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You'll need to click on each photo, to enlarge it, of course.I found a couple of old photos from over 4 and 5 years ago, taken after I had been in remission for a couple of years, and my nails were already well on their way to recovery, also. I believe I posted at least some of these on the board, at the time, to show the arthritis damage to the fingers of my right hand, due to years of untreated gluten-sensitivity. These first two photos are from 3/15/2006. I wish I had photos from when they were at their worst, but if you click on the photos, to enlarge them, and strain your eyes, you can still see vertical lines on at least a couple of the nails:
This photo is from 08/02/2007. Note how much better the nails are after an additional 17 months of healing. Obviously, they were no longer brittle at this point, and those are the hands of a farmer, not the hands of an office worker, so they are used to hard conditions. Actually, I took that photo to show someone that I was so busy that I hadn't had time to trim my nails, (the photo was taken during harvest time). Note that my fingers were/are not actually as short, fat, and stubby as they appear in this photo. That distortion is apparently caused by the camera angle and wide angle lens. Also, note that I do not manicure my nails - all I ever do is to clip them. They never see a file, or anything else of that sort, so please allow for that in your critique.
Here's a current photo:
OK, in this last image, note the bulge on the right side of the distal interphalangeal joint of the index finger on my right hand. Compare this with the first photos - obviously that bulge wasn't there on the earlier photos. Note also, how the distal phalange has decided to make a left turn, and it is also now twisted slightly clockwise, to match the distal distortion of the second finger. You can see that the nail on that index finger is oriented correctly on the first photo, but on the 2007 photo, it has already headed slightly left, but no swelling is obvious.
My doc says this is due to osteoarthritis, and nothing to be concerned about. 
Only three fingers on the right hand are affected, as you can see - the left hand is unaffected.IMO, the initial damage was due to gluten, and the current damage is due to casein. I can't tell by avoiding casein and then challenging my immune system, whether or not I'm sensitive to casein, (because I have no other symptoms, and trying to gauge by monitoring osteoarthritis symptoms is like trying to watch a tree grow - it takes forever), so I'm back eating casein again, in preparation for an Enterolab test.
One other observation that I consider interesting, but can't necessarily connect - I've had two TIA-like events, where my right hand became numb, and the paresthesia progressed up my arm to my shoulder, and then the right side of my face became numb, from right down the middle of my nose and tongue, over to my ear - nothing else was affected, and there was no significant loss of strength or motion. The routine was exactly the same, both times. Why is it always the right side that's affected, including the osteoarthritis? I have a hunch that it has something to do with gluten damage, but of course, I can't prove anything.
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