# DAngers of picking your toenails...gross? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 1, 2005, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dangers-of-picking-your-toenails-gross/319612 "2005-09-01T18:50:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![newcrasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b3f665/32.png) [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2005, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dangers-of-picking-your-toenails-gross/319612/1 "2005-09-01T18:50:57Z")
OK I just saw a buddy of mine’s feet and they are GROSS! The cuticles are bloody because he picks them. He peels the nail off to the quick and then picks the skin from around them. I asked him if they hurt and he said they sometimes keep him awake at night throbbing. Why doesn’t he quit? He doesn’t know, he has just always picked his toenails. He is a nail biter too, but that pales, in my gross-meter. So this HAS to be bad for him. Load me with ammo to convince him to quit it! ---
**Author:** ![CantUseMyRealName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f9ae1b/32.png) [@CantUseMyRealName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CantUseMyRealName)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2005, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dangers-of-picking-your-toenails-gross/319612/2 "2005-09-01T20:31:35Z")
this may sound rather dumb, but how does he have all that unrestrained access to his feet ? my feet are in my shoes most of the day, and even if i were so inclined to start picking at my feet, it would not be socially acceptable for me to remove my shoes and start ripping away at my toenails whilst on the bus, on the subway, at the office, etc… but to answer your question; i would think that lifting the nail bed, no matter how slightly, while toenail picking would make it easier for a fungal infection to set in. ---
**Author:** ![Absolute](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b2d939/32.png) [@Absolute](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Absolute)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2005, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dangers-of-picking-your-toenails-gross/319612/3 "2005-09-01T20:44:10Z")
I think that bloody, throbby feet would be reason enough to quit. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2005, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dangers-of-picking-your-toenails-gross/319612/4 "2005-09-01T20:56:27Z")
I have a habit of picking at the cuticles on my fingers. During dry weather, when they flake and peel, they can indeed get bloody and throbby, but I can’t stop picking at them. My doctor says it’s “ungotillomania” (sp?), and said it’s an OCD. He proposed Xanax, IIRC, but the drug made me nauseous and headachey and I stopped taking it. The only thing that helps is keeping my cuticles constantly anointed with extra-concentrated lotion. Sometimes it’s so bad that, when I go to sleep, I dream that little sharp-fanged weasels are biting my fingertips. But I still can’t stop. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2005, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dangers-of-picking-your-toenails-gross/319612/5 "2005-09-01T20:58:54Z")
Aside from a visit from [Digger the Dermaphrodite,](http://www.lamisil.com/images/tools/digger/what_to_expect.gif) and the pain, what else does a sane person need in order not to pull off their toenails? …_s_h_u_d_d_e_r_… ---
**Author:** ![newcrasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b3f665/32.png) [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2005, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dangers-of-picking-your-toenails-gross/319612/6 "2005-09-01T21:10:58Z")
He isn’t here for me to ask all these questions of. The OCD thing is interesting. I don’t think he could stop if he wanted to. I was thinking more along the lines of nasty infections that may enter his blood stream via his funky feet. ---
**Author:** ![daffyduck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ec9cab/32.png) [@daffyduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/daffyduck)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2005, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dangers-of-picking-your-toenails-gross/319612/7 "2005-09-01T22:01:52Z")
> [@newcrasher](#): > > He isn’t here for me to ask all these questions of. > > The OCD thing is interesting. I don’t think he could stop if he wanted to. > > I was thinking more along the lines of nasty infections that may enter his blood stream via his funky feet. This is very interesting to me. You don’t think he could stop “even if he wanted to” yet at the same time you want “ammo to convince him to quit it!” If I’m reading this correctly, you want ammo to convince him to stop doing something he can’t stop even if he wants to stop. You know your argument will be fruitless, but you want to present it to him anyway… sounds to me like you just want to make him feel bad. ---
**Author:** ![newcrasher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b3f665/32.png) [@newcrasher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/newcrasher)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dangers-of-picking-your-toenails-gross/319612/8 "2005-09-02T00:15:26Z")
> [@daffyduck](#): > > This is very interesting to me. You don’t think he could stop “even if he wanted to” yet at the same time you want “ammo to convince him to quit it!” > > If I’m reading this correctly, you want ammo to convince him to stop doing something he can’t stop even if he wants to stop. You know your argument will be fruitless, but you want to present it to him anyway… sounds to me like you just want to make him feel bad. Thanks for your insight. You have brought a lot to this thread, armchair psychiatry and all. Perhaps I did not make myself very clear. It will be hard for him to quit. I think he can. But hey, they are his toes. ---
**Author:** ![Anaamika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Anaamika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anaamika)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dangers-of-picking-your-toenails-gross/319612/9 "2005-09-02T00:22:32Z")
Your skin is an envelope. Very few things can penetrate it unbroken. There are thousands of blood-borne diseases that can enter you if you have open wounds. Just google “blood-borne illnesses”. The HIV virus is one of them, although he would have to come in contact with other people’s internal fluids firts. He sweats all day in his feet, like all of us. Bacteria live in sweat, especially in our shoes, it’s warm and moist and dark - perfect. Now they have a perfect little acess port to get in. Not to mention it’s disgusting. How’s he planning to get a girlfriend, or boyfriend if he swings that way? I would have serious problems with it, eewww. ---
**Author:** ![La\_Llorona](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@La\_Llorona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/La_Llorona)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dangers-of-picking-your-toenails-gross/319612/10 "2005-09-02T02:20:32Z")
IANAD, but tell this guy to go see one, seriously. He’s opening himself up to a potential for infections by constantly having these open wounds. There’s a possibility that there actually is something the matter with his feet that’s causing him to pick at them. Or, as **teela brown** mentions, there are mental illnesses that can cause one to undergo such compulsive behaviors as picking at cuticles, split ends, etc. If you can’t get him to go see a doctor ASAP, tell him at least to mention it to the doctor at his next regular checkup. ---
**Author:** ![Dijon\_Warlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dangers-of-picking-your-toenails-gross/319612/11 "2005-09-02T04:27:45Z")
> [@newcrasher](#): > > He doesn’t know, he has just always picked his toenails. He is a nail biter too, but that pales, in my gross-meter. Even if he bites his nails _after_ he picks his toes? Bleurg! ---
**Author:** ![betenoir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/258eb7/32.png) [@betenoir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/betenoir)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2005, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dangers-of-picking-your-toenails-gross/319612/12 "2005-09-02T05:12:29Z")
> [@Dijon Warlock](#): > > Even if he bites his nails _after_ he picks his toes? But at least he doesn’t bite his toenail. Err…he doesn’t, does he? I guess you could tell him if the blood bourne pathogens don’t get him, Gene Hackman will. _waits to see if anyone gets my reference_