toe nail psoriasis

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If you have discolored, yellow nails, you could be dealing with finger + toe nail psoriasis. Often, brittle, raised nails can be tricky to figure out what’s going on especially when you consider how similar nail psoriasis vs fungus nail infections can look.

Nail psoriasis actually forms under the nail bed and can be easy to miss! Eventually, though, the skin becomes red and inflamed, and the nail bed is damaged in the process.

And if you have psoriatic arthritis, your risk of developing finger + toe nail psoriasis is greater than 70%! So it’s crucial to know what the signs + symptoms of nail psoriasis as well as what nail psoriasis treatment options exist.

I’m excited to discuss this with returning guest Dr. Jenny Bennett, a naturopathic doctor, acupuncturist, and founder of Aria Integrative Medicine, an autoimmune specialty clinic in Seattle, WA. She utilizes treatments from both Eastern and Western medical practices to find the best approach for treating autoimmune diseases such as psoriatic arthritis, finger + toe nail psoriasis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, Graves’ Disease, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and scleroderma.

Or, listen on your favorite app: iTunes (Apple Podcasts) | Spotify | Stitcher | TuneIn | Subscribe on Android

In This Episode:

  • What should a healthy nail look like?
  • What is finger + toe nail psoriasis?
  • Nail changes in eczema cases (How is this different?)
  • Is nail psoriasis a psoriatic arthritis symptom?
  • Finger + toe nail psoriasis vs Fungal nail infections
  • Nail psoriasis treatment options
  • Nutrients linked to healing nail psoriasis

Quotes

“You get this kind of inflammatory process, you don't always see it because it's under the nail. So it can be kind of red and inflamed, and it damages the nail bed. And then your body starts to just make all of these extra skin cells underneath the nail bed. And if you build up enough of them, it can cause damage to the nail, it can actually thin the nail or decrease it. But oftentimes it looks like it's thickening.”

“Any kind of microbial changes will increase your risk of psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, and psoriatic nail changes. So if you have a fungal infection, or even sometimes a bacterial infection, in the nail, it will increase the risk of psoriasis happening in that nail.”

Links

Find Dr. Bennett online | Instagram | Facebook | TikTok

Healthy Skin Show ep. 217: Health Concerns Linked to Psoriasis (You SHOULD Know About)

Healthy Skin Show ep. 336: Early Signs & Symptoms Of Psoriatic Arthritis (Don’t Ignore These!) w/ Dr. Jenny Bennett

 

359: Finger + Toe Nail Psoriasis vs Fungus Infection (How To Tell The Difference) {FULL TRANSCRIPT}

Jennifer Fugo (00:15.034)

I am so excited to have you back, Dr. Bennett. Thank you so much for being here.

Dr. Jenny Bennett  (00:20.348)

So awesome to be here. Thank you for having me.

Jennifer Fugo (00:22.579)

I know, this is our kind of deeper dive into psoriasis. And today we're gonna talk about nail psoriasis (including toe nail psoriasis) and how that can show up, what exactly that is, and how to treat nail psoriasis. Because, I don't know about you, but when your nails don't grow correctly and they look pretty messed up, it can be very embarrassing. I mean, maybe there's other symptoms that could be like, they could be painful, I don't know, we can talk about all of that. But I just know from my own experience going through skin issues, when my nails grew out real messed up, that was a point when I felt really sad for myself, because at the least I could paint my nails, now they just looked bad regardless.

So let's first, before we dive into the whole topic of what exactly nail psoriasis and toe nail psoriasis is, I think we should just discuss a little bit about nails and and nail growth. So can you talk to us a little bit about what the tissue is, and the structure of the nails, just so everybody listening can get a sense of all the things we're going to dive into?

