Foot fungus is one of those things in life when you wonder : will I ever see the end of it ? Is there really a cure out there for it ?
I decided to take upon me the grand task of figuring it out. As you guessed by now, I myself have this annoying “disease”. I’ve been scratching my toes now for a few years.
I wanted to share with you the experience, even though it’s a bit embarrassing for me. I thought it would be a good subject for the Alternative Medicine College Blog.
We’re trying hard here at the AMCC to get close to our students and website visitors. What better way to get acquainted that to share our feet problems ? Well, it’s not technically sharing since I’ll be the one talking about my problem and you’ll read about it, without telling me your side of the story.
But if you really insist on sharing, feel free to email me yael@cmdq.com. Maybe you’ll get into my next Foot Fungus Follow-Up Post. I plan on making this a 3-part blog posts. We’ll cover important topics such as :
Why does it scratch like crazy ?
First of all, let’s look into the history of it all.
Doctors tell us that because toes are often warm and damp, fungus grows well there. That’s true. I usually keep my feet covered (at least outside the house) so it makes sense. Although half the time (when I’m home sleeping or walking around), it’s neither warm nor damp down there. Am I supposed to leave my toes out all day for everyone to see ? Now it’s too late anyway because they don’t look so good anymore…
Why me ?
We are told by doctors that usually fungal nail infection, as they call it, is more common in older adults (as opposed to younger adults, or older children ?)
The fact is that my 3-year old son also has it. I assume it comes from taking showers more often than his other siblings. Since I didn’t dry between his tiny toes after shower time, the foot fungus grew. He also wears socks during the day, with shoes. I guess since he’s a child he could get away with walking barefoot all day. Not sure how the school will like that.
What do I do now ?
Here are the recommanded treatment steps:
- Dry your feet after washing them, particularly between your toes – dab them dry rather than rubbing them. Uh, I don’t dab, I rub. I’m no angel : who can resist rubbing ? Plus, it takes a real long time to dab until it’s really dry, I don’t have all day to take care of 10 toes ! Have you ever tried dabbing or even drying the feet of small children ? My 3 years-old starts laughing and moving all around because it’s tickling him. So I send him on the porch and hope the sun will dry his toes (and in between them as well).
- Use a separate towel for your feet and wash it regularly. I’m a mother of 3 small children. One of them also needs a separate towel + my husband who also has the fantastic fungus + me. That’s 3 towels only for each of our pair of feet. I only have so many hooks in the bathroom.
- Take your shoes off when at home. For my son, that’s fine, he can walk aroung in socks (are socks ok ?). For my husband, forget it, I tried to get him used to slippers, he’s a shoe kind-of guy. I like slippers, but does it count as a shoe that I have to take off ?
- Wear clean socks every day – cotton socks are best. This sounds fine for my boys. I wear stockings. Clean stockings. I don’t know what stockings are made of.
All of this is fine and dandy but it’s not going to help me get rid of it.
Is there a magic cream out there ?
Foot fungus, also called athlete’s foot, can be treated with a cream. But beware ! Then it comes back – with a vengeance ! They call it topical antifungal medications which is a fancy name for “you paid too much for that cream and now you’re stuck with fungus on your feet again” ! It’s true that when applied, it’s not itching anymore. Is there something that can really help ?
In the next part of this 3-part blog posts (unless I get cured before !), we’ll deal with natural ways of killing the athlete’s foot fungus. I should stop being such an athlete, for one. Take more time with my family instead of running around competing with other athletes. Get my priorities straight. Or I could have a look at our Orthomolecular Approaches course. Maybe you read it and remember what it says about fungus feet?
