Foot skin diseases are a very common pathology. Pathogenic bacteria cause disease and it is passed from person to person. Often the sufferer does not know whether the skin fungus on the legs is how to treat it and whether it can be removed at home with folk remedies. There are many ways to get rid of the signs of mycosis with the help of special medicines and old recipes.
What is a leg skin fungus
An infectious disease that affects the skin is called a fungus. The most common type is mycosis of the feet. Fungal spores are able to live for a long time in ordinary shoes and adapt to any living conditions. The most common infections are nail platinum of the legs and feet. Skin lesions do not pose a threat to life, but contribute to the development of cosmetic defects. If foot mycosis is not treated early on, other microbes later join in the form of mold bacteria or Candida fungi.
Symptoms of the disease
Treatment of skin fungus on the legs should begin immediately after the first symptoms appear, otherwise the disease will carry on for a long time. Mycosis is characterized by peeling of the skin. This is due to the fact that the microbe penetrates deep into the layers of the skin, destroying them. Spots are formed on the nails (onychomycosis), small bubbles appear between the fingers (intertriginous form), which fill with liquid and burst, the sole becomes covered with calluses (hyperkeratotic appearance). Reproduction of fungi in any layer of the epidermis is accompanied by an unpleasant smell and the following symptoms:
- burning, itching, accompanied by dry skin;
- floury exfoliation;
- nails darken, thicken, exfoliate;
- erosive processes develop in areas of redness.
Foot fungus treatment
Before using an antifungal agent, it is necessary to consult a doctor, since the pathology must be treated, depending on the type of pathogen and the duration of the course of the disease. In advanced forms, mycosis of the feet is difficult to treat. How to get rid of foot fungus:
- localization of the disease by local therapy at an early stage: ointments, creams, solutions, compresses, baths, disinfection of shoes;
- systemic therapy at a later stage - the use of drugs.
Systemic drugs are used in several ways:
- Classic. Tablets are taken during the course every day.
- Short. You can stop taking medication before a healthy nail grows back.
- intermittent. Therapy, which is performed in several courses at intervals of equal duration to the course.
- Wrist therapy. Taking pills is combined with breaks that exceed the duration of the course.
In the advanced stage of the disease, the use of antifungal drugs is necessary. Systemic antifungals are selected on an individual basis, as these medicines have contraindications. When the first unpleasant symptoms appear, it is necessary to scrape the nail plate for onychomycosis and visit a dermatologist to make the correct diagnosis and prescribe drugs for external and / or internal effects on the body. The most effective include:
Antifungal ointments
Many people have a question - skin fungus on the legs - what can be treated if the infection has manifested itself only in the upper layers of the skin. In pharmacies today it is easy to find various antifungal ointments that differ in mode of action and composition. The following local preparations quickly treat foot flexion at an early stage:
- Zinc ointment. It has a good absorbent and astringent effect. It copes well with skin irritations and mycosis. It is applied 1-2 times a day to the lesion site and the surrounding area. The duration of therapy is 2-3 weeks.
- Sulfuric ointment. An excellent remedy to treat foot mycosis. Within a week of daily use, you can get rid of the disease. Sulfuric ointment has one drawback - it has an unpleasant smell. When buying this fact must be taken into consideration.
Treatment of fungus on the legs at home can also be carried out with antifungal creams, which differ from ointments only in the substances that make up their composition.
To speed up the healing process, in addition to the main therapy, it is necessary to treat the fungus with the help of special antifungal paints. They differ from drugs with a similar action in a special texture. Antifungal varnishes are liquid and are applied directly to the platinum nail. The agent easily enters the microcracks, maximally hitting the fungus. This is practical, as ointments and creams have a thick consistency, so they are easily removed at the slightest impact.
After applying the drug, the pathogens of mycosis die after 8 hours. You can use the remedy under decorative paints 1-2 times a week - this does not reduce their effectiveness. The duration of treatment is until the complete disappearance of onychomycosis. List of the most popular antifungal paints:
With mycosis of the legs, baths with baking soda should be done every day, preferably before bedtime. The procedure should take at least 15 minutes. Baking soda is a substance that negatively affects the vital activity of a fungal infection, so it is part of many remedies that help with athlete's foot. To treat the fungus, hot water with a comfortable temperature of 40 C-45 C. is needed. Soda is diluted in a proportion of 2 tbsp. spoons per 2 liters of water.
Before the procedure, wash your feet thoroughly with laundry soap and remove the keratinized layer with pumice stone or sandpaper. You also need to process the nails, cutting off the free edge of the nail and removing as much of the white plaque under it as possible with a nail file. After the procedure, the legs should be thoroughly wiped with a towel, without rinsing, and then treated with an antifungal agent prescribed by a dermatologist.
