Toenail fungus (onychomycosis) is a mass disease that is easily spread in unsanitary conditions, public places, and can also occur from excessive sweating on the feet as a result of wearing poor quality shoes. If the rules of personal and general hygiene are not observed, onychomycosis quickly affects the toenails, and then a person has to undergo a long and expensive course of treatment, which does not always guarantee complete relief from the disease.
How to recognize fungi
Sometimes a person does not care about the fact that the nails have changed color, structure, become brittle or otherwise thick and hard. Moreover, the main symptoms of onychomycosis are unclear, although at this stage treatment can still help resolve the problem quickly.
Treatment should be started immediately if the following symptoms are detected:
- appearance on the nails of streaks, dots or spots of inconspicuous whiteness;
- loss of natural luster of nails and the formation of cloudy, whitish or brownish areas;
- nail plate delamination;
- inflammation of the skin adjacent to the diseased nail.
The characteristic signs of onychomycosis are itching, burning, dryness and flaking. If at least two or three of these signs are found, this indicates that it is time to start treatment.
Effective traditional medicine
For the treatment of nail fungus, a variety of methods are used - from drugs sold independently in pharmacies and chemicals to medicinal plants. Often you have to try different methods or combine several methods to achieve a positive result. The main thing with such treatment is not to stop and bring the course to an end, because untreated onychomycosis tends to manifest itself in the form of relapses and leads to the defeat of new and healthy nails.
Medications and medications available
Some of the improvisational means found in closets or first aid kits in every apartment are effective antifungal medications. These medications include regular iodine, by constantly rubbing 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 nails 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 of the beginning of the healing process.
An alternative to iodine is a strong solution of potassium permanganate. This medicine, 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 the 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 are easily repaired by wearing socks. It is necessary to change the disc twice a day, provided you always wear shoes (for example, at work). This will soften the affected nail, after which the diseased segments and areas are easily removed.
Popular antifungal medications among the public 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 feet in such a liquid for thirty minutes, the nails affected by onychomycosis must be lubricated with the essential oil of celandine, after wiping the feet dry. It is used until complete recovery.
- Propolis. 10 grams of propolis added to one hundred grams of alcohol, the product must be stuffed as tightly as possible under the affected nail after steaming. The tool can also be applied to the surface of diseased nails, after which a sock is placed on the foot 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 nail area is rubbed daily with the product. Requested for two weeks.
These funds usually give results within 7-10 days after the start of the course. If this method is not effective, you need to try another recipe.
Herbal treatment
Herbs are the safest natural ingredients that, in certain recipes, help cure onychomycosis quickly. Often, golden mustache is used as a natural remedy. It should 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 on diseased nails two or three times a day every day until the fungus is completely eliminated.
Common purple flowers are also anti-fungal if prepared properly. It is enough to pour 10 grams of freshly picked flowers of this plant with a hundred grams of pure alcohol and leave for two weeks - and the product is ready. It should be used in the same way as before.
An interesting method that does not involve external use, but internal. To prepare such a remedy, you need to take ten grams of the following plants:
- blackberry leaves;
- Oak bark;
- the tail of a wild horse;
- calendula flowers;
- verbena.
This herb mixture is poured with a glass of boiling water and boiled on the fire for fifteen minutes. The drug 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 feet 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 exfoliating areas.
- Nails are rubbed thickly with birch tar, which must be left for one and a half to two hours.
- After this time, the feet can be wiped from 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 to compress: a tight bandage, gauze or a piece of cloth soaked in kombucha, which is superimposed on the sore nail.
To prepare kombucha, you need three liters of tea and one and a half cups 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 is formed on the surface of the liquid, which looks like a normal mold. At this time, sugar is added to the jar, which speeds up the growth process of kombucha. Usually it takes no more than one and a half months to mature.
The whole leg is then re -rolled with polyethylene: this is an additional factor that prevents the fungus access to oxygen, which speeds up the process of parasite destruction. Warm socks are placed on polyethylene, and in this form you can go to bed, removing the compress in the morning. This procedure is repeated until complete recovery each day.
If the previous method is not effective, you can try using essential oils. In fact, these inexpensive drugs are almost exact analogues of expensive antifungal drugs, therefore, in terms of their nature and effectiveness, the drug is essential to almost any pharmaceutical antimycotic.
The advantage of essential oils is that they act in a complex way, providing antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, cleansing and regenerating effects, so recovery is quick and painless. Unlike many antifungal creams and gels, which completely destroy the affected nail plate, essential oils cleanse the diseased area.
You can use the product in different forms, for the preparation of the product, the whole container with essential oils is used in full:
- As a compressor: the essential oil must be heated to a temperature of 30 degrees in a water bath, then add a few tablespoons of water to dilute the viscosity. Tampons or cloths soaked in such oil, which are applied to the diseased nail for not more than an hour. After removing the compress, you can see that the affected part of the nail has peeled off, but the main part of it that was cleaned remains (then it will be covered with a new protective layer).
- For the bath: three liters of hot water are poured into the basin and ten drops of essential oil are added. It is enough to hold the feet in the basin for 20-30 minutes, after which they need to be wiped dry and wrapped in a thick towel for a while.
- As an ointment: essential oils are applied in any amount on pre-steamed diseased nails. After that, the oil does not need to be removed, it is necessary to use such an amount that is fully absorbed into the nail plate (this is revealed empirically).
You can use any essential oil according to your taste:
- tea tree oil;
- ylang-ylang;
- rosemary oil;
- anise oil;
- bitter orange oil;
- basil oil;
- bergamot oil;
- immortelle oil;
- vetiver oil and others.
The only contraindication in this case may be an allergy to the components of certain types of oils.
Such recipes are used until complete recovery.
Fungus is a dangerous and common disease that needs immediate treatment. In the absence of adequate measures, such diseases can develop into a chronic form, which is sometimes very impossible to get rid of. Often, experts recommend to abandon 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.