Nail 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 poor quality footwear. If the rules of personal and general hygiene are not observed, onychomycosis quickly affects the nails, then it is necessary to undergo long and expensive treatments, which do not always guarantee complete relief of 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. Also, the main symptoms of onychomycosis are not obvious, 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 stripes, dots or spots;
- loss of natural shine of the nail and formation of cloudy, whitish or brownish areas;
- delamination of the nail plate;
- inflammation of the skin adjacent to diseased nails.
The characteristic signs of onychomycosis are itching, burning, dryness and flaking. 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 freely available drugs in pharmacies, and from chemicals to herbal remedies. It is often necessary to try different methods or to combine several of them to obtain a positive result. The main thing with such treatment is not to stop and end the course, because untreated onychomycosis tends to manifest itself in the form of relapses and lead to the defeat of healthy new nails.
Medicines and remedies available
Some improvised means available in a closet or first aid kit in every apartment are effective antifungal drugs. These remedies include ordinary iodine, with constant rubbing on the affected nail, you can quickly achieve complete recovery from the disease, but only in the early stages of onychomycosis.
Standard treatment with the use of iodine involves the daily use of a 5% solution, which should 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 of the beginning of the healing process.
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 balls soaked in this agent should be applied to painful nails so that such compresses can be easily fixed by putting on 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.
- A 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 legs in such a liquid for thirty minutes, the nails affected by onychomycosis should be lubricated with essential oil of celandine, after wiping the feet. It is applied until complete recovery.
- Propolis. 10 grams of propolis are added to one hundred grams of alcohol, the product should be stuffed 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 recovery from 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 show results within 7-10 days from the start of the course. If these methods do not work, you need to try other recipes.
herbal treatment
Herbs are the safest natural ingredient, which in some recipes helps to cure onychomycosis quickly. Most often, a golden mustache is used as a natural medicine. It is necessary to cut off 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 until the fungus is completely eliminated.
Common lilac flowers are also antifungal if 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 must be applied in the same way as the previous one.
An interesting method that involves not external, but internal use. To prepare such a remedy, you need to take ten grams of the following plants:
- blackberry leaves;
- Oak bark;
- field horsetail;
- calendula flowers;
- verbena.
A mixture of these herbs is poured with a glass of boiling water and boiled over a fire for fifteen minutes. The remedy is taken 4 times a day, one tbsp.
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 rubbed with laundry soap for 15-20 minutes.
- Softened nails should be cut short, paying special attention to the removal of diseased exfoliated areas.
- The nails are coated with a thick layer of 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 for compresses: a tight bandage, gauze or piece of cloth is impregnated with kombucha, which is superimposed on a sore nail.
To prepare kombucha, you will need three liters of tea and one and a half glasses of sugar. 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. Usually it takes no more than a month and a half to ripen.
The entire foot is then rewound with polyethylene: this is an additional factor that deprives the fungus of access to oxygen, which speeds up the process of exterminating the parasite. Warm socks are put on the polyethylene, and in this form you can go to bed, removing the compress in the morning. The procedure is repeated daily until complete recovery.
If the previous methods did not work, you can try using essential oils. In fact, these cheap drugs are almost exact analogues of expensive antifungal drugs. Therefore, in terms of properties and effectiveness, essential drugs are close to all pharmacy antimycotics.
The advantage of essential oils is that they act in a complex way, providing an antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, cleansing and regenerating effect, so that recovery is quick and painless. Unlike many antifungal creams and gels, which completely destroy the affected nail plate, essential oils clean the diseased areas.
You can use these 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 should be heated to a temperature of 30 degrees in a water bath, then add a few tablespoons of water to dilute the viscosity. Swabs or a rag 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 cleaned main part remains (later it will be covered with a new protective layer).
- For the baths: three liters of hot water are poured into a basin and ten drops of essential oil are added. It is enough to hold the legs in a basin for 20-30 minutes, after which they should be wiped dry and wrapped with a thick towel for a while.
- As an ointment: essential oil is applied in any amount to diseased nails that have been previously steamed. Subsequently, the oil does not need to be removed, it is necessary to apply such an amount that it is completely absorbed by the nail plate (this is revealed empirically).
You can use absolutely any essential oil you like:
- 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 a certain type of oil.
These recipes are used until full recovery.
The fungus is a dangerous and common disease that requires immediate treatment. In the absence of adequate measures, such a disease can develop into a chronic form, from which it is sometimes absolutely impossible to get rid of. Often, experts recommend abandoning the use of folk remedies, but according to statistics, onychomycosis is most often cured with the help of traditional medicine, but to achieve a positive effect, you need to choose the right recipethat suits you.