Eli5: Why do humans have nails?
In: Biology
A very long time ago, we needed these to climb and to do other activities. Toenails are vestigial, and at one time in our ancestral tree they were necessary for defense, digging, climbing, and were used as tools, Rothschild says.
Fingernails have some practical use in everyday life, such as peeling fruit or scratching, but we don’t use toenails anymore. Ultimately, they’re now there for cosmetic reasons. If you’re a woman and you go out and dress up, you probably have nail polish on.
That toenails are now purely cosmetic is a point of view that not everyone agrees with.
“Toenails serve a purpose in protecting the tip of your toe and protecting the blood vessels and nerves at the tip of the toe,” said John Krebsbach, D.P.M., a podiatrist in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Imagine dropping a rock on your foot. Would you rather have the meager protection of a toenail, or none at all?
Regardless of their differing opinions on toenail functionality today, both podiatrists agreed: Toenails don’t do anything to make you run better. And at the same time, not having them doesn’t make you run any worse. They don’t really matter.
What’s more, they agreed that, if deformed and thickened, toenails can do more harm than good. If this is you, it’s time to see the doctor to develop a plan for healthy toenails. There are a couple of ways to remedy this. A podiatrist could trim down or file down the nails. She could give you a topical medication, or an oral medication to deal with infection or fungus. As a last resort, the problematic toenail can be removed with a laser or a chemical.
“Toenails are like our appendix,” Krebsbach says. “They do serve a purpose, but we can live without them.”
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