Foot and nail fungus is an infectious disease caused by various types of fungi.Infection occurs quickly, and treatment of the disease takes months, sometimes years.Therapy for the disease is prescribed by the doctor after determining the type of fungal pathogen.Onychomycosis and mycosis often accompany each other, because the infection spreads from the nails to the skin of the foot or vice versa.
The causes, symptoms and treatment of fungus is a hot topic that many are interested in.The prevalence of the disease is high, the disease affects young, elderly people, and children.The disease can be treated if the drug regimen is correctly determined.Therefore, you need to know how pathology develops and how you can heal from it.

What is onychomycosis and mycosis, causes and symptoms
Mycosis is the general name for an infection; onychomycosis is an infection of the nail plate.To treat foot and nail fungus, drugs from the same groups are used.This applies to tablets, topical agents, and injection solutions.For successful therapy, the rules for using each medicine must be followed exactly.There should be no interruptions in treatment, since fungal colonies multiply at an accelerated pace without the influence of medications, and there are as many of them as there were before the start of the procedures.
The reasons for the appearance of fungus are the same:
- Infection from a sick person in public places, swimming pools, baths, and reservoirs.
- Using someone else's or uncomfortable shoes or contaminated hygiene items.
- Failure to follow rules for keeping feet dry.
- Untimely treatment of sweating.
- Traumatic damage to the skin of the feet and nail corneas.
- Incorrect use of medications, in particular antibiotics.
Doctors include disturbances in the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract, metabolic processes, hormonal disruptions, pathologies of blood flow in the vessels of the extremities, diabetes mellitus and obesity as systemic causes of fungal infections.
Symptoms of foot and nail fungus are difficult to ignore because they cause a lot of discomfort.Among them, the most common are:
- itching of the skin on the feet, between the toes;
- peeling of the dermis;
- the appearance of wounds and other damage;
- nails lose their healthy color, become discolored, then turn gray;
- the plate thickens, takes on a loose appearance, and crumbles;
- the deformation continues until the cornea is destroyed and infection enters the nail bed.
Symptoms increase gradually, but itching begins from the first days of introduction of the pathogen.
This is important!Medicines for foot and nail fungus should be used immediately when signs of the disease appear.Delay in therapy makes it difficult to treat and causes dangerous consequences, including damage to internal organs.
Mycosis of the skin and nails has age-related characteristics - onychomycosis in children occurs in rare cases; adults suffer from it.Foot fungus occurs in all age groups.
What you need to know about the principles of treating the disease
For complete recovery from a fungal infection, the patient must tune in to long-term treatment, which must be carried out after diagnosis and as prescribed by a doctor.Pharmacies sell a lot of antifungal drugs, but choosing them yourself without consulting a dermatologist or infectious disease specialist means wasting your money and harming your health.
For some people, treating foot fungus with an ointment is effective, others need to combine the use of external and oral medications, and in case of a serious stage and developed complications, injections are prescribed in combination with other methods.
Expert advice.The main requirement of complex therapy is the use of effective multifunctional drugs for the treatment of foot and nail fungus and the prevention of the disease.Since the viability of the spores contributes to the recurrence of the disease.
Prevention can be carried out by disinfecting shoes with chloramine or formaldehyde.The mushrooms die after half an hour of exposure to these substances.
About the types of antifungal drugs
Pharmacy has developed categories of drugs for topical use, which are sold in pharmacies and are available to customers without prescriptions.These include:
- creams, ointments, gels;
- solutions, serums;
- sprays, varnishes;
- plasters.
They have a general effect, have a minimum of side effects, and can be used by adults and children.The key to a successful fight against mycosis is regular use and adherence to the procedure.After a visit to the doctor, you will know the procedure for manipulation, how many times to apply the medicine, in what quantity, and you will achieve recovery from the disease.Typically, healing with local remedies occurs within 4-6 months.
If the infection is advanced, then local treatment of the fungus on the nail plates is irrelevant.A combination is required - external medications plus tablets.It is carried out under the supervision of a doctor, as it has significant side effects.
About creams, ointments and solutions
How to treat foot and nail fungus, what topical preparations, according to reviews from users and specialists, effectively deal with colonies of microorganisms?The following list will help answer this question.
- A salicylic acid-based cream at a budget price, which is applied 3-4 times a day to the affected areas of the skin and cornea.If you do the procedure at night, wait until the product is absorbed, then put on socks.
- Ointment containing undecic acid.The application mode is the same as in the first case.
- Formaldehyde for sweaty feet, which kills microorganisms that cause the spread of infection.Available in solution form.
- Boric acid + resorcinol - used as a means to remove nails affected by fungus, containing boric acid, which has antiseptic and drying properties.Apply to the skin in places where there is a fungal infection.The drug is used as a component of complex therapy for the disease.
Specialized products for removing affected nails
In order for the cornea to come off painlessly, specially designed preparations are used.