Dr. Jenny Bennett  (01:31.26)

Yeah, absolutely. So, you know, nails are an interesting part of our body. They're made up of a number of different types of cells and tissue. And a lot of that is kind of, for simplicity’s sake, like the leftover vitamins and minerals that our body has. And the nail itself is connected to the finger via the nail bed, which is kind of a loose connective layer sheath in between the nail and itself. So if something happens or damages the nail, it can at some point come off and heal properly, well, in theory, sometimes it doesn't always do that, and then the nail itself can grow back the way it came, in a smooth fashion. But if we don't have enough nutrients, or proper nutrients, we won't get a strong or healthy nail.

And at the same time, the skin underneath where the nail bed is has to be healthy, which is what its relationship to psoriasis is. If the skin underneath the nail bed itself isn't healthy, then it can cause additional problems. And because our nails are the sort of leftover-ish, it's like our hair too. Our hair and nails are kind of like the leftover minerals that we utilize elsewhere in our body. It takes a really long time for them to grow. So on average, it takes about 6 to 10 months for somebody's nail to fully grow out, which is an excruciatingly long time.

I remember I damaged my finger once and I had this weird growth under my nail, and it just killed the top half of my nail. And then it took, I was shocked, I mean, I knew that it took that long, but it was shocked at how long it took for it to actually fully grow out and a new nail to come in. It was like seven months of time. It's crazy.

Jennifer Fugo (03:27.592)

Wow, and do the toenails grow out at the same rate as fingernails or are those slightly different?

Dr. Jenny Bennett  (03:35.142)

The toe nails grow at roughly the same rate. They can be slightly slower because they're farther away from the body and they get less blood flow. But also most of the toe nails are shorter than our fingernails, and so it doesn't always seem like they're growing slightly slower because they don't have to grow as far. Unless it's the big toe. The big toe can seem like it takes a really long time, especially if you're trying to treat it. You don't always feel like it's happening as quickly as it should because it just is incredibly slow if there's not good blood flow to the area.

Jennifer Fugo (04:07.773)

I think that's an important thing for everyone to hear out the gate, because a lot of times when I've talked to clients, they have this expectation that like their nails should just be better in like two weeks. And it takes a while, a lot of times. It assumes you get everything corrected and then they start growing.

Dr. Jenny Bennett  (04:25.914)

Yeah. I mean, it's like the same issue we have with the hair. It's I always have to warn people when we're working with hair and nails that it's going to take a lot. First, we have to get the inflammation down. Once we get the inflammation down, then we have to get nutrients to the tissue. Then once we get nutrients to the tissue, that's when you start the timer for the growth to happen. And it can take a couple months prior to even the growth starting to happen just to get that first part under control, like the inflammation. And then you have to wait an additional six months or so just to get a nail to grow enough to see improvement.

Jennifer Fugo (05:01.319)

So in terms of nail psoriasis and toe nail psoriasis, what exactly is that? And what does nail psoriasis look like?

Dr. Jenny Bennett  (05:08.24)

Yeah, so nail psoriasis is actually really fascinating to me because it's a process that we didn't really understand until recently. But it's essentially psoriasis that is happening on your skin, but it's happening under the nail. Yeah, it's very bizarre. So if we think about what happens with psoriasis on just our normal, like on our elbow, if we had psoriasis on our elbow, the immune cells come in there and they cause damage to part of the layer of the skin, that lower layer of the skin. And when they cause damage to that part of the skin, there are a couple things that happen. One is that the body itself is like, okay, I need to repair the skin. So it produces what we call a hyperproliferation of these things called keratinocytes. And that's like the layer, the stuff that makes the skin on the top layer.

So with psoriasis, you get kind of initially a lot of redness, you can get damage that happens, it can be sort of itchy and painful. And then the cells start building up. That's when you get the shininess, and the flaking, and all that stuff that happens with psoriasis because you're getting this buildup after damage has occurred. With nail psoriasis and toe nail psoriasis, it's the same thing, it's just happening between the nail bed and the nail.