Folk remedies
The most effective folk remedy for foot fungus is vinegar. It creates an acidic environment that prevents the spread of yeast bacteria. Due to exposure to vinegar at home, the pathogen quickly loses access to sources of nutrition and dies. It is best to apply applications immediately after baths. To do this, a cotton swab is moistened in a 9% acetic solution and applied to the area affected by the fungus for 15 minutes.
Another effective folk remedy against Candida fungus is the external use of hydrogen peroxide. First, it is recommended to take a bath with a soda solution, then soak a cotton ball with a 3% peroxide solution and apply it to the affected area of the skin, putting on clean socks. It is necessary to keep the application up to 60 minutes 2 times a day until complete recovery.
Prevention
To recognize the problem in time, you should know what the fungus looks like. To do this, it is best to ask this question in advance by looking at photos on the Internet. So you need to follow the advice of dermatologists, what you need to do in order not to get infected with foot fungus:
- after visiting the beach, swimming pool and other public places, you should thoroughly wash your feet;
- with sweaty feet the risk of getting mold develops, so you need to stop wearing closed socks and shoes for a long time;
- in order not to get infected with pathogenic microflora, it is not necessary to provide other personal hygiene items, clothes or shoes;
- you should regularly take care of your toes: do a pedicure, trim overgrown nails.
How to treat skin fungus on the legs
Find out how to treat leg skin fungus, because this is a contagious disease that can reach the nails. The fungus not only looks ugly, but also harms health. This condition cannot be started, it is urgent to take measures for treatment.
What is recommended to treat leg skin fungus
For the treatment of ringworm fungus, it is necessary to clean the skin with iodine. With severe inflammation, it is advisable to do lotions.
In addition to all this, it is desirable to use vitamins, especially ascorbic acid.
It is better to choose vitamins for the treatment period, as the body needs support.
If the skin is affected by the Candida fungus, creams based on corticosteroids, hydrocortisone will be needed.
Symptoms of this pathology
Most often, the fungus on the skin appears in older people, after the age of 50. But we must not forget that the disease is contagious, so even the new generations can have this disease if they do not respect certain rules.
Some signs of skin fungus include:
With a lesion, the first signs are visible in the area between the fingers. It is from there that the fungus grows throughout the leg. Often it also covers the nails. Foot fungus usually affects both feet. If the form is acute, bubbles appear, which then deteriorate, wounds appear.
Redness is observed on the skin, it becomes very dense. Also, there is an unpleasant foot smell, not just after wearing shoes. The legs seem to start to burn and when walking the pain increases. The skin can be flaky, there is severe dryness.
The fungus spreads in the following way. Redness appears on a small area of the skin. Over time, it begins to peel off and the affected area spreads.
At the initial stage, a person is practically not worried about anything, only about the appearance. Then there are already painful sensations. The fungus spreads fairly quickly.
Complex treatment of the disease
Treatment of skin fungus on the legs should be carried out not only by applying funds directly to the affected areas, but also by taking drugs inside.
To choose a drug, first of all, you need to consult a doctor. When treatment begins, it is desirable to exclude other drugs. During the treatment period, the doctor should check the patient's condition and perform skin scrapings regularly to determine how the treatment is going.
The full course of treatment lasts at least three months. First, the first phase of the treatment, lasting one week. After that, a break is made for two weeks, after which the treatment is resumed.
This is necessary to avoid relapses. They happen often, especially if the immune system is not strengthened. When it becomes weaker, the first signs of fungus appear immediately on the skin.
It is necessary to combine the treatment. In the morning it is advisable to use the ointment, and in the evening to take the drug inside. You can use both creams and solutions several times a day.
Apply the product with rubbing movements. If after two weeks there is no noticeable improvement, stronger drugs are prescribed. Any movement should be careful, because it is very easy to damage such skin.
Proven pills for mushrooms
For all types of mushrooms, a strong drug is prescribed. Take the tablet once and only after meals. It quickly penetrates the body and immediately begins the fight against infections.
The main thing when taking pills is not to increase the amount yourself. This will help avoid overdose and side effects. Tablets are best combined with ointments or gels. A pill rarely achieves the desired effect.
Drops and solutions
Drops are very effective in the fight against fungi. First, they destroy infected cells, after which they protect unaffected ones. In addition to removing the cause of the infection, the drops remove inflammation and itching.
Drops are best used as an additional element of treatment. Fungus is a serious disease that cannot be cured with a remedy. The drops will work best in the initial stage, when the development of the fungus is not too extensive.
Choose the best folk remedy
Sometimes drugs cannot improve the condition.
