Table of Contents
Cure Athlete's Foot
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DISCLAIMER
Our readers offer information and opinions on Earth Clinic, not as a substitute for professional medical prevention, diagnosis, or treatment. Please consult with your physician, pharmacist, or health care provider before taking any home remedies or supplements or following any treatment suggested by anyone on this site. Only your health care provider, personal physician, or pharmacist can provide you with advice on what is safe and effective for your unique needs or diagnose your particular medical history.
APPLE CIDER VINEGAR, CLAY, OIL OF OREGANO
[YEA] 12/21/2008: Katrina from NYC writes: "Athletes Foot: I rented ice skates for 1-hr and next morning got an AF. I read all the solutions here and doing following:
ACV -- i soak my foot for 15 min
ACV+ wet clay -- I put it as a mask on my foot overnight-- improvements right away!!!
Oil of Oregano -- overnight-- great improvements!!!"
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APPLE CIDER VINEGAR, VAPOR RUB
[YEA] 01/06/2009: Keith Warren from Totnes, England writes: "I have suffered from the above off and on for many years and get really bad attacks of athletes foot. I have tried many remedies, non of which have proved very satisfactory until I tried Cider Vinegar and Vapour Rub. What can I say? Within a week its like having a new pair of feet, I simply cannot thank the people who posted these remedies enough, they have been the proverbial life saver as I am in the building trade and have to wear safety boots and my feet were so very painful. Thank you one and all for your suggestions."
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1 YEA
[YEA] 07/25/2008: Francis from Montreal, Canada writes: "As a kid I use to have such a severe Athlete's Foot problem that I could not walk and my mother needed to drive me to school near by. Large bleeding wounds between toes puzzled the doctor who prescribe foot bath with baking soda but it just did not do anything. An old neighbor told my mother to find bakers yeast and mix it with water and apply a thick coat on my feet covered wit a plastic bag for the night.
After 1 week it was all gone, that was 40 years ago and never came back. I am not talking about the little dry yeast. This stuff is only available from bakeries and it comes in pound brick packed just like butter. Mix with water to have a tick goo, magic."
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1 YEA
[YEA] 11/19/2008: Steve from Hernando, MS. writes: "I researched the Internet found that bleach CO. in the early days listed that it cured foot fungus the big Government & Doctors did not like this it takes Big Money from their Big Pockets, the FDA forced the Company's to remove it. Foot Fungus is treatable I have done this with Great results there are some side effects, the fungus tries to survive I got rashes up my legs & back I almost gave up but I refused I found this site and others I do this as often as I can and have great results my toenails use to be yellow and thick now they are pink and feel GREAT!
http://www.pedsforparents.com/articles/2822.shtml
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-131080893.html
http://antinailfungus.com/toenail-fungus/bleach-for-toenail-fungal-infection
Good Luck!"
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1 YEA
[YEA] 04/05/2008: Dallas from Hayesville, NC writes: "I had athletes foot for several years that I could not get rid of from any of the high priced medications. I had heard from someone tha Boric Acid powder in your socks and in your shoes would cure it. Sure enough, after about a week the fungus was completely gone."
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1 NAY
[NAY] 02/09/2007: Jess from Victoria, British Columbia writes: "I had athletes foot, I never had it before so I used different creams from the drug store. THEN I got an itch on my hand and the skin started getting very red and pealing off there! I went to the drug store and they gave me a different athlete's foot cream to apply to both the foot and the hand. I did this and it got rid of athletes foot from my toes but only helped a little bit with my hand. It didn't go away on my hand, it stayed the same size on one part of my hand and grew BIGGER on another part and was spreading up my thumb. I had tried a few home remedies from your site, none worked too well: Cider Vinegar, hydrogen peroxide, Borax etc. Over four week later it was still the same, itching and very red and getting bigger and spreading to other parts of my hand! I was about to go to the doctor when 'that little voice inside' said take Coral Calcium. I did and after taking a double and sometimes TRIPLE dose within 3 days the itchy circle began to subside. The skin one week later is still a little pink from healing and the center is normal skin color but there's NO itch or flaking skin left anymore. Will continue with the Coral Calcium for another two weeks and ingest cider vinegar on a regular daily basis for the rest of my life."