So you get this kind of inflammatory process, you don't always see it because it's under the nail. So it can be kind of red and inflamed, and it damages the nail bed. And then your body starts to just make all of these extra skin cells underneath the nail bed. And if you build up enough of them, it can cause damage to the nail, it can actually thin the nail or decrease it. But oftentimes it looks like it's thickening. It's not actually the nail itself that's thickening, it's the build up of the skin underneath the nail that makes it feel like it's getting thicker.

But the nail itself actually gets damaged, and it can have a ton of different consequences. A lot of people will notice the thickening. They'll notice this thing called pitting, which will be almost like someone took a little pin and kind of made dimples in the nail, that can happen. It can cause damage to the cuticles. It can create discoloration, it's often yellowing that happens in the nail. So if your nails look like they're getting kind of like a weird yellow color, that can be psoriasis. And sometimes it can create really brittle nails, so as they start to grow out, like they'll just sort of come off in chunks or little pieces, ultimately.

Jennifer Fugo (07:46.403)

And you said too, it can also separate away from the nail bed. And that's because of this lifting effect, right? Because of the buildup of skin cells. So would that look like, would you almost see that visually? Like it looks like the nail is lifting away from the bottom of the finger? What does nail psoriasis look like?

Dr. Jenny Bennett  (08:06.18)

Yeah, if it goes on long enough, I have seen, well, I always make this joke because my grandma had really bad toe nail psoriasis, probably why I'm really fascinated by it. But she had it, it was so severe, her toenail probably came up half an inch to three-quarters of an inch off the nail bed. And so you can see it, it's thick if it gets bad. Usually in the beginning stages you're not going to see that lifting quite as severe. So you might just notice, like if you kind of pull away the nail bed sort of from the finger, you might be like, there's something in between my fingernail and my nail or the skin that's not dirt, and you try to pull it away and it doesn't quite come off. That's like the skin buildup that's happening in between the nail and nail bed.

Jennifer Fugo (08:56.461)

So this is what happened with psoriasis, right? We're talking about psoriatic nail issues. Is this similar, for those who do watch the show and have eczema, is this a similar process? Because obviously inflammation, I think, plays a role here and we'll go into that. But is this a similar thing that happens to eczema? I ask because I had hand eczema, so if you do have like hand eczema is this sort of a similar process or is that just very different?

Dr. Jenny Bennett  (09:29.41)

Yeah, they're similar in that they're both inflammatory, but the mechanism that happens in the nail is very different. And the way I like to kind of separate it in my mind is that psoriasis, when it damages the skin, creates an extra buildup of skin. It's like a repair process trying to happen but it's doing a terrible job. Where eczema, when it comes in, it just damages the skin. So eczema you'll see go down into the skin more, where eczema sort of goes down and then builds up.

And eczema, when it affects the nails, will cause a lot of very apparent damage to the nails. The nail itself can die if the eczema gets really bad. You'll get pieces of the nail that can come off. You'll see damage to the cuticle in and around the nail. You'll see kind of just sores or ulcers that can develop between the nail bed and the nail itself. So it looks more like when eczema happens within and around the nail, it kind of occurs where it's almost like a sinking in and a breaking off, as opposed to psoriasis, which is like an inflammation and a building up.

Jennifer Fugo (10:39.877)

Okay. I wanted to ask you this because we talked all about psoriatic arthritis in our last episode, which I will link up into the show notes for those who are curious about this and really want to dive into this topic. I would say, I think every person who is living with psoriasis should probably listen to that episode, because obviously there's a risk of developing psoriatic arthritis.

So does it matter, in terms of the percentage or risk of developing nail psoriasis or toe nail psoriasis, between those who just have psoriatic lesions on the skin versus somebody who has psoriatic arthritis?

Dr. Jenny Bennett  (11:18.012)

So what you're asking is like are you at higher risk for psoriatic arthritis?

