Can your toenail fall off from running

Even perfectly fitted shoes can be a problem: Over the course of a marathon, feet can swell half a size or more. Crane calls black toenails "one of life's minor annoyances" that can be avoided by keeping toenails clipped, buying long-distance shoes a half-size large and ensuring the toe box accommodates your foot properly. Though losing a toenail poses no harm, Crane has two important cautions. First: No bathroom surgery.

Second: If your toenail develops a dark line that does not grow out or disappear, see a doctor right away. With all her expertise and precautions, even Crane has lost a few toenails over her decades-long running career: Four, actually. Subungual means under the nail. Hematoma means a collection of blood outside a blood vessel.

The inside of your shoe is relatively soft, so this impact only causes a microscopic amount of damage known as microtrauma. However, thousands of microtraumas can damage your blood vessels and cause them to leak blood. The more times you hit your toe, the more damage accumulates. Some runners develop black toenails after they contract a fungal infection.

Runners are particularly susceptible to infections since fungi thrive in moist environments, like sweaty socks. Onychomycosis is a fungal infection of your nail that can cause discoloration. It usually causes a yellow-brown discoloration, but it may also lead to darkness under your nail from debris buildup.

Other less likely reasons you may have a black toenail include:. So, minimizing stress to this area may help you prevent it. Here are some preventive steps to take:. It found strong or moderate evidence that:. It reduces the oxygenless blood under the nail. You can also try soaking your toenails in epsom salt. Trust us. If you absolutely have to pull it off yourself, snip it.

When your new nail is growing back, try using a buffer — along with moisturizers — to thin out the new nail since it will likely be thicker than your old one.

If you or someone you know is losing toenails because of running, call or stop by an Urgent Care clinic today for help. People who run a mile or two at a time, and a couple days a week, are less likely to experience them than those who train multiple days of the week, hitting at least a 5K roughly three miles per run, Dr.

Lepow says. In most cases, black toenails from running are not something to worry about, and for some people, it just comes with the miles some runners even consider it a badge of honor to get their first one , but they can be annoying and pretty darn unsightly when flip-flop season rolls around. The repetitive trauma due to the mechanics of running is the most common cause of black toenails in people who run, Jennifer Lucas, M. The official name for this is a subungual hematoma, which pretty much just means a blood blister under the nail, says Dr.

So can running in hot weather; hot temperatures cause your feet to swell, which can increase the pressure in your shoe, says Dr. You might notice a subungual hematoma after your run first as a small black spot, but over the next few days, the discoloration can grow in size, Priya Parthasarathy D.

The drying of the blood can cause your nail plate to separate and loosen, meaning your toenail can actually fall off weeks, or even months, afterward. Your big toe and second toe are most often affected, since they tend to be the longest—and thus more likely to rub up against the sides of your shoes, says Dr.

It's not like the obvious, stop-in-your-tracks pain you feel when you drop something on your foot. Afterward, though, could be another story, due to the pressure of the blood in that blister under the nail.