Home treat fungal nails now during Covid-19. The ‘lock-down’ offers a window of opportunity to treat fungal nails(onychomycosis) at home. It could also be a time when you could develop fungal nails. Katrina offers tips and advice on how to treat and prevent. Treating fungal nails takes hard work and patience. Prevention is the best medicine.
Nail fungus is an opportunist. If nails get damaged during daily walks they become susceptible to invading dermaphytes. It doesn’t take long to get an infection, especially if you are sharing close communal spaces with someone who is already infected. You may also be eating too many of the wrong foods, resulting in a gut bacterial imbalance (dysbiosis). A build up of yeast in the body (candidiasis) can be a precursor to getting fungal nails.
If you have been unwell and experienced mild covid-19 symptoms your immune system will have taken a bashing, leaving you susceptible to getting fungal nails as can bein stressed. Being on a long course of antibiotics can lead to gut health issues and weaken the immune system. This can leave you vulnerable to getting an infection.
Prevention
- Avoid wearing nail varnishes.
- Don’t wear shoes too small whereby toes get damaged by micro-trauma
- Keep nails short to avoid micro-trauma
- Don’t over- clean feet. Over- zealous cleaning can make fungal infections worse.
- Don’t use detergent or perfumed foot cleaning products.
- Dry feet well after washing/ showering/ bathing
- Get as much air and ventilation to feet as possible
- Do not slip on another person’s shoes/ slippers to nip into garden!
- Look after your gut health. Keep potential yeast build-up down to a minimum. Avoid white foods like sugar, white flour, pasta, pastry. Wash fruit well.
- Don’t take antibiotics unless necessary
- Take a probiotic, or eat foods that encourage good gut bacteria e.g. apples, kefir
- Keep your infected feet away from others e.g. clean out showers, don’t share towels etc. Self-isolate your feet!
Treatment
It is important to break cycle of infection from skin to nails and nails to skin. Crucial to treat all infective fungal spores.
- Actively treat any Athlete Foot infections with over the counter anti-fungal creams.
- Apply creams for several weeks and change products to reduce resistance issues. Note creams do not treat nail infections
- Treat nails with a specific over-the counter fungal nail treatment
- Try to cut, file diseased/infected nail away
- Disinfect nail file/ nippers after cutting infected nail to reduce spreading infection
- Sanitize footwear to help break cycle of infection
- Throw away old slippers and shoes to get rid of infectious spores
- Wash soaks at 60 degrees or pre-soak in a mild detergent for 5 minutes
- There is some evidence that applying Vicks Vapour rub on nails can help to treat nails if you cannot get to shops
- Diluted Tea Tree oil can help to reduce unwanted microbes on skin
- Ventilate feet as much as possible. NB: fungus loves dark, warm and moist conditions to thrive. Hates UV light.
- Improve gut health as discussed in prevention
The biggest tip for successfully treating nail fungus is to be thorough in approach. It is also important to keep treatment regime going until infected nail grows out. Keep a scrutiny on any signs of new skin or nail infection and treat immediately.
If infection appears to not to be responding to treatment please make an appointment with a fungal nail specialist podiatrist at first opportunity.