Jennifer Fugo (11:21.689)

Right. Does it matter which you have in terms of getting or developing nail psoriasis? And is one, having, for example, psoriatic arthritis, does that maybe make you more prone versus having just the psoriatic skin lesions in causing this inflammation in the nails?

Dr. Jenny Bennett  (11:43.122)

Yeah, so I'd say about 70% of people with psoriatic arthritis have actual psoriasis. Most people don't know they have psoriasis because it's in weird spots like the scalp and stuff. With the nail changes, it's very, very common. It's higher than 70% of people with psoriatic arthritis actually have the psoriatic nail changes. It's actually part of the diagnostic criteria, because psoriatic arthritis is really hard to diagnose because it doesn't have a lot of labs. And so nail changes are one of the most common features that you'll see in psoriatic arthritis.

People might not even know they have psoriasis, but they have psoriatic nail changes and they thought for a long time it was a fungal infection. But instead, it's actually psoriasis and the arthritis that they're experiencing is psoriatic arthritis. So that's one of the first things, anytime I'm assessing someone for psoriatic arthritis, is I look at all their nails. I'm like, pull off all your shoes, let's look at all your nails, come in without them painted so I can like take a look at the color and stuff. So yeah, it's very, very common.

Jennifer Fugo (12:42.748)

So if someone had nail issues, I just thought of this, because a lot of times this does kind of look like a fungal infection of the nail. So if they are like, hey, this toenail, these toes always looked funny, I've been treating them for a long time with fungal meds, but it's never really gotten any better. Could that possibly be a red flag?

Dr. Jenny Bennett  (13:08.939)

Absolutely. Fungal infections in the feet and hands get commonly misdiagnosed and instead they're psoriatic changes. The biggest difference between psoriatic arthritis and fungal infections is pitting in the nails (pitting nail psoriasis), like you're not gonna see a lot of pitting in fungal infections when thinking about nail psoriasis vs fungus. But fungal infections still have the thickening that happens, the yellow discoloration, the brittleness that occurs.

And fungal infections are really hard to treat sometimes. So sometimes people will have to go through months of treatment before they notice any difference, because it takes months for the nail to grow out. So it's like you have to treat it every day for months to see a difference. So if you're treating what you think is a fungal infection and it doesn't get better after like three months of treatment, like I wouldn't say get completely better, but you should see some changes by then, then it could be psoriatic nail changes.

Jennifer Fugo (14:05.562)

Does it matter if someone, say, has psoriasis, like creeping down their hand, or on the feet and ankle, have you found that that or any psoriatic issues in the finger joints, does that maybe also increase your risk of having nail issues or you haven't noticed any connection?

Dr. Jenny Bennett  (14:29.738)

There's actually not a huge connection. You can have psoriasis anywhere on your body and it is as likely to create nail changes than it is to not. I see so many people with scalp psoriasis and they have nail changes, st doesn't have to be close to the hands or the fingers or the toes, it can be anywhere. And I've seen people who have really bad psoriatic arthritis in their hands and all their nail changes are in the feet because their blood flow is bad or whatever.

Jennifer Fugo (14:57.818)

Interesting, interesting. I always find this fascinating because it's like, there's so much we still don't fully understand, like why certain things happen. We just don't have all the answers yet, but it's so fascinating.

Dr. Jenny Bennett  (15:11.556)

Yeah, it is. And the severity also doesn't really correlate, because you could have really severe arthritis and not have any nail changes, or you could have really severe nail changes and never develop psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis. It doesn't matter, the severity of where it happens doesn't necessarily correlate with any of those other particular conditions.

Jennifer Fugo (15:36.364)

Is it possible, because you were mentioning before about fungal infections, is it possible to have simultaneously psoriatic nail changes and have maybe a fungal infection as well or can you only have nail psoriasis vs fungus?

