Absorbine
★★★★★
1. Continue the Salt and Lemon or Lime or ACV foot soaks as often as you can. I can do it once or twice a day on weekends but during the week it's hard to do it even once a day. Soak for at least 15 minutes. Remove feet from the soak, but DO NOT DRY WITH TOWEL, let your feet air dry so the salt solution stays on your feet. This works really well if you do it just before bedtime.
2. My friends at the nail shop gave me, as a gift, they were NOT practicing medicine... A tiny tube of oinment I do not believe can be purchased in the US. It contains Clotrimazole, an antifungal, Betamethasone, not sure what that does, and Gentamicin, a powerful antibiotic. They suggested I put it on the very red angry lesions. I did and I could see results in hours. If you are in a country other than the US you may be able to purchase this ointment. You may be able to purchase this online from Viet Nahm, I'm not sure. If you can not, like me, I was able to successfully get the same results by purchasing Clotrimazole 2 per cent in the feminine section of the drug store, for vaginal infections. Gentleman, if this emabarrases you, get a sister, Mother or girlfriend to purchase it for you. In the longrun it's cheaper and stronger than what you can purchase in the Foot Care section of the drugstore. For the antibiotic portion of the creme I use the generic drugstore brand of Silver Colloiden ointment. It works! I put the Clotrimozole ointment all over my feet, ankles and shins. It absorbs easily with no smell. I only put the silver colloiden ointment on red, not pink spots. Do this twice a day, morning before socks and at night before bed NO SOCKS.
3. My drugstore chain just recently, in the last few weeks began carrying a product called _______. I believe it's a product out of the UK. It's active ingredient is Tolfunate 1 per cent. Even though it's not sold for toenail fungus, just the skin under and around the fungus, it seems to be helping. I also use it if I see any tiny pale pink spot anywhere on my body. It works. My mistake in the past was not addressing these tiny pale pink spots as soon as I saw them. The ringworm on my feet started out as pale pink spots from mosquito bites. Stupidly I igonored them. When I had to wear closed shoes and socks and they rubbed the spots... bingo, Ringworm....
4. I can't say enough how rubbing toes, toenails and feet with a wedge of lemon or lime has done over the years. That advice too, from my friends at the nail shop. (Obviously, it works on hands too! )
5. It occured to me that maybe I should look at myself internally as well. After some research online... Yes, everyone and their uncle talks about Probiotics.... But I also found out about Pau D' Arco. Sounded good, I always tend toward natural over chemical. Turns out I may not be able to take it internally but it works on other skin lesions like old age spots if rubbed on externally with a Qtip..... Many of mine are breaking up and going away... makes me wonder are they fungal based as well?
6. I seem to be sensitive to Probiotics too. If the tablet is too strong I get the runs. Have discovered if it is in tablet form I can cut the pill in half and be fine. Yoguhrt is still the best!! I think it is a good idea to treat the inside as well as out, as long as the Foot or Body Fungus seems to last.
Just a few comments to everything I've read here. Thanks all of you for sharing, it's really, really helped. For those of you who started a new treatment and felt it was "spreading", it probably wasn't spreading. The medicine just brought out infection that was probably already there so you could see it.
And PLEASE for those of you who have tried "scrubbing until it bleeds" PLEASE STOP THAT! That's how you will develop a secondary bacterial infection on top of the fungal infection you are trying to overcome. Skin is the largest body organ we have and it's fascinating in what it can do. Don't make what you have worse! Scarring will be almost nonexistant if you treat the fungus with what kills it and don't injure the skin in the process.
Killing fungas is a slow process, much slower than a bacterial infection, be patient, but most of all be persistant. You can may be skip a day or two if you are just plain too tired to complete the routine. I know, I have been many a night. But just because it looks "better" don't stop the routine. Fungus takes time to grow in your skin and even more time to kill it in your skin. Even after your skin looks healed, keep up with the treatments for at the very least four weeks and after that do some kind of preventive treatment so you never get a fungal infection again.
(Adelaide, South Australia)
03/29/2013
Your regimen is intense!