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3 YEA
[YEA] 10/08/2008: Larry from Dumageute, Philippines writes: "I had chronic athletes foot, i could never get rid of it. Over the counter creams such as lamisil controlled the problem but did not get rid of it. I then tried not using the creams and only apple cider vinegar instead. The result was disaster, rampant athletes foot. I was almost about to give up but did a final search and found postings on both Salt and Cayanne, so I decided to try an experiment. I made up a mixture of half salt and half cayenne pepper. I then Put a little bit of Lamasil cream on the infected area. Then while my finger still was sticky from the cream i dipped my finger in the salt/cayenne mixture and worked the powder into the infected area. The result was incredible. Noticible improvement after 24 hours. After two weeks, once a day, for the first time in years i am athletes foot free. I have no idea if it was the salt, the cayenne or the combination. I don't know if the Lamisil did anything more than provide a sticky base. But my feeling is don't change success. This combination worked fantastic for me."
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[YEA] 07/19/2007: Melvin from Garner, North Carolina writes: "This website has been a major blessing to me and my family!
From 1989 to about 1994 I suffered from athlete's foot on both of my feet. I tried several OTC (over the counter) drugs that eased the pain and itching somewhat, but never cured it, in spite of what the avertisements claimed.
A friend of mine told me about the benifits of applying cayenne pepper to cuts and acratches to stop the bleeding. Out of desperation one night, I applied cayene pepper to the affected areas between my toes. I was amazed at the almost immediate sense of relief I experienced. I applied it every morning after showering and at night after washing my feet. Within a day or two the pain & itching was gone. Within a week the fungus had dried up and skin had hardened. Within two weeks I could peel the dead skin away and by the third week the AF was gone and the cracked skin began to heal. By the fourth or fifth week there was no evidence of the AF- AFTER FIVE, LONG YEARS. I had forgotten what it felt like not to have AF.
The key for me was to wash and dry my feet daily before putting a dash of cayenne between my toes. No more over-the-counter treatments for me. I keep an ample supply of cayenne available, just in case."
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[YEA] 09/21/2006: Vince from Philadelphia, PA writes: "I had Athlete's Foot between 2 toes that sit against each other. I had it off and on for years. It was hard to dry them after a shower, and when in a rush, I don't think I did it that well, and then sitting against each other, I would probably really have to, and sweating probably cause it also. I only applied cayenne in salt water one time, and it has been gone for years. Usually it has to stay in place for a while on skin surfaces, so I soak the gauze on a bandaid, but since my toes touch, I didn't have to."
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3 YEA
1 BETTER BUT NOT CURED
[BETTER BUT NOT CURED] 01/17/2009: Desiree from Portland, OR writes: "I have had athlete's foot for several decades: not usually cracked or peeling, but warm and itchy all the time. I thought this isn't going to do anything. I put coconut oil on my feet and within a half hour I felt a cooling sensation. What a surprise. The next morning I felt cool feet. I am amazed! I just rubbed it all over my feet, put on socks and climbed into bed. I am anxious to see how it works for me systemically. I have had itchy scalp for about 10 years. It isn't itchy at present, but I can't imagine treating the feet could cure it. I do know that the feet are like the tongue in that the organs of the body is mapped out on the tongue. We'll see."
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[YEA] 05/03/2007: Klaus-Christian from Osaka, Japan writes: "Coconut oil cured my 20! years long athlete's foot problem plus a lot of epidermic fungus, [j-itch, behind the ears, chin] constipation and digestive problems. 3 times a teaspoonful per os and external. see: health-science-spirit.com/candida.html"
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[YEA] 07/02/2006: Dianne from Mansfield, MA writes: "within 2 days of using my athlete's foot has totally cleared. My husband has also had the same results."
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[YEA] 03/22/2006: Shelly from Medford, OR writes: "I had a stubborn case of athlete's foot for several months. Tried every kind of natural/herbal cure that I could think of, but there was no relief. I read about coconut oil bringing healing to skin rashes, so I decided to try it. After a week of applying the oil, twice a day, the rash is gone. I'm also feeding it to our dog every morning with his food. He LOVES it! He 's a young dog with no apparent health problems, but I look at as a preventative measure and I anticipate that it will also help him with flea and tick problems. It's great to have such wonderful natural remedies!!!"