Dr. Jenny Bennett  (15:51.298)

Absolutely. There are huge correlations between, not just fungal, but bacterial. So any kind of microbial changes will increase your risk of psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, and psoriatic nail changes. So if you have a fungal infection, or even sometimes a bacterial infection, in the nail, it will increase the risk of psoriasis happening in that nail.

It's really, it's really fascinating. So when I got that injury in this finger, and my nail died, and it was infected and I had to go on antibiotics, I started to develop some of, because my family has lot of psoriasis, so I started to develop some of the psoriatic nail changes in this finger. And that's just because there was inflammation there and it was fighting an infection, and the immune system was already present, so it's more likely to be in that particular spot.

Jennifer Fugo (16:44.284)

This is, I'm sorry, I love to nerd out on this. I shouldn't say I'm sorry, but like, I feel like the people that listen to the show, they also love that we get to have these conversations, because it's oftentimes you read on the internet and you're trying to do research, but then you don't really know how this shows up in real life. And sometimes there's multiple situations, nothing happens in a vacuum.

Dr. Jenny Bennett  (17:06.5)

Yeah.

Jennifer Fugo (17:19.928)

So being able to have conversations like this, and my hope too is that maybe someone who is dealing with this, or who's seeing these changes in their nails, whether it's on the hands and/or the feet, might go, ooh. So you work with a lot of people who are struggling with issues like this. If you are noticing this type of change that you've described, these different symptoms of nail psoriasis and toe nail psoriasis, do you think that that warrants them seeing either their dermatologist or their rheumatologist? What is the best next step for them to do instead of probably just waiting and seeing what happens?

Dr. Jenny Bennett  (17:56.23)

This is a really important question because not all specialists are created equal. And so I always recommend anybody, if someone comes to me or like I've talked to someone on the internet or something and they say, I'm experiencing these types of things, get it checked out because chances are good there are other things that fall within the category that aren't being looked into. And a dermatologist is really good at spotting nail psoriasis. A rheumatologist is going to be really good at kind of determining if the nail changes are related to any joint changes.

But with that being said, some of these things can be really nuanced and if the symptoms aren't really severe, it's always possible to be dismissed by specialists who are like, okay, yeah, that's just like a little bit of nail changes, it's totally fine, it's not a big deal, we don't need to worry about it. When it could be kind of a sign that some inflammation has started to develop. In my opinion, always better to try to get that under control early before it turns into psoriatic arthritis or before it turns into full-blown psoriasis, so that you can help reduce the inflammation in that early-on period.

Jennifer Fugo (19:02.531)

I agree. I think that one of the things I learned from you and I appreciated about the last time we spoke was impressing upon the fact that the damage, especially in psoriatic arthritis, to joints is permanent. So you don't want to let that go. And if this is, maybe, it's annoying, it's unsightly, there's many different things that dealing with nails that do not look healthy have associated with them. But the reality is, if that's the red flag that potentially gets you to a bigger issue that, like you're saying, you could start working on sooner rather than later, I think that's a really important point to underscore.

Dr. Jenny Bennett  (19:46.768)

And the same thing that can happen in the joints can happen in the nails, like you can have enough damage in the nail bed over time that it will permanently disfigure the nail itself. And you know, there are some specialists or providers that would be like, it's not a big deal, it's just your nail. Or with the hair, it's the same thing. It's like, it's your hair and it's your nail, and you don't have to just blow it off because it's permanently disfigured or damaged. If you can do something about it early on, do something about it early on.

Jennifer Fugo (20:19.652)

So it sounds like it may be possible, depending on how far gone this is, to possibly, maybe, correct it?

Dr. Jenny Bennett  (20:28.783)

Oh yeah, yeah. I mean, especially if you catch it early enough. Absolutely.

Jennifer Fugo (20:33.251)

So what would be some approaches that listeners might be offered in terms of nail psoriasis treatment?