In such cases, you can resort to proven folk methods:
- Coffee. This drink is useful not only for internal use, but also as a tincture for baths. Strong insoluble coffee should be poured with hot water and the feet should be soaked in this remedy. Coffee relieves pain and inflammation, removes overgrown layers of the skin. It will also help perfectly after recovery to restore the condition of the epidermis.
- Wine vinegar. This tool is an excellent antiseptic and a tool in the fight against bacteria. At night, you can use the following method. Clean woolen socks need to be kept for half an hour in vinegar, squeezed well, then put on their feet and covered with a blanket. Carrying out this procedure at night, in the morning you can notice a visible effect.
- Juices. The skin affected by the fungus can be cleaned with gauze soaked in lemon or onion juice. These remedies may initially cause a burning sensation, but after a couple of minutes it will pass. Due to this, the number of bacteria is reduced, the fungus will not progress. You can try another ready-made tomato juice treatment. You need to choose the juice only without salt, so that it does not pinch the skin.
- Herbal decoction. Boil the calendula, verbena and oak bark in water. In this decoction, you can hold your feet or use them as lotions. Components are easy to find in the pharmacy, the effectiveness of such a collection will be equal to that of expensive drugs. It can be used every day, both in the morning and in the evening.
- Rye flour. After the foot baths, it will be useful to rub the rye flour into the affected areas. It is able to absorb all bacteria and rid the skin of the disease. The main thing is to rub a small amount.
- Antiseptics. A mixture of baking soda and laundry soap will become a household antiseptic. All this must be dissolved in warm water. Pour the resulting mixture into a basin and leave the legs to cleanse for half an hour.
Alternative treatment methods are useful because they have no side effects and all ingredients are natural ingredients.
What to do if the nail has come off
Problems with a nail with a fungus indicate a neglected state of the disease. The nail darkens, begins to exfoliate, becomes thinner and then moves away from the skin.
This state is divided into several types:
Onychosisis can be identified by the fact that the nail exfoliates through, kaylonchinia - the nail exfoliates in the middle.
Onychomodesis is when the nail comes off only at the base. This is the most difficult case, because inflammation then occurs.
It is important to make sure that the nail does not rot, because in that case it can be completely lost. When a person's nail comes off, they don't notice it at first. Only with an infection do pain and inflammation appear.
The following symptoms will indicate that the nail exfoliation was from the fungus:
- a void forms under the nail;
- the nail acquires a yellow tint;
- severe itching appears, but you should not tear off the brittle nail;
- the manifestation of pain occurs only in advanced cases of the disease.
When such a problem occurs, it is important to constantly treat the affected nail with an antiseptic, as it is open to different microbes.
You have to follow the following pattern. When removing the tip with sterile scissors, cut off the edge. The cut site is treated with an antiseptic. After that, prepare a sea salt bath and hold your feet for ten minutes. Lubricate the cut site with a healing agent.
You should stop painting your nails and mask the problem, this will only aggravate the condition. It is also very important not to wear tight shoes. You need to make sure that the nails are not too long, because the shoes will compress them and eventually they may break.
On the feet, the spread of the fungus is quite fast, so it will move from nail to nail within a few days.
Prevention of the onset of the disease
Avoiding the problem of fungus infection is not difficult. You need to follow some rules, so health will be in order.
The first rule to remember is that you can't wear someone else's shoes. After all, someone can be infected with a fungus. He tends to stay in the shoes.
You can also try on shoes in the store with socks only. Every day it is necessary to wash your feet with soap and water, especially in the evening, after wearing shoes for a long time. You should always choose shoes based on the weather.
It is impossible to wear warm shoes in too hot weather, because the foot begins to sweat, and in a humid environment the development of the fungus grows significantly. It is important to choose socks only from natural materials, wear them no more than once, because after wearing them they are full of bacteria.
In any pharmacy you can find foot disinfectant sprays that you need to use if you have to wear shoes all day. When visiting the pool, it is best to change your shoes and not walk barefoot on the tiles. This advice is also followed in the sauna.
At the first symptoms of the fungus, it is necessary to start treatment. This disease does not go away on its own. Not a secondary action should be an increase in the immune system.
The skin of the feet must be taken care of. When the seeds appear, remove them immediately. If your feet are suffering from excessive sweating, you need to use special foot deodorants. Any open cracks and wounds on the legs must be treated immediately and constantly disinfected.
When performing a pedicure, it is important to make sure that all tools are disinfected, especially if it is done in the salon. If someone in the family has a fungus, it is necessary to wash the floors and shower thoroughly. You just have to put on your slippers and dry yourself with an individual towel.
Foot skin fungus is a disease that is best left unaddressed. It differs in that it takes a long time for treatment, as well as a long recovery afterwards.
A person who falls ill with a fungus, after an illness, has a huge risk of being infected with it again. To protect yourself from this, you must not only be treated properly, but also take preventive measures afterwards.