Have you ever been warned not to
chew your fingernails, and not to swallow them?
Parents will often say that fingernails will stay in your stomach for
seven years. Is this true?
According to Cinergy Health Medical
Director Dr. Margaret Lewin, this information is definitely not true. As part of Cinergy Health, a health insurance
plan company founded by Daniel Touizer, she explains that fingernails will be
partially broken down by the acids in your stomach. What’s left will then move through your
intestinal tract and become part of your stool.
She does warn that, on very rare
occasion, a sharp fingernail could become stuck in the appendix and could cause
inflammation or appendicitis; she points, however, that such an incident would
be extremely rare.
