Toenail fungus (onychomycosis) is a mass disease that spreads easily in unsanitary conditions, public places, and can also occur from excessive sweating of the feet as a result of wearing poor-quality shoes. If the rules of personal and general hygiene are not followed, onychomycosis quickly affects the toenails, and then one has to undergo long and expensive courses of treatment, which do not always guarantee complete relief from the disease.
How to recognize a fungus
Sometimes a person does not attach importance to the fact that the nail has changed color, structure, become brittle or vice versa thick and hard. Moreover, the primary symptoms of onychomycosis are not obvious, although it is at this stage that treatment can still help to quickly solve the problem.
Treatment should begin immediately if the following symptoms are detected:
- the appearance on the nails of inconspicuous stripes, dots or whitish spots;
- loss of natural shine of the nail and the formation of cloudy, whitish or brownish areas;
- delamination of the nail plate;
- inflammation of the skin adjacent to diseased nails.
Characteristic signs of onychomycosis are itching, burning, dryness and peeling. If at least two or three of these signs are found, it indicates that it is time to start treatment.
Effective traditional medicine
For the treatment of nail fungus, various means are used - from drugs that are freely sold in pharmacies and chemicals to medicinal plants. Often you have to try different methods or combine several of them to achieve a positive result. The main thing with such treatment is not to stop and bring the course to the end, since untreated onychomycosis tends to manifest itself in the form of relapses and lead to the defeat of new, healthy nails.
Available drugs and remedies
Some improvised means that are available in a closet or first aid kit in every apartment are effective antifungal drugs. Such means include ordinary iodine, with constant rubbing of which into the affected nail, you can quickly achieve a complete cure for the disease, but only in the first stages of onychomycosis.
The standard course of treatment with the use of iodine involves the daily use of a 5% solution, which must be rubbed into the nail twice a day (in the morning and before bedtime) for a month. After a few weeks of treatment, you can feel pain on the skin around the diseased nail, but this is not a chemical burn, but a sign of the beginning of the healing process.
An alternative to iodine is a strong solution of potassium permanganate. This remedy, diluted with water in a ratio of 1: 1, is also rubbed into the diseased nail at the same frequency, and after the first week you can see changes for the better.
Hydrogen peroxide is considered a more benign agent: cotton pads soaked in this agent must be applied to sore nails so that such compresses can be easily fixed by putting on a sock. It is necessary to change discs twice a day, provided that you are constantly wearing shoes (for example, at work). This will soften the affected nails, after which the diseased segments and areas are easily removed.
Popular antifungal drugs among the people are soda and propolis, which can be used in many ways.
- Soda. Baking soda is added to a bowl of hot water at the rate of one tablespoon per three liters of boiling water. After steaming the legs in such a liquid for thirty minutes, the nails affected by onychomycosis must be lubricated with celandine essential oil, after wiping the feet dry. It is applied until complete recovery.
- Propolis. 10 grams of propolis is added to one hundred grams of alcohol, the product must be stuffed as tightly as possible under the affected nails after steaming. The tool can also be applied to the surface of the diseased nail, after which a sock is put on the leg or a tight bandage is applied. You can change such a bandage only after a day. Used until complete cure of onychomycosis.
- 20% alcohol solution of propolis. The affected areas of the nail are lubricated daily with the product. Applied for two weeks.
These funds usually give results in 7-10 days after the start of the course. If these methods do not work, you need to try other recipes.
Herbal treatment
Herbs are the safest natural ingredient that, in certain recipes, helps to quickly cure onychomycosis. Most often, a golden mustache is used as such a natural medicine. It is necessary to cut about 50 segments of the plant and insist it on 500 ml of vodka. A week later, the finished infusion is diluted with water in a ratio of 1: 3 and applied to the diseased nail two or three times a day every day until the fungus is completely eliminated.