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1 YEA
[YEA] 02/23/2009: Cheryl from Chicago, IL writes: "Remember that fungus is systemic. When you treat your AF topically, its going to keep recurring because its fungus that circulates all over your body. Try taking garlic capsules, we get them at Costco. Also, everyone with AF or nail fungus should research candidiasis which is a polysystemic fungal infection. Due to overuse of antibiotics (which also kills off good bacteria) and our bad diets (sugar, sugar substitutes, high fructose corn syrup in almost everything-- read food labels and all high glycemic foods), creates perfect environment for candidiasis. Also take probiotics to replace the good bacteria in the GI tract. I recommend changing to the candidiasis diet (no dairy, no sugar or sugar substitutes or any other high glycemic foods), taking garlic tablets, caprylic acid (from the health food store), take high fiber capsules to clean out the colon (fungus lives on our waste) and finally drink a lot of water. Unless you clear the fungus out of your entire system internally, the AF fungus is always going to come back.
Our daughter is diagnosed with candidiasis, our osteopath put her on anti-candidiasis diet. We parents decided to go on the same diet to be supportive, now all three of us are feeling much better. As an unexpected bonus, my AF fungus and nail fungus is dramatically improving after only 3 weeks. Its SYSTEMIC, gotta change your diet to beat it. Here's your diet: eggs, organic meats, fish, low glycemic mostly green vegetables, salad. Once you change your diet, you'll feel so much better, you won't mind this. You will also lose weight. Also seems like what clogs up the system, so no bread or any other food product with yeast. Check canned soup labels, many of them contain yeast."
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2 YEA
[YEA] 07/21/2008: AC from West Midlands, England writes: "I read a post on EC that said:
[YEA] Anonymous writes: "I had athletes foot badly between two of my toes. I taped a cut piece of garlic onto the wound in the morning and looked at it the afternoon, and the skin was totally healed and looked like new. I couldn't believe it!"
It took me a long time to follow this advice, but when I did, I took it a few steps further.
1. I took garlic cloves and cut them into smaller pieces lengthwise.
2. I stuck each of the smaller pieces between my toes: the ones that had fungus and even the ones that didn't.
3. I put plastic/non-PVC wrap over the top part of my feet.
4. Put on a pair of thin socks and then another pair of thick socks.
5. Went to sleep.
6. Woke up, took garlic out and washed feet.
7. Fungus between feet was reduced dramatically.
In addition to the fungus problem between my toes, I apparently had some sort of fungus problem with my small toe. My small toenail was hard and black. The blackness reduced significantly, maybe by 40 or 50% overnight.
I smelled the garlic very strongly as I was sleeping but my husband (who hates garlic and won't even touch me if I eat it) says he didn't smell it at all.
I hope this helps someone! Coconut oil has also helped."
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[YEA] Anonymous writes: "I had athletes foot badly between two of my toes. I taped a cut piece of garlic onto the wound in the morning and looked at it the afternoon, and the skin was totally healed and looked like new. I couldn't believe it!"
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4 YEA
1 NAY
[YEA] 09/17/2009: Melissa from Orlando, Fl writes: "Hydrogen Peroxide to Combat Athlete's Foot
I have seen countless doctors and dermatologists for my dry, red, peeling, cracked heels that I have had on and off since probably the age of 10. I have been (incorrectly) diagnosed with eczema, allergic skin, and even psoriasis. I have taken oral medications and have been prescribed compounded skin lotions in hopes of "maintaining" my condition at a tolerable level.
This year, I took matters into my own hands. Living in Florida, people walk around in sandals and flip-flops more than half of the year. My feet were so embarrassing. I researched and researched and found that it was highly probable that I had the moccassin-type of athlete's foot. All the symptoms fit - even my mother and grandmother have struggled with similar feet issues. I went for a final opinion from my primary doctor and she agreed - perhaps it was misdiagnosed after all.
I finally decided to try soaking my feet in 50% water and 50% unfiltered, raw, organic apple cider vinegar every night. It produced almost immediate results with my feet feeling soft and peeling less. Nonetheless, after almost two weeks of soaking my feet, I just could not stand the odor anymore - neither could my husband. I stopped and of course the athlete's foot came back with a vengeance.
I finally decided to try 50% water and 50% hydrogen peroxide foot soaks for 20 minutes every night or every other night. I follow through with an "as seen on tv" foot file to take off the dead skin. Finally, I moisturize with organic coconut-based lotion. After almost three weeks, my feet feel and look amazing. I make sure to sterilize the basin I use to soak my feet, the towels, the foot file, and any other instruments with alcohol to ensure that the fungus is killed. Also, I have been more careful to spray my feet with anti-fugal sprays and foot powder before working out or if I wear partially or closed toed shoes.