Way to go for stinky toes and yukky peeling toenails, and what I used to call Elephant heels.... and itchy as! Man there is no pain like an infected foot from gak that comes from ATHLETES FOOT.
Owchy!
But by chance I began using virgin pressed coconut oil, (it melts at room temperature) as I am allergic to cortisoids and the tinea stuff failed to work.
But this coconut worked a treat on my feet. After 35 years of this irritation on my feet, it is gone and the nails are growing back.
Splendid stuff I say, do try it!
(Perth)
08/14/2016
This is an internal problem that is being fed by sugar foot baths creams etc will improve it only in the short term you need oral herbal medication will a detox to flush it out of your system. Fungus spores are everywhere but only affect people who aren't in peak condition.
(hey)
09/10/2023
Michigan Foot Doctors said walk on the beach every day in the sand and it will exfoliate and the salt water helps. Just go every day for an hours. As long as it takes.
Absorbine Jr.
★★★★★
At the turn of the 1900, athlete's foot was becoming an epidemic. Manufacturers of popular remedies gave ringworm of the foot the name ‘athlete's foot' and this was adopted by the public, but in medicine the infection was known as tinea pedis. It was seen as new disease, or in modern parlance an emerging infection, having been first described by Arthur Whitfield, a dermatologist at King's College Hospital, London in 1908. Nonetheless, it was in the United States, British Isles and England that tinea pedis became an epidemic, seemingly spread by modern lifestyles and hygiene practices, and encouraged by modern socks and shoes, which made infection liable to chronicity by keeping the feet moist and warm. It is perhaps surprising, given the unhygienic conditions of previous centuries and the ubiquity of ringworm of the scalp, that the feet of Europeans and Americans had been seemingly free of ringworm infection until the mid-twentieth century. Nonetheless, there was a clear understanding in the inter-war years that tinea pedis was new disease and one linked to modernity. One consequence of the growth of medical attention to tinea pedis was the stimulus it gave to the specialism of medical mycology, with investment in diagnostic services, research on the conditions in which mycoses spread and their treatment. In turn, this led to the creation of a cadre of medical mycologists, who identified more fungal infections in specific social groups and the general population.
Doctors prescribed a variety of remedies for tinea pedis (athlete's foot), but because of mixed results, their advice was mainly that prevention was better than cure. Thus, anyone visiting a swimming baths and showering in public facilities was told to disinfect their feet where possible, to avoid walking on floors in bare feet, to dry their feet and toes after bathing, never to share towels or clothing, and to wash socks at high temperatures. The main remedies were topical antifungal creams. The standbys were Whitfield's ointment (the active ingredients were 5% salicylic acid and 3% benzoic acid in petroleum jelly) and Castellani's carbol-fuchsin paint. However, the variable presentation of the condition and its tendency to chronicity encouraged innovations, both in combinations of remedies and new chemicals. There were many complaints of overtreatment.
Proprietary medical companies, which already had a significance market with topical antiseptic remedies, seized on the new epidemic, producing new products and re-branding older ones as having anti-fungal as well as anti-bacterial properties. The most prominently advertised remedy in newspapers and magazines was a derivative of a veterinary liniment – ‘Absorbine Jr.', marketed by W. F. Young, Inc. Infact, if you are as old is I am. Absorbine Jr. use to come in a slim glass bottle and the label stated it was good for athlete's foot. In 1955, Absorbine Jr. was tested against athlete's foot fungus and FOUND TO KILL 100% OF ALL FUNGI IN LESS THAN 5 MINUTES.
HISTORY.
In 1892, Wilbur F. Young and Mary Young went to work on a liniment made of essential oils and herbs, Absorbine Veterinary Liniment proved highly effective at bringing relief to weary or lame work horses as a humane, natural herbal remedy to relieve overworked and lame horses. The liniment was soon widely used in farms nationwide for natural and quick animal pain relief. But farmers soon discovered that it relieved their own muscle and joint pain.
It's anti-septic properties were applied to horse and animals to helps prevent hoof and sole/foot fungal infections.