Dr. Jenny Bennett  (20:43.6)

Yeah, so there's kind of a leveled approach with which I use to work with nail psoriasis, or just psoriasis or psoriatic arthritis, kind of together. And the first part is always figuring out where the inflammation comes from. And we talked about this with the psoriatic arthritis piece. Are there places where your body is inflamed? Usually we look at the gut because there's a huge connection between psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, and the gut microbiome, and then how that manifests with the microbiome under your nails. So sometimes working on correcting some of the gut stuff can actually help improve the inflammatory process in the nail bed. So that I always look at first, if that seems okay, then we can look at decreasing inflammation systemically. So that might mean using certain types of herbs to help reduce inflammation, boswellia, curcumin, things like that.

If we want to speed up the process of the nail growth or try to help locally, there are a number of things that you can do. First, you’ve kind of got to figure out if there are any fungal or bacterial infections present in the nail. The best way to do that is if you can get a dermatologist or any provider that can do a skin scraping in-office. So they can actually take parts underneath the nail bed and they can scrape out some of the skin and then test it, like do a KOH prep or look for yeast particles. And if they don't see fungal particles then you know it's probably just psoriasis, but if there are fungal components you do want to work on trying to treat that. And that can be with things like, we do a lot of like apple cider vinegar soaks to help with the pH, and changing the pH will help improve the flora in the in the nail bed.

Hygiene is really important for nails, so making sure that you're keeping the cuticles clean, that you're keeping the area around the nail clean. You want to keep your nails relatively short too, so they're not snagging or breaking on anything. And you don't want to put anything on or around the nails, like any kind of synthetic nail glues or things like that, which could potentially damage the nail itself because that will increase the inflammatory process in and around that that nail also.

Jennifer Fugo (23:15.066)

So what you're saying is, a lot of times we want to hide things that don't look nice. And if your nail is lifting and the nail looks very discolored and whatnot, you might go, hey, I'm just going to go and get some gels put on. That might not be a good idea is what I'm hearing you say. A better option would be to think about how to treat nail psoriasis.

Dr. Jenny Bennett  (23:36.538)

Yeah, you don't want anything that's going to adhesively attach to the nail itself because that can damage that nail or increase inflammation. Painting them, totally fine, not a big deal. Even some of the more gentle temporary press-ons are usually fine if they come off easily. But if you're doing a longer-lasting adhesive, it can create some inflammation around that area, and/or thin or damage the nail. And a lot of times when they apply the nails, they're trying to thin some of the nail down too, which can increase some of that inflammatory process.

Jennifer Fugo (24:19.033)

Do dermatologists also, or maybe you, we talked a little bit the last time about using some of these other types of meds, like they might be more like biologics and whatnot. Does that ever factor into nail psoriasis treatment or not really?

Dr. Jenny Bennett  (24:37.222)

I mean, no one's really going to put anybody on a biologic for just nail psoriasis unless the nails are really, really bad, like the nail itself is damaged, there's multiple nails that are permanently disfigured, or things like that. If there's really a lot of psoriatic arthritis or psoriasis, then a biologic will absolutely help the nail psoriasis. But it's pretty rare that anyone will be put on a biologic just for the nail psoriasis itself.

Jennifer Fugo (25:06.188)

Do they also use any steroid creams as well to help treat the nail or is that not how to treat nail psoriasis and toe nail psoriasis?

Dr. Jenny Bennett  (25:12.772)

Not commonly, because the steroid creams can thin the nail, and also you have to get it like underneath, which is really hard to do. So if the steroid creams don't have like a super big effect, because you don't want it to thin the skin around the nail, and you also don't want it to increase the risk of infection in and around the nail, which a steroid cream can do, because that will make it worse over time too.