As a precaution, I will keep maintaining these soaks as long as I can - considering I've had this athlete's foot condition for more than 15 years. I hope some of you have success with this inexpensive and definitely less smelly solution!"
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[YEA] 04/28/2008: Doris from Santa Ana, CA USA writes: "Equal parts hydrogen peroxide and water in foot-bath bowl. Set feet in, and gently scrub with sponge. Good time to do it is after shower or bath and before bed. For worst cases, cotton swab damply all over affected foot skin. Immediately cleaned, no more co$$$tly stores remedies in very tiny tubes and bottles. Then, keep clean your barefoot walking or standing areas (shower, tub, etc). The immediate clean look and clean feel will be dramatic."
[YEA] 09/12/2008: Doris from Santa Ana, CA, USA replies: "Adding to my 04/28/08 entry. Pedicuring 82 yr old mom's Athl Feet, red chapped cracked heels she had thru my childhood years. Now her poorly cleaned large toenail had accumulated dead skin under nail with yucky dark fungus. I bought kitchen dishgloves dishpan scrubber-sponge hydrogen peroxide (HP). She couldn't reach to clean anymore. Athl Foot etc was up calves to her knees. In dishpan I mixed 4 cups comfy-hot water, 1 cup HP. Feet in pan, I scrub-sponged one leg. It didn't sting, Strongly tingled refreshingly like when your hand falls asleep. She didn't realize how numb Ath Ft made her feet sense of no feeling. Cleaned feet nerves felt like taking off thick socks for the first time. Dishwash gloves protected my hands while scrubbing. We both couldn't believe visual immediate result of no redness, and of powdery white dusty skin sloughing easily into water mixture. To do other leg, washed out dishpan, used new gloves, new sponge, fresh water-HP mix. Dust-size flakes came off her feet. Now with vigorous gentle sponge scrub, I could feel the difference between cleaned slick skin and slippery athl foot. Scrubbed 3 minutes foot-calf-knee per leg. CLEAN. Dumped water was thick with scaly powdery dead skin slough. Big point was Athl Ft numb feeling wasn't noticed till after cleaning. Last, I put aloe vera gel on each leg using 3rd pair kitchen latex gloves. Then used spray bottle of water-HP mix with paper towels to wipe dry, on her whole apartment especially shower stall, sink, commode, all chromework, doorknobs and sliding glass door-windows handles. Got her new shower flip flop sandals, sprayed them too. NOTE: Her bldg staff smelled vinegar-water wash I'd once used, which worked good enough, but staff said NO in case of doctor's meds conflict by skin absorption - go figure! HP has no smell. She does her own laundry, but now puts some HP in rinse cycle now. Thanks for this site. Years of Athl Ft - gone. It needs done 3X/year now."
EC: Doris, thank you so much for these detailed instructions!
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[YEA] 02/04/2007: Joe from Somerville, NJ writes: "I've used hydrogen peroxide, 3% pharmacy grade cut 50% with water, to rinse my mouth before brushing, which has been a great help with eliminating bad breath and plaque. But here's a remedy that no one may have thought - a treatment for "tinea cruris" commonly known as jock itch. I had an issue with this for several months and during this period, several times a week, I used Curex and other over-the-counter options to eliminate it, spending $20.00 to $30.00 to no avail. I knew hydrogen peroxide was effective in killing bacteria, so, as a last resort, I cut the pharmacy 3% grade 50%, just like the mouth wash, and used it-in 2 days!!! the itch and soreness was gone! No joke. Total cost 20 cents!"
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[NAY] John from Long Beach, CA writes: "I first washed my feet with soap and water to clean them. I then dipped my feet in hydrogen peroxide with water, and rubbed peroxide on my feet a little after, but it had no large effect. OTC antifungal cream doesn't work either. Does peeing on your feet really help Athlete's foot?"
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HYPOALLERGENIC BABY WIPES, ALOE
[YEA] 09/12/2008: Doris from Santa Ana, CA, USA writes: "During years typing often had painful raw red skin, not peeled but just seemed eaten away - from using SHARED typewriters and pc keyboards. Would go to work with perfect skin, by day-end skin at base of inside palm and pinky sides of hand all raw red stinging peeled looking, sometimes very chapped or even cracking to bleed. Nice clean offices and people, just all shared copiers, phones, ofc eqpmt. Also some keyboards or machine casings had lead-base paint.
