I'm one of those folk who pretty much ignores the standard footcare information for diabetics. The bottom line for me is that I have other, overriding footcare concerns.

Without going into the sordid details, health reasons require me to choose my shoes for support, rather than fashion, and to wear extremely ugly compression hose almost any time I'm on my feet. The end result is that I'm not particularly interested in having pedicure-pretty feet when those feet will rarely be publicly displayed. I'm more interested in being able to walk comfortably.

To the general public, my hands are of significantly more interest. We shake hands, type with our hands, gesture with our hands, and use them to display our social status (wedding bands, anyone? school or society rings?) For the past six years, those hands have been mercilessly unmanicured and unpainted. While so far it's only been a minor issue, it could become a matter of life and death.

Most of us learned back in high school that one of the signs of a heart attack, or heart disease, is discolored fingers -- fingertips that don't get enough circulating blood turn blueish, or eventually, blackish. Since women don't usually exhibit the typical "heart attack" syndrome, and since diabetes makes us all more susceptible to cardiovascular disease, a medic's ability to view finger discoloration could be the key sign that alerts him (or her) to the fact that one of us is having a cardiac incident. Scarred and over-pricked fingerpads may suggest diabetes, but the reddish-brown lancet tracks can disguise that blueishness. Unpainted fingernails don't lie.

I also have some thermoregulation issues. The short version is, I can go borderline hypothermic at indoor temperatures that should be comfortably cool (or perhaps mildly-uncomfortably-cool) with a couple of sweaters. One of the more visible signs of this is -- you guessed it -- discolored fingertips. Being able to say, "it's so cold in here that my fingertips have turned black", and display the same to a boss, landlord, or maintenance worker, has at times made the difference between being able to work and being paralyzed by the cold.

In the end, not polishing my fingernails, not wearing artificial nails, and not wearing artificial nail tips, has not only saved me time and money, but also improves my overall health and comfort. If throwing fingernail enhancements in that coffin keeps us out of it... why not?