Toenails Fall Off

It can be lack of decent shoes.
It can also be from running down extreme inclines, that's how I lost mine last year.


Good shoes and keeping your toenails clipped short should help with a majority of it though..

It's pretty common. If you have lost a toenail before you are more susceptible on that toe. It's a combination of friction and other forces. I think you can have fairly good shoes and still lose them. "some" runners have their toenails removed!!!??? It's sort of a joke amoung long distance runners..who needs toenails anyhow!! ;-)

The same thing happens when hiking. Losing toenails is common when doing serious back country hiking. The force on the toes from going down a mountain puts lots of strain on the toenails. They fall off, but grow back.

If you're running frequently or doing long distances, it's best to buy shoes 1/2 size larger than what you normally wear. This in addition to keeping your toenails short will prevent the "runner's toenail" and the occasional fall-off.

I'm in the process of losing a toenail right now, but it's cause I'm clumsy as hell and fell down the steps. When I started looking for info about the potential of losing the nail, the best info I got was from running sites.

I've lost nails from hiking with a 70lb pack for 3 days, it took about 1 yr for them to grow back in - it was from boot camp and I was wearing... jungle boots - I changed socks regularly but still had a lot of blisters and lost some nails - everyone did. It could be from distance running I'm guessing.

I get this every summer from running- bruising under the toenail and then it falls off

I agree with others. I've lost 2 and am going to lose a 3rd. The first two were from wearing my normal size shoe in sneakers when running - you should really wear 1/2 size up in sneakers. So I wear an 8 1/2 shoe, but a 9 running shoe. The other culprit was I had ran a hilly! 15k race. And all those hills helped contribute to my toes getting "runner's toe".

Things you can do to help prevent are the 1/2 size up in shoes, keeping nails clipped, and if you have a toe that you regularly have an issue with wear a band aid going over the tip of the toe and then one going around it to keep it in place. The band aid will give it extra cushion to help prevent the irritation and thus the blister that forms resulting in your toe nail falling off.

If you do get a blister it can take months for the toe nail to actually fall off. Again wear band aids so the toe is not as irritated and file your toe nail the wrong way so that the toe nail becomes thinner at the tip of the nail and it will put less pressure on your toes when you have shoes on.

p.s. hope it never happens to you.

I've run about 3000 miles in the last 22 months and I still have all of my nails (although one does look kind of gnarly).
But, a friend of mine had to get one removed - it turned black underneath but refused to fall off.

Seriously?!?! I never heard that before. I am just getting back into running but I used to run nearly every day and never heard that. I didn't run long distances though (3 mi max) and always keep my tonails super short. Wow, you really do learn something new every day.

I'm a long distance walker (the Breast Cancer 3-Day Walks) and lost a toenail after my last walk (never had before.) My toenails were too long. The nail hits the top of the shoe repeatedly, gets bruised, and then after a new nail grows in its place, the old one falls off. I wasn't ever without a nail... just a little baby nail grew in underneath after a few months. It wasn't that bad.

But yes, get good shoes, a half size bigger, and keep your nails trimmed very short!