Is calcium good for the natural nail?

Question:

Is calcium good for the natural nail?

Answer:

I don’t know of any evidence that demonstrates that oral ingestion of calcium does anything positive for nails, at all!

Nail plates do contain a very small amount of calcium, but that’s likely deposited there by the water we wash our hands with.

Calcium is found only on the surface of the nail plate, not in deeper layers, which further supports that the calcium comes from hand washing. To my knowledge, the nail plate doesn’t need calcium and doesn’t benefit from it at all.

Of course, should any convincing evidence become available to support this myth, I’m happy to review and reconsider. However, until then I would not recommend calcium supplements since they don’t appear to benefit the nail. The same is true for topical application of calcium; this can’t help the nail plate either.