Brittle Nails, Brittle Nerves

Brittle Nails: For some reason my nails have been peeling and nothing I've done has helped heal them. Internet search revealed a bunch of different suggestions--lanolin being the most popular cream; mixed reviews of products such as Hard as Nails. My Mom always swore by gelatin. (Root cause, according to Internet search: aging.) So I asked my dermotologist (when I was there to seek treatment for a skin blotch on my face) what to do. He said nothing taken internally would do any good, since the nail ends that peel are already dead. Thus shooting down the gelatin fix. He said peeling nails are the result of dryness, and suggested that I put petroleum jelly on them.

So I've been putting Vaseline on them ever since--has helped a bit, but I think the cold weather also was a culprit. And I do think nails are better off with polish on them--I was leaving them unpolished, but that seemed to protect them less.

Vaseline is so greasy, I get it on everything (especially the TV remote when I put it on in the evening). But it absorbs more quickly than one might think, and if you wipe it off your palms, it's not as messy. I like the fact that my dermatologist comes up with inexpensive fixes. Before I went to him, I started searching for lanolin cream, until I remebered that I'm horrible allergic to it. I once wore a lambs' wool sweater on a plane flight to Florida; it felt like my back was on fire by the end of the flight, and I couldn't do anything about it (no change of clothes in carry on.)

Brittle Nerves: I thought that getting myself out of an increasingly stressful work situation, plus doing more yoga and meditation would help calm me down. But I can get just as impatient (when waiting for a prescription, for example). So it must be me, not the work. Something I need to continue to focus on and manage.