In the fight against cancer there is a new means of detection:check the toenails.
Research from the University of San Diego shows that toe nails may be a good tool in detecting lung cancer risk †
Nicotine
The American scientists checked the nicotine level in their toenails on 850 non-smoking and smoking men. † The researchers followed the men for 12 years to see which of them developed lung cancer.
What turned out? The men with the highest nicotine levels in their toenails are 3.5 times more likely to have lung cancer, according to the study , than those with the lowest level.
Co-smokers
The scientists actually examined the men's toenails, because they grow very slowly † Because only about 1 centimeter per year grows on the toenails, they provide very useful information about long-term exposure to cigarette smoke † This applies not only to smokers, but also to non-smokers. For example, the toenails also provide information about the harmful effects of secondhand smoke † In 10 percent of the non-smokers, a very high nicotine level was also found in their toenails. This while they indicated that they never touched a cigarette † However, they regularly smoked with other people.
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The study was only conducted among men. It is not (yet) known whether these results also apply to women.
