What is Nail Fungus infection?
A not so fun topic to start with on the home page, huh? However, this site will just be about nail fungus remedies and treatment which is unfortunately not such a fun topic :(.
Like I mentioned in my about page, my pinky toe (a.k.a baby toe) has been bothering me for the last 6 years. And yes, it was diagnosed by my dermatologist as toenail fungus.
Nail Fungus is a bad group of living organisms (fungi) that grows in the area under your hand nails or toenails. The fungi cause the nails to become (usually) yellow, brittle and flaky.
Scientific Name
The scientific name for this type of fungal infection is Onychomycosis. I actually had a hard time pronouncing this. It’s supposed to be pronounced ONI-KO-MY-KOSIS. I thought I will never remember this word but you know… once you get all those prescriptions and you start reading those over and over again, this word gets stuck in your head forever. The other less commonly used word but used interchangeably is Tinea Unguium (pronounced as TINIA-UN-GOOYAM).
Symptoms of Nail Fungus
The important thing to be aware of is that Nail fungus can start very slowly. Here are some good examples of different types of symptoms :
- It can start at one end of the nail looking yellowish in color.
- Slow thickening of the nail
- Sometimes it starts with bluish colors at the end of your toenail.
- Sometimes small amounts of your nail start falling off as a powdery substance.
- Sometimes you can see through the nails and see your skin under the nails.
- Small pores begin to show up on your nails.
See Also :
Causes of Nail Fungus
Actually, there are many reasons this can happen. Most of this depends on your demographics and the kind of lifestyle and diet you have.
For example, this can happen if you are always wearing tightfitting shoes with socks, which happened to me and I didn’t let my feet breathe.
Here are causes for older people:
If you are older than 60 years, unless you are in tip-top shape, your heart will start to weaken and blood circulation to your toes and fingernails will reduce. This leads to weaker and slower growing nails (and also affects hair health for that matter). When your nails are weak, it will have a hard time fighting off those bad groups of living organisms – Fungi (I talked about earlier in the article). When you are older you also get other issues like diabetes and weakened immune systems because of the medications you are taking or because of other conditions. These also contribute to nail fungus infections.
Here are other possible causes :
- Tight-fitting Shoes
- Exposure to unnecessary moisture or water ( in gyms, showers, community pools, your backyard or garden with stagnant water, etc.
- Immune deficiencies or disorders
- Triggered by Psoriasis
- Triggered by Athlete’s foot
- You automatically sweat more in hands and feet
- Tiny cuts or small gaps between nail and nail bed which allows easy entry of pathogens that cause nail fungus infection
Diagnosis
Self Diagnosis of Toenails: The idea is to look for specific appearances.
The thickness of at least one of your toenails is different from the other nails. They also become whitish sometimes and crumbly like chalk. If you find one of your nails become harder to cut because of it suddenly becoming thick or crumbly then that’s a strong sign.
Discoloration can range from a hue of different colors like white, yellow, orange tinge to brown. It could affect areas of one toenail or all of the toenail. Discoloration could also show up as just white spots or dull white spots which could start spreading of the middle of the nails to the outer side of the nails
Treatment
I am mostly covering topical solutions here on the website. Currently, we would like to just recommend two products to make your lives easier.
We got these Kerasal toe fungus reviews here and we have consumers who have given before and after Kerasal usage information here.