Except for changing the color of your polish, you probably take your toenails for granted. Unless you’ve wounded or lost some nails running or in some other fitness mishap with, say, a free-weight. Then you become extremely aware of your toenails.
But many serious runners assume that black, loose, or missing toenails are just part of the deal.
“I see people for this all the time,” says Suzanne Levine, MD, a Park Avenue podiatrist who offers “foot facials” at Institute Beaute and author of My Feet Are Killing Me. “Long-distance running is the number one culprit, but I see it in skiers, tennis players, and ballroom dancers who wear high heels.” (She tended to the two I knocked off descending Kilimanjaro.)
What happens is that inflexible shoes rub off the toenail, making it separate from the nail bed. “It’s like a hammer repeatedly hitting the nail,” says Dr. Levine. Trauma is occurring to the nail matrix (the place the nail grows from). Eventually the nail plate pops off. (Sorry, TMI?)
Lost toenails grow back, of course, but it takes six months. (And if the injury has damaged the nail matrix, the new nail will be thicker.) Since injured nails often don’t come off immediately, walking around with bruised, loose nails that you know are going to fall off (hopefully not in yoga class) is not much fun. Neither is getting in infection, which you’re at risk of as well.