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Do you know what’s the very best way to treat athlete’s foot?  By preventing its appearance in the first place!  If this sounds old fashioned, so be it.  But there are several tricks and tips you can get into the habit of performing daily to help keep your feet from becoming the next breeding ground for tenia pedis.

First, the fungus needs a damp place to grow.  Take the dampness away from it and it just can’t flourish.  So you’ll want to keep your feet as dry as possible.  Once you’ve dried your feet as much as you possibly can following a bath or a shower, you still may want to take an added precaution. This you can do by applying a medicated powder in your shoes and socks on a regular basis.

Speaking of socks, you’ll want to make sure the ones you’re wearing are absorbent to soak up any of the sweat from your feet.  Ideally, you should try to wear cotton socks.  When you’re done wearing them, you’ll also want to wash them in hot water.  Be sure to bleach them too.

Your shoes should be well ventilated.  If you wore them and find they are damp, don’t wear that pair again until their dry.

If you don’t like shoes and would rather go barefoot, try to suppress that desire.  But you could compromise.  Wear open-toed sandals. 

They’ll help you prevent athlete’s foot by allowing enough air around your feet that they’ll dry quickly.

Have you ever thought about using your antiperspirant on your feet?  Well, perhaps you should consider it.  This may prove to be especially crucial if you’re prone to developing athlete’s foot.  It’s an effective way to control the sweating that may cause this fungus to grow.

Let your shoes air out at night.  In fact, if at all possible, don’t wear the same pair of shoes daily.  This is the perfect way to allow one pay to air out while you’re using the other.

Some individuals apply an antifungal lotion to their feet after they dry them following a bath or shower. They then follow this with the application of an antifungal foot powder.  There are any number of good ones on the market today.  You can might have to try several out to see which one works best for you.  You wan to make sure the one you choose doesn’t contain any cornstarch.  Cornstarch encourages fungal growth.

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Many people use natural, herbal remedies to help heal their athlete’s foot. There are in fact, many remedies that may be of use to you.  Before you use any of them though, be sure to consult with your naturopathic doctor or your health care provider. 

One of the pieces of information she’ll be able to provide you is whether any the supplements you’re planning on taking interfere with any prescription drugs you may be on. Before choosing a supplement, you’ll also want to check with a professional herbalist to ensure that you’re not only taking the most effective herb, but also to ensure that you’ll get the proper serving.

One of the first things you’ll want to do upon recognizing the symptoms of athlete’s foot is to apply aloe vera gel on the affected area twice a day. Aloe vera’s antifungal properties help to hasten the healing process.

Some of the best natural remedies incorporate herbs into them to use as foot baths or rubs.  You may want to soak your feet in a basin of warm water which not only has some rubbing alcohol in it, but several cloves of peeled and crushed garlic as well.

The natural antifungal properties of garlic make it a natural choice as a stand-alone remedy to help alleviate the symptoms of athlete’s foot.  Some individuals advise to simply rub a clove of raw garlic on the fungus.  Others say it’s best to crush the garlic to bring out its natural oils.  Place the crushed garlic on the affected area. Leave this on for about half an hour and then wash it off with just water.  This should be done daily for a week.  By the end of the week, the fungus should be gone.

If the idea of covering your feet with crushed garlic is a bit much, you might want to compromise and just put a dusting of garlic powder on your feet (seriously!).  Some herbalists and others specializing in home remedies say that if you do this twice a day, you’ll athlete’s foot will be gone in no time at all.

If garlic is a bit strong for you, then you might want to consider a poultice made with ginger, which also is widely known for its antifungal powers.  Place one ounce of fresh chopped ginger in a cup of water and simmer this for about 20 minutes. Let it cool sufficiently so you can apply it to your feet.  Do this twice daily until your athlete’s foot disappears.

Here’s another one – it’s a bit sticky, but it works.  Rub raw honey on the infected area before bedtime.  Cover the feet with old socks.  Leave it on overnight.  When you wake up in the morning you’ll notice an improvement.

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Athlete’s foot itself is not that serious of an infection.  It usually can be treated quite quickly.  There are times, however, when the original fungal infection triggers a secondary bacterial infection.  This occurs if the fungus should kill vulnerable bacteria through the production of an antibiotic substance. A hardier, more resistant type of bacteria grows in the place of these more vulnerable ones.

These newer bacteria then release substances that can cause the tissue breakdown which results in soggy skin and painful eroded areas between the toes.

There’s still one more complication of athlete’s foot you should be aware of.  This one occurs after the infection has cleared.  Proteins may enter your bloodstream, which may lead to an allergic reaction.  This could cause an occurrence of blisters on your fingers, toes or even on your hands.  This condition is called dermatophytid reaction.

Your infection may be so mild, in fact, that he may just recommend an over-the-counter remedy. There are plenty on the market.  For the most part, mild infections respond well to the following prescription medication:  Terbinafine (sold as Lamisil AT), Clotrimazole (sold as Lotrimin AF) and Miconazole (Micatin).