Common lilac flowers are also anti-fungal if properly prepared. It is enough to pour 10 grams of freshly picked flowers of this plant with one hundred grams of pure alcohol and leave to infuse for two weeks - and the product is ready. It should be applied in the same way as the previous one.
An interesting method that involves not external, but internal use. To prepare such a remedy, you need to take ten grams of the following plants:
- blackberry leaves;
- Oak bark;
- field horsetail;
- calendula flowers;
- verbena.
A mixture of these herbs is poured with a glass of boiling water and boiled over a fire for fifteen minutes. The remedy is taken 4 times a day, one tablespoon.
Other folk remedies
For treatment, you can use birch tar, which can now be purchased at any pharmacy. This tool is used as follows:
- In the evening, the legs are well steamed and rubbed with laundry soap for 15-20 minutes.
- Softened nails should be cut short, paying special attention to the removal of diseased exfoliated areas.
- Nails are thickly smeared with birch tar, which must be left for one and a half to two hours.
- After this time, the feet can be wiped off the tar and washed thoroughly, the procedure is repeated once a week until the nails heal.
Kombucha is effective against onychomycosis. This tool is used for compresses: a tight bandage, gauze or a piece of cloth is impregnated in kombucha, which are superimposed on a sore nail.
To prepare kombucha, you will need three liters of tea and one and a half glasses of sugar. Tea must be poured into a three-liter jar and left in a warm place for several days: during this period, a film forms on the surface of the liquid, which looks like ordinary mold. At this time, sugar is added to the jar, which speeds up the growth process of kombucha. Usually it takes no more than a month and a half to mature.
The entire foot is then rewound with polyethylene: this is an additional factor that deprives the fungus of access to oxygen, which speeds up the process of extermination of the parasite. Warm socks are put on over the polyethylene, and in this form you can go to bed, removing the compress in the morning. The procedure is repeated until complete recovery daily.
If the previous methods did not work, you can try using essential oils. In fact, these cheap drugs are almost exact analogues of expensive antifungal drugs, therefore, in terms of their properties and effectiveness, essential drugs are close to any pharmacy antimycotics.
The advantage of essential oils is that they act in a complex manner, providing an antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, cleansing and regenerating effect, so recovery is quick and painless. Unlike many antifungal creams and gels, which completely destroy the affected nail plate, essential oils cleanse the diseased areas.
You can use such products in different forms, for the preparation of the product, the entire container with essential oil is used completely:
- As a compress: the essential oil must be heated to a temperature of 30 degrees in a water bath, then add a couple of tablespoons of water to dilute the viscosity. Tampons or cloth are impregnated in such oil, which are fixed on the diseased nail for no more than one hour. After removing the compress, you can see that the affected part of the nail has peeled off, but its cleaned main part remains (later it will be covered with a new protective layer).
- For baths: three liters of hot water are poured into a basin and ten drops of essential oil are added. It is enough to hold the legs in a basin for 20-30 minutes, after which they need to be wiped dry and wrapped with a thick towel for a while.
- As an ointment: essential oil is applied in any amount to pre-steamed diseased nails. Subsequently, the oil does not need to be removed; it is necessary to apply such an amount that is completely absorbed into the nail plate (this is revealed empirically).
You can use absolutely any essential oil to your taste:
- tea tree oil;
- ylang-ylang;
- rosemary oil;
- anise oil;
- bitter orange oil;
- basil oil;
- bergamot oil;
- immortelle oil;
- vetiver oil and any others.
The only contraindication in this case may be an allergy to the components of a certain type of oil.
Such recipes are used until complete recovery.
Fungus is a dangerous and common disease that requires immediate treatment. In the absence of adequate measures, such a disease can develop into a chronic form, which is sometimes absolutely impossible to get rid of. Often, experts recommend abandoning the use of folk remedies, but according to statistics, onychomycosis is most often cured with the help of traditional medicine, but to get a positive effect, you need to choose the right recipe that is right for you.