How often do you think I get a question, “Will bleach work for my toenail fungus?” Very often. More often than I’d like it to be.

A quick search on Google will uncover many stories about people treating themselves with bleach and miraculously getting rid of fungus within a week. A typical Toenail Rot Cure recipe would include dipping toes into undiluted bleach for 5 minutes 2-3 times a day for a week or so. Done and over with and no recurrence. Ever!

I’m happy for those who have been cured. Most likely these people (if the story is true to start with) did not suffer from nail fungus (onychomycosis). Bleach just whitened the nail, which could have been discolored for a hundred reasons – other than toenail fungus.

Any nail treatment that actually kills fungus relies on a new nail growing in and replacing the old, infected nail. Provided that the fungal spores and all dermatophyte activity has been eradicated and risks of reinfection from the patient’s immediate environment has been removed the new nail will completely grow our in 10-14 months.

On the other hand, I’ve had quite a few people come into my office with open sores caused by chemical burns on the skin from using undiluted beach that take weeks to months to heal when applied for nail fungus. The risk of all kinds of infections is very high for the people with these sores. I am strongly against the use of any chemicals on the skin, but bleach is arguably the most dangerous one.

Mark Leitner, DPM
Advanced Podiatry Associates
Brandon, FL

The Journal of the American Podiatric Medical Association has selected for publication an article detailing the recently completed second clinical study involving the SteriShoe® ultraviolet shoe sanitizer.

The fact that shoes harbor microorganisms has been well established; the journal article cites three previously published studies to this effect. For this study, Dr. Mahmoud Ghannoum designed a repeatable way to culture shoes and then successfully tested the ability of the SteriShoe ultraviolet shoe sanitizer to decontaminate the shoe.

The study, which involved scraping material from the shoe, showed that the SteriShoe sanitizer destroyed, on average, over 80% of the microorganisms in the shoes. Dr. Ghannoum states “these finding have implications regarding breaking the foot infection cycle.”

Read the rest of this entry »

Wow! Internet is a wonderful thing. Just got a big laugh out of it: beer soak as a homeopathic remedy for nail fungus. Wow!

I have to give these guys a credit for publishing (quite seriously) the most ridiculous treatment method to get rid of a fungal infection.

The article starts out with the standard paragraph about ugly nails and then goes on to an intriguing solution kick-off: “So if you don’t wish to take a prescription medication as recommended by a doctor, what do you do? Fortunately there is another option for folks who prefer the homeopathic approach to medicine.”

The author claims that combining a stout beer (Guiness is the best, of course) with white vinegar and acidophilus you can create a magical medicinal soak right in the comfort of your home!

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Joseph Bikowski, MD
Clinical Assistant Professor of Dermatology at Ohio State University in Columbus, OH.

Image: Filamentous Fungi (Dermatophytes) / MicrobeLibrary.org

Dermatophytoses are prevalent, prompting well over four million physician visits annually in the US.¹ In the general population of the US, data suggest that onychomycosis is most common (23.2 percent of all dermatophytoses), followed by tinea corporis (20.4 percent), tinea pedis (18.8 percent), tinea capitis (15 percent), and tinea cruris (8.4 percent).¹

Reliable recent data for disease prevalence among athletes are not available, though it seems from clinical experience that superficial cutaneous infections—tinea pedis, tinea cruris or “jock itch,” tinea corporis, tinea faciale, and tinea manus—are more common complaints among athletes than is onychomycosis. Read the rest of this entry »

This is just a quick comment to Oils? For Fungus or Salad? published recently by By Mark Leitner, DPM (Advanced Foot & Ankle Specialists / Nail’n'Toe provider in Brandon, FL).

I recently stumbled upon an online article on Fox News where Chris Kilham, the Medicine Hunter and Fox News contributor, talks about plant-based cures available to treat health problems, including toenail fungus.

To treat toenail fungus, Kilham absolutely “swears by tamanu oil, or Calophyllum inophyllum, a tropical nut oil from the Pacific Islands. The anti-fungal properties of the oil have been well-documented in previous studies.”

“Toenail fungus responds rather brilliantly to tamanu oil,” Kilham said. “If you put the oil on the nail, it will get rid of the fungus.”

I wonder how many people actually ran to their local natural foods stores our their computers to learn more about the healing powers of this mysterious plant.

A quick research of the more reputable sources revealed that all parts of the plant ( bark, leaves, seeds) have been used medically as antiseptics, astringents, expectorants, diuretics, and purgatives. The oil possesses some antimicrobial and antiviral activity. Apparently cosmetic industry in Europe likes to add some of this oil into skin care products, such as creams and moisturizers.