Hoof Disinfectant: The formula penetrates into the porous hoof sole and frog to disinfect. Apply once a week or more to help prevent bacterial and fungal infections. Use daily to treat hoof conditions such as abscesses, cracks, delamination, Thrush (Candida/Yeast) and White Line Disease (Fungal and bacterial invasion colonize and digest the inner hoof wall layers). This means it would be good for human feet and toe nail fungus as well.
Skin Infections: Absorbine Jr. kills germs on contact and stops the itch in seconds. Use to clean and treat bacterial and fungal skin infections like;
Rain Rot (Rain rot in horses is caused by the bacterium Dermatophilus congolensis, which activates when prolonged moisture and high humidity break down the skin's protective barrier),
Scratches,
Summer Itch (caused by an allergic reaction to the saliva of biting insects, primarily Culicoides midges. Other biting flies like black flies, stable flies, and mosquitoes can also trigger this seasonal skin reaction),
Tail Itch (A horse itching and rubbing its tail is usually caused by pinworms, sweet itch (insect allergies), or a dirty sheath or udder),
Apply to infected area three or more times a week.
SOURCE REF:
Fungal Disease in Britain and the United States 1850–2000: Mycoses and Modernity
Source: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK169220/
Vintage Absorbine Jr. Bottles source: https://countrysideantiques.com/listing/1347642623/vintage-1939-absorbine-jr-box-bottle
Vintage 1955 Absorbine Jr. Athlete's foot cream advertisement source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/236720524152319821/
(Kentucky)
07/28/2026
Direction on use (Taken for a 1940's Vintage ABSORBINE JR. Bottle with Paper Label With Box): Athlete's Foot, simple ringworm of the toes and feet – When cracks appear between the toes, drench them with Absorbine Jr. Apply it full strength freely morning and night. For supplementary treatment, place cotton, saturated with 1 part Absorbine Jr. and 2 parts water, between the toes or over affected part and lightly bandage.
Image Source: https://i.ebayimg.com/images/g/5lQAAOSw--Bhic2T/s-l1600.jpg
Activated Charcoal
★★★★★
(Palestine, TX)
01/10/2025
★★★★★
I have tried 3 over the counter creams and one spray for 3 weeks with no relief! Day 2 of cleansing my feet with alcohol and breaking a capsule of activated charcoal in between my toes and I'm not experiencing any itching at all! I have not worn socks and have only worn open toe sandles (even though it's In the 20's & 30's right now). I hope this helps someone else like it helped me, I am eternally grateful!!!
Alcohol
★★★★★
(TLDR version: I have moccasin type athletes foot.
Wipe with alcohol, cover area in iodine. Dremel off dead skin (Yes I said dremel) This should not hurt. (Don't peel, it will tear.) Soak freshly exposed layer in ACV daily for 30 mins. After soak use essential oils. If the area starts to get hard again. Repeat.)
Well, truth be told science IS nature. How did ACV cure your athlete's foot? Scientific processes. Science is the outcome of nature, which man tries to understand an then harnesses. It's a beautiful and inescapable fact of reality. So I have to laugh when people juxtapose 'nature' and 'science' as though they are mutually exclusive. A remedy is a remedy whether you're conscious of its scientific processes or not. While you may not be following a scientific process to PROVE it's effectiveness, science as reality still happens.
Glad to hear it worked for you. I'm in the process of using ACV. I've used every anti-fungal essential oil you can name, creams, powders, iodine tincture, hydrogen peroxide, etc... and it still clings on. It's a LOT better but I have been treating it daily for about 3 or more months now, and it's really only in two spots. A spot on the pad of my foot under my pinky toe and between my pinky toe. I think it may have started on my heel now, so I am going back to apple cider vinegar foot soaks. Which is what I started with as treatment months ago, but now with a twist.
I'm certain it's the moccasin type, that started inter-digitally about 6 months ago. If I had gotten to it when I first saw symptoms I think it would be gone by now.
The most effective thing I've done so far has been to wipe down the area with a cottonball soaked in isopropyl alcohol (do NOT soak your foot in alcohol). I then take tincture of iodine and cover the area. I also make sure to get outside the area where the visible fungus is because it usually exists outside the area as well. This dries it out very quickly and effectively. Then I dremel.
