How to recognize toenail fungus

In summer, the beauty of neat legs becomes more relevant than ever. After all, each of us dreams of taking off his shoes on the beach without hesitation, walking around the city in open sandals, choosing in the shoe store those shoe models that you like, and not those that are suitable. Many men admit that well-groomed female legs have their own charm and even sexuality. But how to achieve this beauty if the legs were struck by an insidious fungus of nails?

Everyone knows that getting rid of the fungus is not so simple. Often he lives on the skin for years, accompanying his master all his life. If you decide to get rid of nail fungus once and for all, you need to have an idea about the symptoms of this disease, as well as how to treat it. Onychomycosis (nail fungus) is treated quite difficult. This takes more than one month. If you are offered a magic tool that needs to be applied only once - do not trust this manufacturer or doctor. Fungal spores can live at the base of the nail plate for up to 8-10 months. To completely recover from the fungus, you need to completely change the nail plate twice. This will take more than six months, depending on the speed of nail growth.

Everyone knows that any disease is treated much easier if you notice it at an early stage of development. So is the nail fungus. If you start treatment only with dryness and redness of the skin - everything will pass literally in a month. The more the nail plate is damaged, the longer it will take to achieve full recovery. But what symptoms on nails and skin may indicate early onychomycosis?

How to recognize nail fungus

The early symptoms of onychomycosis are rarely associated with this disease. Often, peeling on the skin is taken for vitamin deficiency, pruritus - for contact allergies. If you find yourself having the following symptoms, you should definitely pay attention to them and visit a dermatologist.

1. At the initial infection, the skin of the feet acquires unusual dryness, peeling appears, especially in the areas between the toes.
2. When the fungus takes root well, itching, redness appears on the affected areas of the skin, cracks can form.
3. If the fungus has passed on to the nails, it means that it has firmly settled on your feet, and it will not be so easy to drive it out. First, the nail changes color or shape, thickens, acquires various grooves. At later stages of infection, the fungus completely destroys the nail plate, it is foliated and crumbles.
4. One of the first signs of nail damage by a fungus can be considered a change in its shape and, as a result, incision into soft tissues.
5. At the last stages of the development of the fungus around the nail plate, inflammation can begin, a rash appears, a sucrose is released, the tissues often bleed.
6. Fungal damage affects the general condition of a person - immunity decreases, apathy, drowsiness, weakness appear.
7. The color of the nail may vary depending on the type of fungus. The nail plate can turn yellow, brown, burgundy and even black. The color intensity can also be completely different, the nail can be bright or cloudy, the fungus can affect the entire plate or only part of it.

It is important to understand that in order to get a nail fungus, it is not enough just to touch an infected object. Fungal spores that enter the skin react with healthy bacteria that live on the skin surface. If a person is healthy and the number of pathogenic fungi is small, beneficial bacteria quickly suppress the enemy, not allowing him to take root in a new territory.If immunity is weak, not able to withstand a pathogenic fungus, infection occurs quickly enough. But how to protect yourself from nail fungus? In what situations is a person at risk?

How to avoid infection with the fungus on the legs

Here are a few cases in which you can get onychomycosis.

1. Bath, sauna, pool. It is very easy to get infected in public places where you have to touch the floor with bare feet. In the pool and sauna, you must wear rubber slippers. In the shower, make sure that water does not drain to your feet from neighboring booths. To protect yourself, after visiting such places, you need to thoroughly wash your feet with hot water and soap, and then disinfect with alcohol or any other antiseptic. Especially carefully treat the area between the fingers - the insidious fungus takes root there. The same should be done after the beach, if you walked barefoot on the sand.
2. Moisture and heat. In order for the spores of the fungus to take root and begin to multiply actively, you need a high temperature (more than 75 degrees) and high humidity. That is why fungi most often appear in people living in the subtropics. However, in the cold strip, the fungus is not a rare visitor, since such conditions appear in warm shoes - high temperature and humidity. To avoid this, you need to ventilate and dry your shoes more often, dress according to the weather, sleep with bare feet, wear only cotton socks and spacious shoes.
3. Infected person. Often, the fungus passes to a healthy person at home, by infection from a sick relative. The use of common hygiene items leads to the fact that all family members can become infected, especially those with low immunity - children, the elderly, pregnant women. To avoid this, you need to wash and disinfect the bath after bathing a person infected with a fungus, do not use common bath stands (especially wooden ones - a lot of bacteria accumulate in them). In no case should you wear and even try on shoes and socks of a sick person, do not forget about slippers. You can become infected with a fungus in the store if your shoes were measured by a person with infected legs. Be sure to wear a sock or stocking while trying on, and treat it with an antiseptic before wearing new shoes.

In addition, it is necessary to raise immunity so that the body is able to withstand various bacteriological infections. To do this, eat right, temper, devote more time to physical activity, be in the fresh air, do not be nervous, get enough sleep.

How to treat a fungus

What to do if you find a nail fungus? The most important thing is not to panic. With sufficient perseverance and an integrated approach, it is quite possible to get rid of the fungus. To do this, the first thing you should consult a doctor. It’s not enough to go to the pharmacy and buy the first drug that comes across. You need to know the type of fungus, identify the pathogen and act precisely. For this, tests are taken, namely, scraping is taken from the affected nail. After that, the doctor prescribes adequate treatment. As a rule, treatment is complex.

With minor lesions of the nail and with skin irritation, local gels and ointments can be dispensed with. If the fungus has affected most of the nail, tablets are usually prescribed to act not only from the outside, but also from the inside. Most of them need to be taken systemically, that is, for a sufficiently long time. In this case, it is necessary to regularly cut off the growing (painful) part of the nail to reduce the risk of re-infection of healthy tissue.

In addition, there are folk remedies for the treatment of nail fungus. To defeat insidious and annoying spores, the nails and the skin around them are treated with iodine, salicylic acid, vinegar, potassium permanganate, tea tree oil, garlic juice and celandine, as well as many other means. To obtain a real result, folk remedies and pharmaceutical preparations should be used regularly and for a long time.

Nail fungus is very insidious. It can hide behind minor changes in the shape or color of the nail, and then appear in front of you in all its glory in the form of a completely destroyed and damaged nail plate. If even one nail is different from the others, if the skin itches and peels, if the nail has ceased to be elastic and transparent - this is an occasion to immediately consult a doctor. Be careful and attentive to your body.

Video: treatment of nail fungus with hydrogen peroxide