user]

Hi Lenny

Nothings happened to my eyebrows but my hair is really bouncy and healthy. It's just got to be the kelp.

Keep up the good work. It's really looking as if it works.

Love and hugs

Jan xxx

[Lenny]

hi limey and jan,

i'm on my 2nd week or so of kelp and i have no spots... my nails definately look healthier... time will tell but eyebrows are definately growing which is good as i look like i have had a fight with the tweezers ever since they started but never finished growing back.

so here's still believing!!!

love,

lenny

[Guest user]

Hi Limey

My experience is the same as yours. Radiotherapy and Tamoxifen no chemo. My nails have been a real mess.

I'm into my third week of kelp now and my nails are definitely better. They've started growing properly, or maybe they're just not crumbling. Anyway I've been cutting them as short as I can and I've only got 2 now which are a bit of a sight. The rest are coming along nicely. I haven't had a problem with spots at all.

The only other thing I did was, because I was so fed up with my nails catching on everything I superglued them!!! I used nail super glue but it seems to be the same as ordinary superglue. It stuck the layers together and probably stopped them flaking off. it certainly stopped them catching.

I remember when I was in my teens we used to eat jelly cubes believing that our nails would grow. I think jelly is made of seaweed so I suppose it's the same theory.

I haven't heard of Silica Complex. I'll look it up on the net.

Good luck with your nails whatever you decide.

Keep in touch and let us know how you get on

{{{ }}} Jan xx

[Guest user]

Hello (first post; it's been a comfort to read this forum).

My nails suddenly started flaking, 6 months after finishing radiotherapy & starting tamoxifen (no chemo). I cut them very short, and used cuticle cream intensively for a couple of months - no improvement.

My GP confirmed that brittle nails are a possible side-effect of tamoxifen, couldn't suggest any remedy, but said kelp extract would do me no harm. So I'd like to give it a try - but Googling leads me to reports of coming out in spots. Do those of you who've used kelp get spots as a result? Any other adverse effects?

A friend has suggested Silica Complex - has anyone tried it?

[Guest user]

Hi everyone

Well I've been popping the Kelp too - for the last two weeks. My nails are still cracking and flaking but my theory is that the kelp will work on the new growth so I have to wait until the old stuff has grown out. The only problem with that has been that my nails haven't been growing...until the last couple of days. Now they have definitely started getting longer. Yippee.

I'm hoping Malta works for my nails like it did for yours starfish. Got a lovely silk dress for the wedding there in July. I'm hoping my nails aren't going to be catching on it all the time!!

Good luck everyone. I hope you're all enjoying the warm weather.

{{{ }}} Jan xx

[Guest user]

Hi all, especially Lenny (I’m a believer too…..)

Popping my Kelp religiously. Had my glasses on when I looked in the mirror the other day and I was like that guy on the crisps add - gave myself a real start. I have eyebrows that Michael Hesseltine would be proud of. If my nails are growing at the same rate as my eyebrows then I’ll be scratching my own back very soon. Now where did I put those those tweezers?

Anne xx

[Guest user]

Hi Ladies,

just spotted this post and thought I would let you know that I too had a similar problem (finished chemo end of last year) but I have been advised to take acqueous zinc as this also helped with the digusting taste in the mouth aswell as improving nail quality. Maybe worth a try.

All the best Bev

[Lenny]

hi just wanted to say i am happily taking my kelp daily... wish i had got your bargain jan.any way no differance yet but i am still believing... it is still early days,

love

lenny
xxxx

[Guest user]

Morning Jo

I asked the herbalist if sea kelp was OK with Tamoxifen. He looked in his book and said yes no problem. The problem is if you have a thyroid trouble because there's iodine in sea kelp. I'm a week into my sea kelp now but I can't see any improvement yet but early days.

Jan x

[Guest user]

Hello Ladies, Wonder if you can help?

Finished TAX 7 weeks ago, nail and hair rubbish and am interested in popping whatever pills I can to get back to as normal as poss! Does anyone know if it's ok to take this sea kelp extract if you are taking tamoxifen? Just a bit concerned as I was so oestrogen positive that I worry about anything that can boost hormone level, sea kelp doesn't do that does it???

