Quick Fingernail Test for Diabetes

Okay, today we're going to talk about blood circulation. This is very important for people with diabetes, of course. We'll get to that later. But what they call this little test we're going to do here, it's called the capillary nail refill. Again, you gently push down on your nail there. As you see there, gently, gently push down, you'll see the nail turns white. When you let up, the blood comes back very, very quickly. This is what we call the capillary nail refill. Now, a lot of people, emergency guys who work with the emergency crews, they'll use this

to check for people with dehydration or hypothermia. A very important test. Very quick. Very quick and efficient. But what today I'm going to discuss is why this test can be important for people who may not know that they're a diabetic. Now, again, you have to go to the doctor and make sure that only the doctor can tell you for sure. But these are signed. This is a little test that we're going to do. And this could be a test that could say, hey, I got to go to the doctor and get

this checked out. Again, so we call this the capillary nail refill. And as you push down on the nail, it turns white, you let up, and the blood comes back very quickly. Now, you notice that little tiny little scratch there. Now that should go away very quickly. If you have good blood circulation, that little tiny neck there would heal very quickly if your immune system is working fine and the blood is circulating good. But that's the problem when you have diabetes. You can injure your toes or your fingers.

You have these what most people would call small little boo boo, but it doesn't go away. So if you have that problem, if you see a little sore on your toe, a feet, you have a little sore. But normally when you were younger, it would have went away real quickly. If it does not go away, you need to go to the doctor and be checked to see if you are diabetic. Because that's one of the signs when you have these little tiny sores on your feet and they don't go away, you may have diabetes.

So this is a very interesting test here for blood circulation. Now as you see it, you push down on the fingernail, it turns white. Within a couple seconds, actually within a second, it should turn red. This is normal. What you're looking at here is very, very normal. This is what you want to see. If it takes more than two seconds for your blood to come back on this capillary nail refill, you need to go to the doctor. Be checked for diabetes, your blood circulation. You may be dehydrated.

You may, you know, there's a few other things you need to have the doctor check for sure.

But this is, and sometimes when you go to the doctor, he'll do this little test on you. This is something the doctors will do on you. And like I say, you do this test for blood circulation. If you have a little sore right there, as you see, a little sore like that, it does not go away on your feet. Then again, you need to go to the doctor and have that checked out too, because little sores like that, your immune system, should heal them pretty quickly, a little tiny thing like that.

So I hope this has been some help to you and maybe informed you of possible diabetes problems. And go see your doctor. Good luck.