To clean surfaces Lysol spray stank, hydrogen peroxide bottles spooked bosses, but OK'd non-soapy-frothy kind of unscented hypoallergenic baby wipes. I baby wiped my own eqpmt, and my palms before work, after lunch, before leaving the ofc. I bought a small aloe vera plant for home. After work, I took a 1-inch aloe leaf piece, split open and put the gooey piece right on any raw skin for a minute. By morning any raw areas would have new skin. In a couple weeks, no more shared Athletes Hand and some other staff was using aloe vera hand lotion too. Big difference at work. My hands are all better."
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1 YEA
[YEA] Catherine from Tahiti writes: "I tried doctors prescription of ketoderm, ciclopiroxolamine, econazole and numerous other things. I also tried the ACV and garlic oil rubbed on the skin. Lime rubbed on skin and left for 20 minutes. Also vera gel, colloidal silver, black walnut oil and iodine. I believe that the ketoderm works but my problem is that from all the drying products my skin would look worse so the aloe vera gel counteracted that and I've used the black walnut oil three times and it is working rapidly. I used the paragone liquid that I use to kill internal parasites on my skin topically. It has red clover and some other stuff in it but works great. I've been to three doctors and have had this for 3 months. It does go away with convectional medicine but will return the minute you stop treatment. I looked for every type of holistic cure and I think the problem with some like ACV is that they would make little wounds on my skin that would burn when I applied it. the doctors prescribed medicine did the same. I also eat raw garlic and drink a little bit of ACV each day. I also take noni which is a tahitian drink they sell at Costco. I stopped eating cheese and cut down on starch. I was using coconut oil last week but it didn't seem to do anything."
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1 YEA
[YEA] 10/24/2008: Megan from Jacksonville, FL writes: "I tried soaking my feet in Listerine after seeing a posting about toe nail fungus. It not only works on toe nails, but will get rid of athlete's foot issues very quickly. And this is much easier than pressing onion, etc. I love this site! I found it looking for Ted's Mange Cure, which is fabulous. Thanks!"
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1 YEA
[YEA] 02/23/2009: DJ from PDX, OR writes: "I just had a bout of AF and in my desperation tried Mullen and Garlic oil that I had purchased for ear use. After three days it was gone."
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1 YEA
[YEA] 07/06/2008: Jean from Franklin, WI writes: "A number of years ago, we acquired a German Shepherd with a severe case of mange, covering about 1/3 of his body. The vet's expensive prescription products hardly touched it. After a lot of study, I found a product generally used for horses to heal wounds and rashes. It's called Nu-Stock. It cleared the mange up after only 2 applications and it has never returned. His hair grew back very quickly, and although he wasn't too thrilled with the first application, he WANTED the second one very much. The itching stopped immediately.
A couple years later, my daughter had a rash that no doctor seemed able to get rid of. We tried the Nu-Stock and it cleared right up and hasn't returned.
I've had a problem with athlete's foot for years. I tried all the other remedies and it got rid of "most" of it, but there was a spot on the ball of one foot, including two toes where it just wouldn't go away. One day it occurred to me to try Nu-Stock. After just a couple of applications, the skin was back to normal, all itching gone, and it appears to be healing permanently. I think this is going to finally kill it!!!
Doing a little studying, I've found that Nu-Stock is 73% sulphur, 25% mineral oil, and 2% pine oil.
I've also discovered that there are other health products made for pets that aren't available for people. For instance, in the local Farm & Fleet, you can buy a cheap package of electrolytes for your pet's water. 16 oz. of DMSO was only $5. And there were other things as well, most of them in the section for horses! Isn't it amazing that you can buy products for your pets, cheaply, and you can't get prescription products that work for yourself???"
EC: Yes, agreed! Years ago we bought a 5 lb container of glucosamine at a tack shop in Burbank, CA for about $45 to give to our dog for his arthritis. The tack shop also sold chondroitin in large containers too.
02/22/2009: Jean from Franklin, WI replies: "Just an update. The athlete's foot tried to return once. I applied nu-stock before bed, then again three days later. Athlete's foot hasn't returned. This is some powerful stuff. It didn't hurt the skin, and yet in that seven month period of time, I only had to use it about 6 times.
More important than that, I also had a problem with the NAIL FUNGUS ... you know the thing where your toenail gets discolored, dark and thick. THAT'S GONE TOO !!! :D Seven months after my first post about Nu-Stock, I have normal toenails. I love this stuff! :) If anyone is having trouble finding it, I got it on EBay...$7 for a large jar plus shipping."
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