Toenail fungus (onychomycosis) is a mass disease that spreads easily in unsanitary conditions, public places, and can also occur due to excessive sweating of the feet due to the use of poor quality shoes. If you do not follow the rules of personal and general hygiene, nail fungus quickly affects the toenails and therefore you have to undergo long and expensive treatments, which do not always guarantee complete relief from the disease.
How to recognize a mushroom
Sometimes a person does not attach importance to the fact that the nail has changed color, structure, has become brittle or vice versa thick and hard. Additionally, the primary symptoms of onychomycosis are not evident, although it is at this stage that treatment can still help resolve the problem quickly.
Treatment should begin immediately if the following symptoms are detected:
- the appearance on the nails of inconspicuous whitish streaks, spots or spots;
- loss of the natural luster of the nail and the formation of cloudy, whitish or brownish areas;
- delamination of the nail plate;
- inflammation of the skin adjacent to the diseased nails.
The characteristic signs of onychomycosis are itching, burning, dryness and peeling. If at least two or three of these signs are detected, it indicates that it is time to start treatment.
Effective traditional medicine
For the treatment of nail fungus, various means are used: from drugs sold free in pharmacies and chemicals to medicinal plants. Often you have to try several methods or combine several to get a positive result. The main thing with such treatment is not to stop and bring the course to an end, since untreated onychomycosis tends to manifest itself in the form of relapses and lead to the defeat of new and healthy nails.
Medicines and remedies available
Some improvised means that are available in a closet or first aid kit in any apartment are effective antifungal drugs. These remedies include ordinary iodine, with the constant rubbing of which in the affected nail, you can quickly get a complete cure for the disease, but only in the early 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 may feel pain on the skin around the diseased nail, but this is not a chemical burn, but a sign that the healing process has begun.
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 with 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 should be applied to sore nails so that such compresses can be easily repaired by wearing a sock. It is necessary to change the discs twice a day, provided that you constantly wear shoes (for example at work). This will soften the affected nails, after which the diseased segments and areas will be easily removed.
Popular antifungal drugs among people are soda and propolis, which can be used in many ways.
- Drink. 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 this liquid for thirty minutes, nails affected by onychomycosis should be lubricated with celandine essential oil, after drying the feet. It is applied until complete recovery.
- Propolis. 10 grams of propolis is added to one hundred grams of alcohol, the product should be filled 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 healing of onychomycosis.
- 20% alcoholic 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 don't work, you need to try other recipes.
Herbal treatment
Herbs are the safest natural ingredient that, in some recipes, helps to quickly cure nail fungus. Most often, golden mustaches are used as such a natural medicine. It is necessary to cut about 50 segments of the plant and insist 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 blossoms are also antifungals when 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 an external use, but an internal one. To prepare such a remedy, you need to take ten grams of the following plants:
- blackberry leaves;
- oak bark;
- field horsetail;
- marigold flowers;
- verbena.
A mixture of these herbs is poured with a glass of boiling water and boiled on the stove 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 scrubbed with laundry soap for 15-20 minutes.
- Softened nails should be cut short, paying special attention to removing diseased exfoliated areas.
- The nails are densely smeared with birch tar, which must be left for an hour and a half or two.
- After this time, the feet can be removed from the tar and washed thoroughly, the procedure is repeated once a week until the nails heal.
Kombucha is effective against nail fungus. This tool is used for compresses: a tight bandage, gauze or piece of cloth is impregnated with kombucha, which are superimposed on a sore nail.
To make kombucha, you will need three liters of tea and one and a half glasses of sugar. The tea should be poured into a three-liter jar and left in a warm place for several days: during this time, 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 kombucha growth process. It usually doesn't take 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 accelerates the extermination process of the parasite. Warm socks are worn on top of polyethylene, and in this form you can go to bed, removing the compress in the morning. The procedure is repeated until full recovery every day.
If the previous methods didn't work, you can try using essential oils. Indeed, these cheap drugs are almost exact analogues of expensive antifungal drugs, therefore, in terms of properties and effectiveness, essential drugs are close to any pharmacy antifungal.
The advantage of essential oils is that they act in a complex way, 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.
It is possible to 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 with such oil, which are fixed on the diseased nail for no more than an hour. After removing the compress, you can see that the affected part of the nail has peeled off, but its clean main part remains (later it will be covered with a new protective layer).
- For the baths: pour three liters of hot water into a basin and add ten drops of essential oil. It is enough to keep the legs in a basin for 20-30 minutes, after which they need to be dried and wrapped for a while with a thick towel.
- As an ointment: essential oil is applied in any quantity on pre-cooked sick nails. After that, it is not necessary to remove the oil, it is necessary to apply such an amount that it 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;
- immortal oil;
- vetiver oil and 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 full recovery.
Fungus is a dangerous and common disease that requires immediate treatment. In the absence of adequate measures, such a disease can turn 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 often treated with the help of traditional medicine, but in order to achieve a positive effect, you need to choose the right recipe that suits you.