'End of Illness': Hidden Health Cues in Hair, Nails, Feet?

By KIM CAROLLO (@kimcarollo)
Jan. 16, 2012

Can seemingly trivial details such as the length of your fingers and whether you wear high heels actually be important clues about your risk for serious medical conditions?

According to Dr. David Agus, author of the new book "The End of Illness," finger length and shoe type are two potentially important pieces of information people can use to unlock their body's secret code. By learning to interpret the body's signals, Agus says people can prolong their health and live their lives free of illness.

"The end of illness is closer than you might think," Agus, also a professor of medicine at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine, wrote in the introduction to his book. But to achieve that, he continued, people must look at their bodies in a whole new way.

"Medicine today is, 'I treat the individual condition. Your joint hurts, I'll give you something to help the joints.' But I want to figure out why. What in your system allowed that joint to hurt. And I want to change the whole system in a different direction," Agus told ABC News.

In the book, Agus offers much medical advice he believes people should carefully consider, and there are many recommendations on gathering information that may never have seemed important before, such as the color of the fingernails. While patients should not consider these indicators definitive indicators of illness, he said taking note of them may help patients and their doctors determine next steps in terms of diagnostic tests.

"All these tickers, I want all that data put together before you go to your doctor," he said.

Some of the tips, he says, may seem contrary to what the medical establishment has long recommended, but are important because they show how every part of the body plays a role in maintaining good health. For example, he talks about what it could mean if unpolished nails are a certain color or if people notice they are losing hair near their ankles.

Not all agree that these indicators are always relevant. Doctors in preventive medicine who were not involved in writing Agus' book say while some of the advice he offers is thought-provoking, current scientific evidence suggests these risk factors may not be issues upon which people should necessarily focus.

Still, Agus, who has garnered numerous accolades and is widely know as a cutting-edge figure in medicine, said these seemingly minor signs may offer clues to overall health. On the following pages are some of Agus' hidden health indicators he said people need to be aware of, and how medical experts weigh in.

A New Book, "The End of Illness" Discusses a Novel Way of Unlocking the Body's Secret Code to Stay Disease-Free for Life - ABC News