Long story short: don’t get any illusions. Tamanu oil may help moisturize the skin on Athlete’s foot, but it’s unlike to cure even a mild case of toenail fungus – the fungal infection residing in the nail bed, the skin UNDER the nail plate. Onychomycosis is a disease that requires medical treatment.

Now, prevention is a different story. Tamanu oil may certainly be added to your preventive regimen – if you have the time and patience to use it daily.

By Richard Miller
Nail’n'Toe Founder Group

Ick! This is the normal reaction to the fungal toenail picture. Most people don’t want their toenails to look like this. The truth is: this is a picture of a moderately severe case. Discoloration, thickness, flaking, peeling… but not too bad!

A dermatophyte is a type of fungus which affects skin, hair and nails. You may be familiar with Digger the Dermatophyte from the horrifying commercial where Digger climbs under a toenail and makes a home with his buddies. But, Digger and the dermatophytes are not the only ones making homes, non-dermatophytes and yeast also can infect the toenails. The fungus causes the nails to first become slightly yellow or white and splotchy.

Later nails will thicken, and become very brittle. The shape begins to change and the discoloring can darken to deep brown. As the fungus worsens, the nails become thicker, more yellow or brown, more brittle (or sometimes much harder) and abnormally shaped.

About 30 million Americans are affected by toenail fungus. That is a lot of fungus! Men are twice as likely to develop fungus than women, athletes, seniors and the elderly are more at risk, those who have poor circulation or sweaty feet are more at risk, those with a compromised immune system are more at risk and those with poor hygiene and chronic foot fungus (athlete’s foot) are more likely to develop toenail fungus.

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Researchers at the Institute for Diabetic Foot Research in New York, studied 49 type II diabetics with distal subungual onychomycosis (DSO – the most common type of toenail fungus). The patients were treated with ciclopirox 8% topical laquer (Penlac®) once daily for 48 weeks.

Results: At the end of the study 63% of the patients achieved clinical improvement, 86% of patients had mycologic improvement and 54% attained a mycologic cure. No serious adverse advents were observed during the trial period.

Summary: This study concludes that Penlac® is a safe and effective treatment for diabetics with mild to moderate toenail fungus. Read the rest of this entry »

Provided by Nail’n'Toe Clearwater, FL
Laser for toenail fungus

Women with toenail fungus have always tried to cover their unsightly nail. One of the more recent trends – acrylic nails. Any pedicure salon can offer the service these days. Looks nice, but…

You actually help fungi grow by enforcing the protective shield, which your natural nail already is. Fungus thrives in moist, dark and poorly ventilated spaces. This is exactly what artificial nails offer!

It’s understandable that the artificial nails is a very tempting option. In the long run, however, it is also one of the worst ones. Consider Nail’n'Toe to get rid of fungus under nails on toes and/or fingers, and when your nail are healthy and fully grown again – get your fancy acrylics on.

Provided by Nail’n'Toe Miami
Laser treatment of nail fungal infections in South Florida

Nail fungus can go undetected for months before signs and symptoms become visible. Look out for these five.

1. Yellowish nails
We all know what healthy toenails look like. If any of your toenails start turning yellow, brown or black, this usually spells trouble and you need to have it diagnosed.

2. A nail is thick, flaky, pitted, crooked and falling apart
If the nail breaks easy and often, or worse, begins lifting at the tip – rest assured, you got it!  Fungi are in the nail bed causing the nail to crumble.

3. There are smelly residue under nail
You’ve waited too long! Byproducts of the thriving fungus have a horrid odor.

4. The nail is slowly but surely turning black
That’s black fungus! Looks bad, but might be easier to treat with laser than a white onychomycosis.

5. Thickened, distorted and lifting nails
It might be too late for the rescue. If the matrix (the root of the nail) is destroyed, even Nail’n'Toe might be helpless. We can try but no guarantees of success.

Provided by Nail’n'Toe Tampa, FL
(Laser treatment of fungus in Tampa Bay Florida)

Here is something that may help as part of the anti-fungal therapy – colloidal silver. Known for many useful properties silver has been used as a home remedy for centuries. It’s not a cheap solution but it may add to the standard Nail’n'Toe treatment protocol, i.e. in between the treatment sessions in doctor’s offices. We have not found any decent studies on it but stumbled upon some anecdotal evidence.