According to the characteristics of doctors, a drug based on urea, isopropyl alcohol, and polyvinyl alcohol is not a medicine for the treatment of fungal infections.With its help, you can remove the affected plate without resorting to surgical methods.This alternative allows you to eliminate the diseased nail at home.
This effective drug promotes convergence of the cornea and restoration of the bed.It is saturated with stearic acid, propylene glycol, urea, triethanols, tea tree oil.The procedure is performed as follows:
- the nail is steamed in a bath with the addition of a softening agent made from water, soda and soap;
- solution concentration - 1 tsp per liter of water.components;
- the foot is dried with a towel, then the nail fold is protected with a bandage;
- The product is applied in a generous layer without getting on the surrounding tissues, and covered with a bandage on top.
After 4 days, the bandage is removed, the remains of the plate are scraped off.If it was not possible to remove the plate at one time, the manipulations are repeated.
Another drug acts in the same way as the previous drug, but its composition is different - it contains the components PEG-40 hydrogenated castor oil, urea, beeswax and emulsion wax, glycerin;acid components - salicylic, stearic, as well as methylisothiazolinone, propylene glycol, mint, lavender, and other esters.
How to treat onychomycosis with varnishes

Anti-fungal nail polish is the most common product that can be used under cosmetic coatings.The advantage is concealment of the defect with simultaneous treatment, no negative impact on the body.In this way it is recommended to get rid of the initial stages of the disease.Well-known brands of varnish medicinal products are:
- Amorolfine.The principle of healing is to destroy the membrane of fungal cells.Apply twice a week.
- Rye enzyme filtrate - in the form of serum, perfectly saturates the diseased tissue of the plate to the very bed.You can use it more often than varnish and do the procedures on a daily basis, which speeds up the healing process.
The duration of varnish therapy is up to a year.Then you can use the products as a preventive measure.
Good to know!External medications and varnishes will not help with complicated forms of mycosis.A comprehensive treatment algorithm is effective against advanced fungus.
Pills
Treatment of foot and nail fungus with drugs in tablet form is indicated for the third stage of the disease, the appearance of complications, and the infection penetrating the mucous membranes and other organs.The condition for using the ointment plus tablet complex is the development of inflammatory processes and bacterial infection against the background of fungal colonies.
A group of antimiotics is considered to be effective inexpensive drugs for the treatment of fungus.These are effective remedies, but you cannot buy them without a prescription because they have side effects.Therefore, you should agree on a treatment regimen with your doctor.
- Fluconazole.A topical remedy for combating mycosis of the feet and nails at different stages.
- Ketoconazole is sold in every pharmacy without a prescription and is intended to eliminate infections on the skin.
- Preparations with itraconazole are high-price drugs that act against mycosis on the feet, nails, and fungus on the mucous membranes.
- Preparations with terbinafine are remedies for advanced fungus; they contain the active ingredient terbinafine (in the form of tablets or ointments), which kill many types of colonies, destroying fungi at the cellular level.
Common topical medications
An effective remedy for foot and nail fungus is salicylic ointment, which relieves inflammation and itching, alleviating the patient’s condition.In the same row is sulfur ointment - it counteracts the spread of infection; both ointments cost a penny, but perfectly eliminate the symptoms of foot disease.
Castellani's liquid permeates the cornea tissue on damaged nails and kills colonies of the pathogen.Use with caution; if it comes in contact with the skin, it causes burns.
Antifungal drops and sprays help fight the disease.
Clotrimazole is used for infections that have affected the skin of the feet and penetration of the infection into the mucous membranes.Available in the form of cream, ointment, suppositories.
It is allowed to treat a fungal infection with the veterinary drug Creolin.It is used to treat infected areas, and after a while the product is washed off.It has an unpleasant odor, but acts against colonies of fungi, mites and other microorganisms.
The easiest way is to treat diseased areas with iodine.Its antiseptic property is known to everyone; the solution kills harmful microorganisms, including being effective against fungal spores.
How to treat with home remedies
You already know how to treat foot and nail fungus, what medications are sold in pharmacies.Against the disease, baths based on oils, propolis, decoctions, infusions, and other components prepared independently are used as additional methods.
Oil therapy
A good effect of reducing the risk of developing an infection that you have just contracted is the use of natural oils.Make a mixture of equal parts tea tree oil and lavender.Add two parts of olive oil to the mixture, lubricate the nails and affected areas of the feet with the resulting product overnight.

Foot baths
- Lemon juice plus Listerine, apple cider vinegar.Mix all ingredients in equal parts and add to bath water.Concentration per 1 liter is three spoons of the composition.A daily procedure lasting 15 minutes will help speed up the treatment process and restore the cells of the dermis and cornea.
- Soda baths are prepared according to the recipe: one tablespoon of soda plus 20 g of shaved laundry soap.Keep your feet in the bath for 40 minutes, during which time the solution penetrates the skin cells of the foot and the nail plate.
- Pink potassium permanganate baths.The duration of the procedure is 20 minutes.
- Salt plus vinegar in a concentration of 100 g + 4 spoons per 4 liters of water.Salt can be table salt or sea salt.
- Hydrogen peroxide 3% - applied for 2 minutes, then a paste of water plus peroxide is applied to the nail, which is washed off after the hissing stops.
Folk remedies
They are effective in relieving symptoms of itching, irritation on the skin of the feet, as well as around the sore nail.Provide treatment support with pharmaceutical products.Independent folk treatment, without medication, is not effective against mycosis.
To eliminate the risk of spreading infection, celandine juice is used.Lubricate problem areas, do not wash off the product.It is allowed to do several such manipulations per day.
Wrap cut garlic on the affected area, keep it on the nail overnight, and on the skin for 10 minutes.
Rub kombucha, melted propolis, or oak bark infusion into problem areas.
To restore skin tissue and nail plates, make baths from decoctions of medicinal herbs.To do this, use chamomile, thyme, nettle, calendula.
Conclusion.A wide range of pharmaceutical drugs, the ability to combine treatment with local, oral, and folk remedies helps to ensure that mycosis of the feet and nails is completely cured.This is a long process, so be patient and learn how to properly use the tips presented in the article.If you listen to the recommendations, the unpleasant problem will be eliminated.
