Jo XXX

[Guest user]

Just returned from a week in Malta where nails were splitting like mad. This week they have stopped splitting and now appear to be growing. It is six months since I finished taxotere. Still do not have proper hair. And thin patches at front. Hair fell out one year ago. The effects of all the chemo seem to take a long time to sort. Maybe the hot weather I had in Malta has helped nails!

[Guest user]

Hi everyone

I'm fully kelped up 400mg tabs!!! Got 280 tablets for £3.69 from my local herbalist.... bargin. Polisher block at the ready. I need really nice nails for the end of July. I'm going to a family wedding in Malta.

Good nail growing everyone.

{{{ }}} Jan. xx

[Lenny]

just waiting for my kelp to arrive, hope it all works coz i'm just totally fed up my nails.... i used to have such lovely long ones.... and they get dirtier when they are short....

hey ho what joy!!!

lenny

[Guest user]

Hi everydaymatters

Thank you. I've seen the polishing blocks you're talking about but thought they might make my nails thin and break more. Now I know that they don't I'll get one and start polishing!!!

I spent a fortune on some nail treatment stuff. Like clear nail polish which it said would bond the layers of nail together. It hasn't worked.

Take care

Love Jan xx

[Guest user]

hi jan, i think everyones nails suffer through chemo. i know mine did, i was out one day i think it was in beaties and they were demostrating some dead sea oil hand wash sort of stuff and then they used hand cream and gave me a massage, but the best part was the buffer they buffed my nails up with, you didnt have to have varnish on and they looked like you had. i found when i used the block for polishing my nails it seemed to strengthen them, and they stopped breaking. i payed a fortune for the whole kit, but my local market had the polishing blocks in a few weeks later for £1 which was the best part of the procedure for me, give it a try you never know.

good luckx

[Guest user]

Thanks for this info. My nails are driving me crazy. Splitting and flaking and catching on everything. They look as if a mouse has been nibbling them. I'm off to the herbalist tomorrow.

Good nail growing everyone.

Jan

[Lenny]

well not being one to miss out i will do the same! we should have a nail growing competition see who's grows the longest.... fastest..... now i think about it it would be very hard to measure, well anyway i'm sure you get my drift. i wonder how long i can blame my mad ramblings on chemo?

thanks alloway,

lenny
xx

[Guest user]

Hi Alloway

Thanks for that, much stronger than the ones I got today. Will order online and take weaker ones until they arrive. Never thought I would be so happy to pop pills!!

Anne xx

[Alloway]

Hi Annie and Lenny,

Got mine from healthspan.com. Mine are 1 a day, 180mg of Kelp extract, providing 150mg of Iodine.

Happy pill popping!

[Lenny]

thanks for the info.... i'm off to my local h & b and then i'll start popping. here's to a growing future!!!

love

lenny

[Guest user]

Hi Lenny

I found Sea Kelp tablets in Holland & Barrett, they are 30mg and 1-3 to be taken daily. They were £1.99 for 250 tablets. Hope they are the right thing - Alloway?

Just popped three and hope for some good results in few weeks will let you know how it grows!!!!

Anne xx

[Lenny]

my nails are the same nearly a year on from chemo. do you buy this in a health shop as pills or what? sorry i'm so thick..

lenny

[Guest user]

Wow bonus!!!! Going shopping.

Thanks xx

[Alloway]

Almost forgot - and I don't know how! - it's making my hair grow quicker!

[Guest user]

Brilliant Alloway that is exactly what mine are doing. Heading down town today to get some.

Thanks xx

[Alloway]

Kelp extract.
2 years post-chemo and my nails were not back to full strength. Mine kept splitting horizontally and seemed to have about half a dozen weak layers.
After 3-4 weeks, I've noticed a great difference.

Good luck.

[Guest user]

Hi all

Finished chemo over two months ago fec/tax but my nails keep splitting and are covered in ridges which seem to grow out then come in again with new nails. They are so short I can't open tins, tie buttons etc which is a pain. Anything I can do to help them recover?

Anne xx