white fingernails

I have had problems over the years with the color of my fingernails.  At times when I was younger my nails would graually turn white and last like that for a very long time sometimes up to a year. Gradually they would return to normal over an extended period of time, taking months.  Doctors I went to said they had never seen this before and had no explanation.  I haven't had a reoccurrance for years, but now my 16 year old son is having the same problem.  It happens to toenails as well.  I have never been able to associate it with anything physical going on at the time. I have always been a healthy person and so has my son.  What do you think

[Alan Rockoff, MD]

Nails are very mysterious.  Whatever happens to them--infection, trauma, skin disease, or whatever--all they can mange to do is turn white or yellow or crumbly.  Often the only way doctors can tell what's going on is by context: Is there skin disease like psoriasis somewhere else on the skin?  Are both feet involved?  And so on.

The pattern you describe in yourself doesn't fit any pattern I'm familiar with, so I'm not surprised that your doctors didn't know what it was.  Therefore, I have no way of knowing whether your son has the same thing you did, or something else.  I think you should have him see a doctor who can check him for skin disease, fungus, or something else.  It may turn out to be that he too has no idntifiable disease, but at least you'll know that there's nothing significant going on, other than the nails' appearance.

Best.

Dr. Rockoff