How to treat fungus
Patients who have fungal infections should use a new towel every time they wipe the affected areas on their body. All cloths which have been in contact with the affected areas should be washed in hot water, preferably with chlorine bleacher. If you have nothing of that kind at home, just boil your laundry in clean water for 10 minutes. If this could not be done due to some reasons, press the dried cloths with hot iron. Women`s elastic pantyhose or stockings, which cannot be bleached or boiled, should be washed in hot water with soap.
Your feet should always stay dry (except when you are taking a shower or bath). After taking a shower, bath or washing your feet, carefully wipe them dry paying special attention to the skin area between toes.
Change your stocks, tights or stockings and air your shoes every day.
Wear cotton made socks, since synthetic materials increase perspiration thereby creating favorable conditions for fungal growth. Though, this advice is unfeasible for most young women who pay a lot of attention to their appearance. We recommend them to change their pantyhose or stockings as frequently as possible (at least once a day) and wash them carefully; also wipe the internal part of your shoes with alcohol-soaked cotton pad.
Foot skin fungal infections could be complicated with toe-nail fungal affection. To protect your toe nails, keep them clean. Do not use metal pedicure files, since it may damage the nail plate thereby creating even more favorable conditions for dwelling of the microscopic parasites.
Sometimes feet fungal infection is accompanied by rash in the inguinal region (genital zone). Remember, that skin rashes in all areas of your body should be treated simultaneously. To avoid getting infection from your feet to the genital zone, put on clean socks before putting on underwear.
So, how to recognize nail fungus?
The first sign that you have fungus infection are yellowish or grayish spots on your nails. They could be round or in a form of stripes. At the expense of the growth of the horny upper layer the nails becomes thick, fluffy, and fragile and crumble easily. In a while, the spots on the nail merge into each other.
The fungal infection on hands looks like this: the process of affection starts from the middle of the nail fold, then moves to the sides and finally spreads on the nail plate. The nail folds become edematic, red and painful, and when pressed, drop of pus may appear from under them. The part of nail plate adjacent to the nail fold grows dim and crumbles.
However, nails could be affected by diseases other than fungus infections as well. In such a case a different treatment is needed. Only your doctor can set a right diagnose to you after examining your nail and skin scrapping under microscope.
Nail fungus
Nails are usually affected with fungus after some other areas of tissues or skin are affected. That is why if a person has a skin fungus infection, contamination of nails should be soon expected.
In patients with epidermophytosis the fungus infection will manifest on toe-nails, with rubromycosis-on both foot and hand nails, with chronic trichophytosis or favus-predominantly on hand nails. Only microsporia causes nail contamination very rarely.