Nail fungus (onychomycosis) is a common disease that can spread easily in unsanitary conditions, in public places, as well as as a result of excessive sweating of the feet as a result of wearing poor quality shoes. When personal and general hygiene rules are not followed, onychomycosis quickly affects the toenails and then has to undergo long and expensive courses of treatment, which does not always guarantee complete recovery from the disease.
How to recognize a mushroom
Sometimes a person does not care whether the nail changes color, structure, is brittle or, conversely, thick and hard. Moreover, the main symptoms of onychomycosis are not clear, although treatment at this stage can still help solve the problem quickly.
Treatment should begin immediately if the following symptoms occur:
- appearance of invisible streaks, dots or whitish spots on the nails;
- loss of natural shine of the nail and the formation of cloudy, whitish or brown areas;
- delamination of the nail plate;
- Inflammation of the skin adjacent to the diseased nails.
Characteristic symptoms of onychomycosis are itching, burning, dryness and peeling. If at least two or three of these symptoms are found, it is time to start treatment.
Effective traditional medicine
Various remedies are used to treat nail fungus - from medicines sold in pharmacies and chemicals to herbs. Often you have to try different methods or combine several to get a positive result. The main thing with such treatment is not to stop and end the course, because untreated onychomycosis manifests itself in the form of relapses and leads to the defeat of new, healthy nails.
Available medicines and tools
Some improvised remedies available in a closet or first aid kit in every home are effective antifungal medications. These remedies include regular iodine, by constantly rubbing it on the affected nail, you can quickly get a complete cure of the disease, but only in the early stages of onychomycosis.
The standard course of treatment with iodine involves the daily use of 5% solution, which should be applied to the nail twice a day (morning and at bedtime) for a month. After a few weeks of treatment, the patient may feel pain in the skin around the nail, but this is not a chemical burn, but a sign of the beginning of the healing process.
Yoda is a strong solution of alternative potassium permanganate. Diluted 1: 1 with water, this tool is rubbed on the diseased nail at the same frequency, and after the first week you can see the changes for the better.
Hydrogen peroxide is a more unpleasant agent: cotton pads soaked in this agent should be applied to painful nails so that such compresses can be easily fastened by wearing socks. Discs should be changed twice a day, provided that you always wear shoes (for example, at work). This will soften the affected nails, after which the diseased segments and areas are easily removed.
Popular antifungal drugs are soda and propolis, which can be used in many ways.
- soda. Baking soda is added to a pot of hot water at the rate of one tablespoon to three liters of boiling water. After steaming the feet in such a liquid for thirty minutes, the nails affected by onychomycosis should be lubricated with celandine essential oil after wiping the dried feet. Apply until fully restored.
- Propolis. One hundred grams of alcohol is added to 10 grams of propolis, the product should be filled as tightly as possible under the affected nails after evaporation. The tool can also be applied to the surface of the patient's nail, 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. It is used until complete recovery of onychomycosis.
- 20% alcohol solution of propolis. The affected areas of the nails are lubricated daily with the product. It is applied for two weeks.
These funds usually give results 7-10 days after the start of the course. If these methods do not help, you should try other recipes.
Herbal treatment
Herbs are the safest natural ingredient in certain recipes that can help treat onychomycosis quickly. Golden mustache is often used as such a natural remedy. It is necessary to cut about 50 segments of the plant and insist in 500 ml of vodka. After a week, the finished infusion is diluted 1: 3 with water and applied to the diseased nail two or three times a day until the fungus is completely gone.
Ordinary lilac flowers are also anti-fungal if properly prepared. It is enough to pour 10 grams of freshly picked flowers of this plant with a 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 internal use, not external. To prepare such a tool, you need to take ten grams of the following herbs:
- blackberry leaves;
- Oak bark;
- wild ponytail;
- calendula flowers;
- verbena.
The mixture of these herbs is poured into a glass of boiling water and boiled on the fire for fifteen minutes. The remedy is taken 4 times a day, one tablespoon.
Other folk remedies
For treatment, you can now use maple tar, which can 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 areas.
- The nails are thickly lubricated with maple resin and should be left for an hour and a half to two hours.
- After this period, the feet can be wiped clean 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 soaked in kombucha, put on a painful nail.
To prepare kombucha, you need three liters of tea and a half cup of sugar. The tea should be poured into a three-liter jar and left in a warm place for several days: during this time on the surface of the liquid forms a film that looks like ordinary mold. In this case, sugar is added to the jar, which accelerates the growth of kombucha. It usually takes no more than a month and a half to mature.
Then the whole foot is re-wrapped with polyethylene: this is an additional factor that deprives the fungus of access to oxygen, which accelerates the process of destruction of the parasite. Warm socks are placed on the polyethylene, and in this form you can take off the morning compress and go to bed. The procedure is repeated every day until complete recovery.
If the previous methods do not work, you can try to use essential oils. In fact, these cheap drugs are almost exact analogues of expensive antifungal drugs, so in terms of properties and effectiveness, the main drugs are close to any pharmacy antifungals.
The advantage of essential oils is that they act in a complex way, have antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, cleansing and restorative effects, so recovery is quick and painless. Unlike many antifungal creams and gels that completely destroy the affected nail plate, essential oils cleanse diseased areas.
You can use such products in different forms, the whole container with essential oil is used for the preparation of the product:
- As a compress: the essential oil should be heated to 30 degrees in a water bath, then add a few tablespoons of water to dilute the viscosity. Tampons or cloths are soaked in this type of oil, which is fixed to the patient's nail for no more than an hour. After removing the compress, you can see that the affected part of the nail is peeled off, but the cleaned main part remains (it will be covered with a new protective layer later).
- For baths: pour three liters of warm water and add ten drops of essential oil. It is enough to keep the feet in a basin for 20-30 minutes, after which they should be wiped dry and wrapped in a thick towel for a while.
- As an ointment: any amount of essential oil is applied to pre-evaporated diseased nails. It is not necessary to remove the oil later, it is necessary to apply such an amount completely absorbed on the nail plate (this is found empirically).
You can use absolutely any essential oil to your taste:
- tea tree oil;
- ilanq-ilanq;
- rosemary oil;
- anise oil;
- bitter orange oil;
- basil oil;
- bergamot oil;
- immortelle oil;
- vetiver oil and others.
In this case, the only contraindication may be an allergy to the components of a particular 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, sometimes completely impossible to cure. Experts often advise against the use of folk remedies, but according to statistics, onychomycosis is treated with the help of most traditional medicine, but to get a positive effect, you need to choose the right prescription that suits you.