Vitamins for the Management of Nail Disease: A Literature Review
Skin Appendage Disord (2024) 10 (2): 104–122. https://doi.org/10.1159/000534972
Kaya L. Curtis; Shari R. Lipner
Background: Vitamins have gained popularity among physicians and patients for purported benefits to hair, skin, and nail health. Safe and efficacious therapies for nail disorders, many of which are chronic conditions, are needed.
Summary: We conducted a literature review of studies assessing the efficacy of oral, topical, and intralesional vitamin/vitamin derivatives for the treatment of nail disorders, including yellow nail syndrome, brittle nail syndrome, onychomycosis, habit-tic nail deformity, periungual/subungual verruca, and nail psoriasis.
Forty-nine articles were reviewed. There is good evidence to support the use of topical tazarotene and vitamin D analogs for nail psoriasis treatment. We found overall limited evidence for treatment of other nail disorders with vitamin/vitamin derivatives, and further research is needed to support their use.
Key Messages: Besides topical tazarotene and vitamin D analogs for nail psoriasis treatment, there is limited evidence for treatment of nail disorders with topical, oral, and intralesional vitamin/vitamin derivatives.
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VitaminDWiki – Topical Vitamin D category contains:
Topical is one of the many ways of increasing the vitamin D in your body
Topical is 2X to 50X more expensive than oral form
Topical is great for those who not want to swallow pillls nor fortifiy their food/drink with Vitamin D
Topical is one of the many gut-friendly forms of vitamin D (good bioavailability for those with poor guts
Topical is especially good form to apply directly to skin problems:
- i.e. Psoriasis Warts Burns Acne Eczema Wounds (lasts about a day)
The skin, like most tissues of the body, can fully-activate Vitamin D locally - no liver nor kidney needed.
Provides perhaps 100X higher concentration of Vitamin D to that portion than if same dose were taken orally
There were > 700 topical Vitamin D products on Amazon Aug, 2019
Creams. oils, patches, nanoemulsions, etc.
Suspect that topical Vitamin D is best absorbed where the skin gets Vitamin D naturally
- - - face and hands vs the back or the inside of arms
Nanoemulsions can also be applied topically under the tongue and inhaled