Fungal toe-nail infection - about time I did something about this! Can it cause other issues?

Hi,

I have seen many threads on this condition 'Fungal infection on nail' here on patient, hope you find your answers on some of these threads. (sorry if it seems that I am stating the obvious)

best wishes

Thanks for the reply. I have posted this in the right section haven't I? (I clicked on "Fungal Infection Of Nail" forum, hoping it is appearing there)

No ideas?

Hi, I have come on here as after years of trying I am finally free of toenail infections.

For years I was using the paint on varnish but my doctor said we don't precribe that anymore as it does not work (clearly) Very expensive and useless.

He prescibed me Terbinafine 250mg. one a day for 6 months.

Then I went to Boots and got some Tea tree oil, it's £4 and last for weeks. Cut you toenail as short as you can then put a drop of oil on all your nails morning and night. The shorter you cut the nail, the better.

After 12 weeks my nail is perfect, but I am still taking the Terbinafine to complete the 6 months course.

I never thought I would get rid of the infection as it's been ten years. My nails look perfectly normal and healthy now so good luck :-D

(Angiebrighton 28 February 2012 at 11:28AM)

Apparently there are lots of things you can use to clear up fungal infections of the nails, tea tree oil as already mentioned but one other is URINE! Some people swear by drinking it but the majority have said that soaking their feet in it every day works too. You'll find lots of websites with instrutions on what to do. Oh, by the way, it's best to use your own urine rather than someone elses!!

if you soaK in original Listurine mouth wash 15 minutes a day it will be gone within 3 months For mild fungusand no stinky fungus feet, yay!

Alex please try the original Listerine, it work i swear by it...give it 3 months.

I've had toenail fungus for some 30+ years. I'm an avid swimmer and probably picked it up in one of many many pools that I trained in. I know I'm sensitive to athletes foot. Two days after swimming in a new pool or training in a new club I know if they keep the property clean or not. If not I get athletes foot which luckily can be cured in few days by 2% miconazole nitrate powder.

The fungus (Onychomycosis) started with one toe and over some 30 years slowly expanded to all but 3 toes. It spreads extremely slowly so it's surprising these three toes are still OK. Tried everything including antifungal medication. I stopped the medication after a month because I preferred yellow toes over kidney and other potential side effects. Tried everything from Vicks to Listerine and tea tree oil. Basically its all crap.

Some of them may have worked in the long run (I doubt it) but it is awfully hard to continue treatment every day for over a year if you don't see any progress. Anyone claiming you can get rid of toenail fungus in less than 6 months is selling you crap. The fungus is located in the nail and whatever you put on the nail isn't going to kill it. The only way to eliminate it is to either pull the nail or have the fungus grow out with the nail, which takes a year or more (1 mm per month). I had my big toenail removed and applied antifungal cream for multiple months, but both the nail and the fungus grew back.

Last year I dumbly wondered why, if I'm so sensitive to this nail fungus, it did not spread to my hands. Obvious conclusion is that your fingers are in the light every day and your toes aren't.

Applying massive amounts of high powered light, such as in laser therapy, could therefore be the solution. However, I did not plan to spend £1000+ on such treatment and also do not believe a 'handful' of laser treatments would completely eliminate the fungus. If you want to do it right these treatments need to be continued for several months. I do consider (sun)light the solution to the problem but not the high powered laserlight approach. So I started wearing slippers for one month last summer and noticed significant improvement: a thin 'moon slice' piece of nail became visible at the base.

Initially felt a little bad about my yellow nails but I noticed that, in practice, nobody looks at your toes so. After summer I decided to continue the light approach so I bought an inexpensive UV nail polish dryer (around £30). One of those white boxes in which you can fit the front part of your foot. It has four 9 Watt blue UV lights. Checked multiple health articles on-line and found they only use part of the UV spectrum with (almost) zero risk to mess up your DNA which could cause cancer. Studies state that you may have increased cancer risk if you use it for 250 years or so. If you really want to minimize risk you can cover all but the fungus toes with SPF 50 sunscreen. I stationed the dryer under my desk at home and use it 30 minutes a day, 3-4 days a week, while I'm working at my PC. I started with short intervals to see what happened and noticed a slight tan starts to become visible if you use it well over an hour per day, so no sunburn risk.

It's now four months later and all new nail growth is without fungus. Now that the base of the nails are clear it is also much easier for the light to pass through and prevent new fungus growth. I'm about half way on my big toenail so some more months to get rid of it completely. Of course I also keep the nails very clean and very short to eliminate as much of the fungus. Key item for this solution to work is that you have 30 or more minutes available a few times a week for this remedy. Working on the PC allows me to put one foot in the UV dryer for 10-15 minutes and then the other one. Since the dryer is under the desk the blueish light doesn't bother me. So for some £35 and a minor amount of effort I'm getting rid of this fungus. Whenever it's feasible I wear slippers or sandals. Given the very slow spreading of this fungus I'll probably OK for the next 10-20 years. Good luck!

Hi Dorothy. Depends on what you define as 'completely cleared the infection'. If, after being yellow and messy for 10+ years, the bottom half of several toenails are completely free of fungus I consider the therapy a success. We're not talking about short term success because it has already taken 6 months for the bottom part of the nails to become clear of the fungus. Clearing the remainder is just a matter of time and perseverance. They may never become 100% free and I don't really care about that since I know it will be easy and inexpensive to keep the fungus under control.

Of course I have before/after pics and don't mind waiting another six months to post this again. Reason for posting is the observation that it is the lack of sunlight that supports the fungus. Since it is not very comfortable in our part of the world to walk barefoot all year a little help from a moderate UV source is all one needs. So even if putting all kinds of oily and/or agressive fluids on your toes may reduce the fungus, the chance that it will return is high because of the lack of sunlight.

My reason for posting on this site rather than others is that 99% of all socalled anti-fungus websites have been created to sell something, while all one actually needs is a bit of common sense and a moderate amount sunlight. What works for your hands also works for your feet.

Last but not least: Don't forget to follow Madonna's very good advice to Dave Letterman in a Late Show in 1994: Whenever you're in the shower don't forget to pee over your toenails. You can look up the fragment on internet. Cheers.

I had a bad reaction to the oral medication for fungal nail infection and stopped taking it. There are several "varnishes" that can be prescribed or bought over the counter that worked for me. Why not ask your doctor to give you a prescription for that instead and give it a whirl. Keep taking your thyroid medication and getting your thyroid hormone levels checked. My daughter was diagnosed under active years ago and her doctor has prescribed anti depressants a couple of times incorrectly as he wasn't keeping a close watch on all three test results. It turned out her "depression" was actually due to her thyroid medication not being correctly adjusted. It took a private consultation before we got her any proper treatment. She us fine now and knows what to ask for if things go wrong again.