Readers Write About Toenail Fungus
Home remedies for toenail fungus
Onychomycosis (toenail fungus) can be
caused by many different fungi, and many other
conditions like a psoriatic nail and paronychia
can look so much like it that dermatologists
still need to have a lab workup done. What was
the causal agent, if any, of the wife's
onychomycosis (toenail fungus) that was relieved
with vinegar? How can anyone possibly give
universal medical advice based on one person's
kitchen experiments with the application of 19th
century hygiene principles to an (I strongly
suspect) undiagnosed condition?
Mercurochrome contains mercury and is banned in
the US. All sorts of these common home
disinfectants were tested against fungal skin
and nail infections in the 1910's to 1950's and
the only one that stood out as somewhat
effective was Whitfield's ointment, with the
active ingredient benzoic acid. But even it
doesn't stand up to scientific comparison as a
serious onychomycosis (toenail fungus) remedy.
The common fungi causing dermatophyte
onychomycosis are too deeply seated in the nail
to be affected by materials applied to the
surface (unless the materials are combined with
chemical nail softeners under occlusion).
Mercurochrome is commonly used in developing
countries to treat fungal ear canal infestation
(otomycosis), but there the fungus is right at
the surface. Mercurochrome can't even penetrate
to kill the endospores within spore-forming
bacteria.
Toenail fungus isn't life-threatening but
casual treatment recommendations based on
anecdotes are no more helpful here than they are
in any other disease. No doubt carrot juice and
staying optimistic cured somebody's wife's
cancer somewhere, but there's a serious ethical
problem with extending this observation into a
general prescription. Yes, any individual could
make a novel observation -- but there's nothing
novel about applying vinegar, iodine, garlic,
lemon peel, oregano, etc. against fungal
skin infections. It's been done. Tea tree oil
is still being investigated but results are
mixed (for references go to Entrez PubMed
website and search on keywords: tea tree oil
onychomycosis (or toenail fungus). Also: tea
tree oil tinea. Also: tea tree oil dermatophyte).
Keywords for the otomycosis statement above are
otomycosis mercurochrome.
Summerbell 18:32, 26 September 2006
Remember, Wikipedia does not exist to provide
medical or health advice. For medically oriented
articles such as this one the focus of the
article is etiology and the popular treatments,
peer reviewed scientifically proven treatments
as well as popular folk remedies. Even if these
folk remedies are totally useless or even
counter productive and dangerous. This provides
those reading the article a good overview of all
the available "treatments," and more importantly
the place of the disease within our society as a
whole. Besides anyone reading Wikipedia as their
sole source of diagnoses and treatment
information has greater problems. 9 October
2007
What is the life cycle of toenail fungus?
Mercurochrome cured it for me. Unfortunately,
this probably counts as original research. --
ProveIt 4 January 2006
Anyone interested in a picture for this
article?
I could get one. The question is, would anyone
really want to see it?
The article lacks a good quality image, go for
it. Pgr 21 October 2006
Vinegar
My wife had an infection and cured it by soaking
the infected toe for 30 minutes in vinegar every
day for 3 months. She would keep the nail as
trimmed as possible the whole time. Don't cause
your body stress with something like Lamisil.
Save your money and health.
FDA Topical Antifungal Monograph
I wanted to add something on the FDA OTC Topical
Antifungal Monograph, but all I could find were
some very general bits of info on the FDA
website. I also haven't been able to find
anything on the FDA's 1994 ruling that said that
no OTC anti-fungal product was effective on
nails, and required the wording "this product is
not effective on scalp or nails" on all OTC
anti-fungal products (even if they were still
allowed to use trademarks such as Fungi-Nail!).
The closest I could find was this DOC file
Comparison of Labeling for All Topical
Antifungals Treating Athlete’s Foot. Can anyone
provide better information? BlankVerse 29
August 2006
Ineffectiveness of Tea-tree oil -
evidence?
Tea tree oil is a known antifungal. The topical
application of high levels is a verified remedy
for some dermatophytic skin infections although
not for onychomycosis (toenail fungus), where
the fungus is often too deeply nested in dense
subsurface nail tissue to be full expunged by
topically applied materials of any kind.
The article that is referenced does not say that
tea-tree oil doesn't work because the fungus is
too deep subsurface. This needs more evidence or
is WP:OR. 13 June 2007
Removal of passage
The section related to
tea tree oil was
removed from the 'natural remedies' section via
this edit by User:Was this removal in accordance
with consensus? --User:Ceyockey 1 July 2007
I think it was because of the WP:OR reference
to the fungus being too deep to be treated by
Tea tree oil. If you want to put it back in and
either find a source for this claim or remove it
feel free. Personally I tried treating my
fungus militantly with Tea tree oil, with four
treatments a day. During this period the
fungus, which had been advancing, went into
remission in all my nails, but the fungus under
a few toe nails was persistent. I eventually
stopped treatment and the fungus has not
returned in any nails, but has grown back in the
nails where it was still present. 9 October 2007
Here is a summary of this topic from a 2002
article in the Journal of Antimicrobial
Chemotherapy:
Based on both its inhibitory and fungicidal
action, tea tree oil may be a useful
agent for treating dermatophyte infections.