Since it's the moccasin type, the outer layer is already hard to begin with (moccasin-type athletes foot basically makes a shield with your skin) so after a few days of wiping with alcohol and applying iodine twice a day, the outer layer is ready to be dremeled. This should NOT hurt. I use a small electric dremel you plug into the wall with a relatively soft sandpaper like tip. I haven't had this hurt yet. If this hurts your foot, you're either dremeling soft tissue or your skin isn't dried out enough yet... or your dremel is too powerful/tip is too rough. Use common sense. Also, make sure to dremel in a location that's not going to likely spread the fungus to someone else. While the outer layer of skin is dead, and comes off in a fine powder, fungus could still potentially be living so just be cautious. The whole point of this is so that you can actually put your medicine of choice on your moccasin athletes foot and it be more effective... or effective at all. Personally, after the soft tissue is now exposed, I soak in ACV for 30 minutes. THIS WILL HURT. Then use oils.
Also, a word of advice, DO NOT PEEL your dead skin tags. The way that this specific fungus sheds your skin is like a hangnail. You'll get a tag of dead skin, want to pull it, but it will tear down into fresh tissue opening a wound for the fungus to dive right in. I made this mistake and it's lasted a lot longer than it should have, my foot was incredibly sore and treatments were EXCRUCIATING.
Side note: I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would use Hydrogen Peroxide with the type of athletes foot I have. Maybe mine is just really imbedded. The levels of pain I experienced from Hydrogen Peroxide were ridiculous. Literally ridiculous. I skipped all the normal reactions from pain and went straight into laughter. I don't know how you all do it. We're talking nerve pain. Hundreds of thousands of needles jabbing into your foot, pain. I'm a tough guy, and I don't cry, and I toughed out 30 min soaks a day or more for more than a week that didn't get rid of it. So no more. God bless you all who want to go that route.
Currently on my second foot soak with ACV after dremeling. Still stings just as bad as yesterday's soak. Crossing my fingers. I will also be applying essential oils all day. Currently I have Melaleuca, Lavender, Oregeno, Clove, Cassia, Fennel, Cumin, Lemongrass, Frankincense, Arborvitae, Helichrysum, Rosemary, and Bergamot essential oils at my disposal after my foot soaks. All of these apparently have anti-fungal properties which you can read more about at organicfacts.net.
Hot oils that will burn: Cassia, Oregeno, & Clove. Peppermint is so cooling it will feel hot around privates. Do not use any of these for jock itch unless you want to feel miserable. Peppermint being the least miserable.
All others are relatively mild and give a sense of mild cooling and relief, and should be ok to use should you have jock itch around sensitive areas as well. Cumin and Lemongrass are especially smelly. You will smell like lemongrass for about a day (sweet smell) and cumin (spicy smell kind of like BO) for about two days.
Alcohol
★★★★★
Alcohol
★★★★★
The 70% alcohol was ineffective and did nothing to kill the fungus.
I am so happy that I found something that actually works! For the disabled, one can purchase a spray nozzle and spray the alcohol on the feet from a distance without having to bend over.
(Auckland)
07/04/2012
I have been soaking the affected area in salt for 10 minutes then immediately after that soak it in warm water with 5 teabags using 1 litre if you can I soak it in there for 20 minutes ormore depending on the severity. Then if you have ACV soak your feet/ affected area for 10- 15 minutes twice a day, this was my way to get rid of this annoying medical problem that has been frustrating me for months on end, it may not be long after all I have been seeing cases of 20 years plus hope this works for all thhe people in the same boat. Thanks
Aloe Vera
★★★★★
I suffered for 2 years with chronic "athlete's foot" using Rx antifungals prescribed by my doc when all natural remedies failed. Last 2 months were so painful, just standing or walking made my feet crack and bleed. I was confined to recliner, walking on toes only to use bathroom and get food from kitchen. I cried in pain and frustration, thinking this was my world now - a recliner.
Finally got referral to a PA in dermatology. She took SKIN SCRAPING to lab. Test results 10 days later: NO FUNGUS! I have dyshidrotic ezcema!
