Do you suffer from nail fungus?

Nail fungus is a common condition that begins as a white or yellow spot under the tip of your fingernail or more often in toenail. As the fungal infection goes deeper, it may cause your nail to get discolored, thicken and crumbled at the edge. It can affect several nails but usually not all of them.

If your condition is mild and does not bother you, you may not need treatment. If it is painful and has caused your nails to thicken, self-care steps and medications may help. But even if treatment is successful, nail fungus often comes back.

Nail fungus is also called onychomycosis (on-ih-koh-my-KOH-sis) or tinea unguium. When fungus infects the areas between your toes and the skin of your feet, it’s called athlete’s foot or tinea pedis.

Characteristics of infection due to onychomycosis are as follows:

• Thickened nails
• Brittle, crumbly or ragged nails
• Nail shape distorted
• Nails dull in colour with no shine
• As time passes the nails get dark due to debris building up under your nail

Infected nails also may get separated from the nail bed - a condition called onycholysis (on-ih-KOL-ih-sis). You may feel pain in your toes or fingertips and detect a slightly foul odour.

Nail fungal infections are typically caused by a dermatophyte fungus. Yeasts and molds also can be responsible for nail fungal infections.

Fungi are microscopic organisms that do not need sunlight to survive. Some fungi have beneficial uses. Others cause illness and infection.

Fungi:

• Live in warm, moist environments, including swimming pools

• Can invade your skin through tiny cuts that cannot be seen with unaided eyes sometimes visible small opening between your nail and nail bed

• Can cause problems, if your nails are often exposed to warm and moist conditions

Your doctor may prescribe an oral antifungal drug. Three of the more popular drugs help a new nail growth without infection, slowly replacing the infected part. You typically take this type of drug for six to 12 weeks. But you will not see the end result of the treatment until the nail grows back completely. It may take four months or longer to eliminate an infection. Treatment success rates with these drugs appear to be lower in adults over the age of 65. And treatment success seems to improve when you combine oral and topical antifungal therapies.

Oral antifungal drugs may cause side effects ranging from skin rash to liver damage. You may need occasional blood tests to check on how you are doing with these types of drugs. Doctors may not recommend them for people with liver disease or congestive heart failure or those taking certain medications.

Trim and thin the nails. This helps reduce pain by reducing pressure on the nails. Also, if you do this before applying an antifungal, the drug can reach deeper layers of the nail.

Before trimming or using a nail file to thin the thickened nails, soften them. You can do this with the following nightly routine: Apply urea cream to affected nails, cover them with a bandage, and wash off the urea with soap and water in the morning. Repeat until the nails soften. Protect the skin around your nails with petroleum jelly

If you have a condition that causes poor blood flow to your feet and you cannot trim your nails, see a health care provider regularly to have your nails trimmed.

Home treatment

There are some remedies to get rid of the nail fungus at home.

Mix equal parts of apple cider vinegar or common vinegar and water, soak your toe nail in it for 30 minutes, dry your toe nails thoroughly and do this daily for a week. Another treatment is—mix a few drops of garlic extract with one tea spoon of olive oil and turmeric powder, apply it on the infected toe for 10 minutes and gently scrub it.

-Prepared by J K Anuradha De Silva Faculty of Science University of Colombo