However, exactly how this in vitro activity
translates into in vivo effectiveness is
unclear.
[... summary of two clinical trials ...]
Given that onychomycosis (toenail fungus) rarely
responds to topical therapy and is therefore
usually treated systemically, it is perhaps not
surprising that the topical application of tea
tree oil was of limited effectiveness in these
two clinical trials. This emphasizes the need
for more clinical trial data, particularly in
relation to tinea pedis, which can often be
treated successfully topically.
So it seems there is little-to-no evidence to
support the claim either way. Furthermore, given
topical treatments don't really work for toenail
fungus, there are grounds for believing tea-tree
oil won't work either. Pgr 94 9 October 2007
Crocodile Oil
Crocodile Oil: There is something amazing in the
crocodile’s immune system, there are strings of
peptides that were only discovered very recently
in the last eight or nine years and they are a
powerful mechanism for fighting bacteria and
fungal infections. Repcillin Crocodile Skin Balm
is made in South Africa and uses the fat from
CITES approved Crocodile farms in Africa.
Is this verifiable? WP:V Pgr94 26 June 2007
This completely unverifiable: the only sources
discussing Crocodile Oil are those selling it,
usually trying to blind with pseudo-science. For
more on this see the discussion for Crocodile
Oil Almost-instinct 19 April 2008
Wanted: images for each type of onychomycosis
(toenail fungi)
There are different types of onychomycosis. It
would be good to get images of each type. For
example see Pgr94 18 September 2007
Different types of toenail fungus will
look mostly the same, be somewhat misleading (as
for the most part, this is not a tool used to
diagnose the type of fungus... and may be
somewhat trivial to categorize. Certainly
additional fungi photos of a general nature are
always of value. —Preceding unsigned comment
added by Spamwatch (talk • contribs) 13 November
2007
Vinegar passage removed. As no
evidence has been found for vinegar since Feb.
2007, I have removed it.
Distilled white vinegar. Drops are
applied to the cuticle twice a day. This method
does not kill the fungus, but the vinegar
allegedly changes the pH (acid content) of the
new nail formed in that 12-hour period. (The
scientific perspective, however, is that vinegar
is unlikely to penetrate the dense keratinous
tissue thoroughly enough to have any significant
effect. Instead, it may be absorbed by the skin
above the nail and work its way to where the
nail is actually forming.) As the old, infected
nail grows and is cut away, it is said to be
replaced by an acidic nail, uninhabitable by
fungi. Several months of consistent application
are involved. 29 November 2007
I went to a podiatrist who told me to soak my
foot in white vinegar for three months but I
won’t see the results for one year. June 1 2009.
—Preceding unsigned comment added 13 May 2009
Fungus location
If someone with access to good sources could
examine these issues and possibly amend the
article it would be appreciated.
The fungus "infects" the nail. Could this
be clarified as to whether fungus is growing
under and around the nail, or within the
material of the nail itself?
Also the difficulty of treatment seems to be
because of the difficulty of getting the
treating agent to the best location. Is drilling
holes in, or filing of, the toenail a workable
option?
Thanks, Wanderer57 30 March 2008
Recent reviews (Aug 2008)
Short of time right now so this a note to self,
or anyone who else wants to follow recent
developments. see reviews PubMed and PubMed...
check differential diagnosis of psoriatic
nails. 20 October 2008
Listerine and vinegar
I've had severe toenail fungus for just over
forty years. It started when I lived in the
tropics.
At this writing, the fungus is completely
expelled in two nails, is almost done being
expelled in four others, and halfway gone in the
big toes. Two were already clear.
How? I soak the toes in 50% Listerine, 50% white
vinegar, for 30-45 minutes every night. I
started about four months ago. I didn't make
this up - a Google search for "Listerine toenail
fungus" finds many testimonials, and occasional
discussions of the method of operation. It seems
that the fungi can't handle eucalyptol and
thymol, plus the other assorted toxins that make
Listerine lethal when a lot is swallowed.
Not sure if a photo of the half-clear big toes
would be helpful. — Preceding unsigned comment
added by MoonDJ 31 July 2010
Undiluted Bleach
On recommendation from my GP, using a cotton
swab, applying a single drop of undiluted bleach
twice a day underneath my toenail is rapidly
removing the fungus. Half of the nail bed has
recovered in 6 months. Application is quick and
there seems to be no tissue damage. If
considered, use caution though... RudiBosbouer
14 January 2011
The above info originated from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toenail_fungus
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