The cure? Aloe Vera juice applied to feet, followed by Eucerin cream. Basically, giving feet TLC by moisturizing with hyperallergenic creams. Vasoline would probably work, too. Two weeks later, I returned to DANCING! Sort of, lol, but I am ambulatory again! Another week or so and I should be completely healed!
People with chronic skin conditions, INSIST on lab testing a skin scraping to rule out fungus! Two stinking years of my life spent on every remedy and treatment for nothing. Grrr.
I hope this helps somebody!
(Europe)
11/03/2017
I have had this condition all my life and have been struggling with it on and off. Went back to the doc because - yes - I suspect I have dyshidrotic excema as well! All the stuff you use to dry out or attack the 'fungus' is only going to agravate it even more. Got a referral to a dermatologist now, but I can't get an appointment until 3 or 4 weeks from now. Will definitely discuss this option with him.
To make things even more confusing, you can get dyshidrotic excema as an allergic reaction to a fungal infection. Anyway, keep this option in mind everybody. It's very common for people with hay fever, allergies and asthma (as myself).
Alum
★★★★★
Alum
★★★★★
Apple Cider Vinegar
| 5 star (45) | 82% | |
| 4 star (5) | 9% | |
| 1 star (4) | 7% | |
 (1) |
2% |
★★★★★
I used a whole tube of OTC AF'S medicine. Minimal results. I have persistent and reoccurring AF between toes and on the bottom of my feet. I used ACV and it eliminated the AF until next time. The key is to use it and saturate the area over and over again until you feel relief. I do this in one sitting and than again the next day. It works better than anything else! Keep on it! Don't waste money on OTC stuff.
Apple Cider Vinegar
★☆☆☆☆
(Tn)
08/29/2017
Dear Michaela,
Sorry to hear this is causing you so much misery!
Here are some things to try:
- Turmeric internally to reduce itch and inflammation
- Borage oil internally to reduce inflammation
- Calendula tincture for topical use. Add 1 dropperful of calendula tincture to 1 ounce of water and rub into hands and feet twice a day. This knocked out a chronic fungal issue I had over 20 years ago after a year of different remedies.
- Keep sugar and processed foods to a minimum.
- Add coconut oil to your diet and apply to hands and feet if they are dry feeling. (After using calendula )
I hope you feel better soon.
~Mama to Many~
(Faithville, Usa)
08/29/2017
I am very familiar with yeast issues . what does your diet look like and have you also tried some supplements lately, what might they be ....? maybe garlic
Some foods flush it out of the body onto the skin and that is quite painful. When mine gets bad I go to walmart and buy vaginal yeast cream (miconazole)and coat my foot/hand before bed and put on a sock/cotton glove.
You may need some milk thistle to give your liver a break and some Molybedum to stop detox misery symptoms.
(Tn)
10/02/2017
Dear Becky,
I don't recall what I used many years ago; now I make my own. However, when I need to buy a tincture, I like Herbpharm.
~Mama to Many~
Apple Cider Vinegar
★☆☆☆☆
I've treated my athletes foot for roughly four weeks. It's been awful! I started out using Lotrimin and two weeks later advanced to Lotrimin Ultra. My symptoms are itching, burning needle sensations. Visually my feet have dryness on both heels, and a little redness accompanied by splotchy skin. I started using ACV roughly four days ago, I'm still experiencing symptoms. I'm trying to do everything I can, I tend to be OCD. I soak for almost an hour once a day. Please help, I've never experienced anything like this.
Thanks,
Frustrated One
(Ghana)
12/30/2017
Apple Cider Vinegar
★★★★★
I have used garlic oil too, it also works.
(Kentucky)
09/06/2025
★★★★★
Apple Cider Vinegar Compress for Foot Infection.
lf troubled by the itching, rash and peeling of athlete's foot or foot infection. Soak socks or hose in vinegar water. Mix 1 part vinegar with 5 parts water and soak for 30 minutes before washing as usual.
From the Book: The Vinegar Book by Emily Thacker 2005
Apple Cider Vinegar
★★★★★
Apple Cider Vinegar
★★★★★
