Toe Fungus Treatment

Onycholysis or nail fungus as it is more commonly known is a common and unsightly infection of the nails most often caused by a fungal infection.

It occurs more often among men than woman and also is more often seen with diabetics and immunocompromised patients. This suggests an immune component to the infection.

Interestingly when you look back in history nail fungus was relatively rare during the 1800s. While other markers of health have definitely improved since that time, the prevalence of  nail fungus has increased, afflicting as many as 35 million people in the United States alone.

This may be more related to our shoe wearing habits today than any other factors. Among the factors that predispose one to getting nail fungus are the following

• Aging

• Perspiration of the feet

• Compromised blood circulation of the feet

• Trauma

• Wearing footwear for extended periods of time

The fungus also propagates in public facilities where people are exposed to others with the fungus such as public shower rooms in gyms, hot tubs, saunas, and public swimming pools.

Toe fungus treatment

Two current effective medical treatments for nail fungus are the oral anti-fungal agents known as Sporonox and Lamisil. They require daily oral dosages for a number of months. The efficacies of these medications vary from 60-80 % with approximately a 15 % rate of reoccurrence.

The drawbacks of oral anti-fungals include the cost and some of the side effects which range from the mild occurrences of  vomiting, nausea,rash,  diarrhea,  dizziness and changes in the sensation of taste. There are more serious side effects that may occur among some patients such as acute hepatic necrosis which is a very extreme side effect and fortunately rather rare.

There are also solutions to treat the thickening of the nails in nail fungus such as Keralac nail gel and Carmol 40.

All of these afore mentioned treatments require a prescription and can be potentially expensive.  These are among some of the best treatments for nail fungus available. The use of light treatment is in the works with trials underway to test the efficacy of these treatments.

What does seem to be true is that none of these treatments offer a guaranteed cure but rather a chance of success.