Jennifer Fugo (25:38.551)

Wow. Okay, I think my big takeaways today are number one, this type of information can be a sign for anybody that there's another problem brewing under the surface. And that at least getting checked and taking action if something is wrong is really important because there is always that potential consequence either A, of the nail dying and not being able to regrow the nails, or having some sort of permanent damage to the nails, or that it could be a sign of this greater inflammatory process that could impact your joints, as is the case with psoriatic arthritis. And that you don't have to, I know a lot of people get nervous when it comes to treatment of these conditions, because some people aren't comfortable with these heavier duty medications like biologics, and JAK inhibitors, and immunosuppressants, and whatnot. In this particular instance, it sounds like there's a lot of things that can be done before you even get there that may be helpful. But again, we've got to consider a variety of factors here. It's not just, oh my nails look funny, oh well, that's how I am.

Dr. Jenny Bennett  (26:51.644)

Absolutely. And you know, all providers should be looking at fingers and toes, like just look at them because it'll give you some information about what else is happening with any kind of autoimmune process, specifically the ones related to psoriasis.

Jennifer Fugo (27:11.991)

And I do find too, just as a clinical nutritionist, that obviously we can sometimes see funny things happening in the nails, like nail signs of different nutrient issues. Because like you were saying, these are sort of the last, we send the last remnants that we have left of nutrients and such to make hair and nails. So is it also possible that you could have all this inflammation, but if you've also got underneath this a lot of nutrient depletions happening, that could also potentially play a role in healing this area?

Dr. Jenny Bennett  (27:50.242)

Absolutely, yeah. And once you get the inflammation down and you're in the process of healing and growing the nail, you need to be able to add in a bunch of nutrient support specific to nails. There's a lot of good research, too, around using things like collagen, and biotin, and zinc, and other types of nutrients that go straight into the nails that can help strengthen them and grow them. I use a lot of topical vitamin E too, to just help reduce the inflammation and improve the integrity of the nails. So yes, you absolutely want to focus on that piece when the growing process is happening.

Jennifer Fugo (28:30.009)

Thank you for sharing all of this. I really appreciate that you've been so willing to talk more about these topics that I feel like a lot of times people don't really think about, and I just love that you focus on this. And you are accepting patients, right, in your practice?

Dr. Jenny Bennett  (28:47.354)

Yeah, all of our providers here specialize in autoimmune diseases like psoriasis and we are accepting new patients. And we always say, we see the weird and unconventional here.

Jennifer Fugo (29:00.098)

But that's so necessary because like you have said, some of these things are kind of odd and they can be confusing. If you also, maybe you see a provider and they just go, it's not that big of a deal. And there's something really, like, you also have other oddball symptoms that are going on, you don't necessarily want to just let that go. At least that's my feeling. I feel like the body tells us in weird ways, like smoke signals.

Dr. Jenny Bennett  (29:15.399)

Yeah.

Jennifer Fugo (29:30.348)

These smoke signals that something is wrong, and sometimes it's vague and it doesn't quite point us to the problem. But if we try to piece together everything, we get there. We get a better picture of what's happening under the surface. So I'm so glad that you were able to join us again and I'm sure we'll have you back some other time.

Dr. Jenny Bennett  (29:53.606)

Yeah, this is fun. I enjoy talking about this stuff, so any time.

Jennifer Fugo (29:58.365)

Absolutely. And I'll make sure to link up your practice and all the show notes, as well as our other episode. That way everybody can check those things out and find you if they're looking for this type of help. You treat psoriasis, and what are some of the other conditions that you specialize in?

Dr. Jenny Bennett  (30:17.542)

Yeah, because we specialize in autoimmune diseases, I see a lot of different types of arthritis, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, but I also do a ton of thyroid, like Hashimoto's, and Graves' disease, and things like that. We kind of see all of, like I said, the weird and unconventional, when people feel like they're sick and they need someone to listen, yeah, we're here.

Jennifer Fugo (30:34.665)

Awesome. Well, thanks so much, Dr. Bennett, and I'm excited to have you on and have you back on the show again sometime.

Dr. Jenny Bennett  (30:45.349)

Awesome, thanks so much again for having me.

toe nail psoriasis