If your particular care of athlete’s foot doesn’t improve, then your health care practitioner may prescribe one of these stronger medications: Itraconazole (sold as Sporanox), Fluconazole (sold as Diflucan) or a stronger variation of Terbinafine (sold as Lamisil).
Before you fill that prescription that your personal care practitioner hands you though, be sure to question him thoroughly about the possible side effects of these medications.  Oral itraconazole and oral terbinafine may be linked in rare cases to liver failure or even to death, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.  Taking oral itraconazole may, in fact, weaken the heart’s contractions.  Be sure to tell your health care practitioner if you have a history of heart failure.

If you should have athlete’s foot as well as another bacterial infection, your health care practitioner may prescribe an oral antibiotic.  He may also decide that your specific case can be helped by using steroid ointments. Other remedies that he may recommend may to wet dressings or compresses as well as vinegar soaks to help clear the blisters or the soggy skin.

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Determining whether you’ve developed a case of athlete’s foot is relatively easy.  There are plenty of symptoms that indicate the fungi’s presence.  Don’t expect, though, to experience every symptom of this contagious infection.  You may only have a fraction of them.

Characteristically, athlete’s foot is recognized by an itching, burning or stinging between your toes.  More often than, not the infection settles into the space between you last two toes. You may also notice these same symptoms on the soles of your feet.

Your feet, if affected with this infection, may develop itchy blisters. Another indication of the presence of this fungus is cracking and peeling of the skin on your feet.  This usually occurs in the same areas that the burning happens – between your toes and on the soles of your feet.

You may also notice that the sides and bottoms of your feet are extremely dry.  These too are signs that you have contracted athlete’s foot.

Athlete’s foot can also affect the health and condition of your toenails.  If your nails are thick or discolored then you may have athlete’s foot.  Additionally, toenails that are crumbly, ragged or pulling away from the nail bed may also be infected with tinea pedis.

When you visit your health care practitioner with these symptoms, his initial reaction will no doubt be to ensure that the infection is caused by tinea pedis and not by some other skin disorder.  He’ll probably want to exclude the possibility that these conditions could have been caused by dermatitis or by psoriasis.  Be prepared to be able to answer some questions about your being exposed to contaminated areas or being in contact with individuals who may have athlete’s foot.

Your health care practitioner may take scrapings of the affected skin.  These will be evaluated under a microscope to identify the type of fungus. If, indeed, a fungus is causing these problems, he’ll most likely prescribe an antifungal medication.

The possibility may also exist that the test of the skin scraping fails to indicate the presence of any fungus.  If your health care practitioner still suspects that a fungus is to blame for your condition, he may send a sample of your skin to a laboratory to discover if fungus would grow under the proper conditions.  This test is called a culture.  He may also decide to order one if you’ve undergone treatment for the condition and no improvement is seen.

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"Make sure you wear your ‘flip-flops’ into that shower at camp!"  You can still hear the words of your mother today pleading with you to wear those sandals as you embarked on the bus for summer camp.

If you went to college and lived in a dormitory, your mother undoubtedly made you pack a pair of sandals for your use in the communal shower.

Oh, she may never have called the infection by name, but rest assured, she was doing her best to protect you from athlete’s foot.  It’s a common fungal infection that spreads easily in public places, especially in public showers, lock rooms and fitness centers.

Usually athlete’s food affects those small, dark spaces between your toes.  But if left untreated, it can often spread to your toenails as well as the soles and sides of your feet.  The good news is that this infection is easily cured just by using any number of over-the-counter remedies found in your local drug store. If your case is more severe, it may require a visit to your health care practitioner who can prescribe topical medication for it.

Athlete’s foot is also known as tinea pedis, ringworm of the foot and dermatophytosis.  It’s closely related to several other fungal skin conditions, most of which have similar sounding names.  Tinea is a type of fungus.  Pedis is the Latin word for "foot".

A tinea infection can occur in other areas of your body.  For example, tinea corporis causes a red rash the displays itself as a scale red ring on the top layer of your skin.  You know this infection by its more common name ringworm of the body.

Tinea may strike men, causing an itching in their genital, inner thighs as well as their buttocks, called tinea cruris.  We all know this as jock itch.

If you’ve ever had school-aged children, then you may have encountered a form of tinea that causes a red, itchy patch on the scalp.  This form of tinea is known as ringworm of the scalp or tinea capitis and can result in bald patches on the head.

All of these conditions are caused by a group of mold-like fungus called dermatophytes. Sprouting wispy, fingerlike extensions dermatophytes infect the surface of the skin.  As a result, the deepest portion of our epidermis (which is the outermost layer of your skin) produces an abundance of skin cells.  As these cells push their way to the surface, the skin becomes thick and scaly.  As you can imagine, the more the fungi spread, the more cells your skin produces, and the more scales appear on your skin.  This causes the ring of the infection to form.

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