Natural Remedies for Nail Fungus

I had a toe fungus on my big toe. Went to the foot doctor who had me on an antibiotic for 6 months with no results. I then spent 6 months using tree tea oil 2Xs per day, again no result. Finally soaked a cotton ball 2xS per day for 10 minutes with original Listerine--3 days later NO MORE FUNGUS! ALL GONE!!

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!

I worked for a spa that used no harsh chemicals in their mani/pedi's. I learned that spraying listerine mouthwash on your feet will disinfect them. Keeps fungus away. I also learned that rubbing alchohol is a good and sanitary cleaner for your tub so you can prevent and kill fungus and bacteria from re-occuring.

p.s. Rubbing alchohol can be used all over house as cleaner & disinfectant!!

I've had severe toe fungus for 20 or more years. I got a bottle of Listerine (it had been mentioned on your site when I looked at it a few months back) and thought what the heck, I'll try it. I got makeup remover pads (not the cotton balls) and soak it in Listerine in the morning, positioned it over my big toe (the worse one) and keep it in place while I put my sock on. In just 3-4 weeks about the bottom 1/3 - 1/2 of the nail is clear I'm going to start using it on all of my nails on that foot. In the spirit of adventure, I'm going to try something else - peroxide or bleach on the left foot. My husband has used Penlac for years and periodically they have had to remove his nail.

I have cured a very stubborn nail fungus using a half and half mixture of original Listerine and white vinegar. I had previously tried just vinegar, tee tree oil, clorox, a prescription,Vick's and hydrogen peroxide. I believe it was the mixture of mouthwash and vinegar that finally did the trick. Plus, I applied it to my toe (drenched it) with a Q-tip at least 4 to 6 times a day. I made up a new solution in a covered jar every week. It has taken almost a year for the nail to grow out and I never failed to apply the mixture every day. I learned that missing a day or so allows the fungus to return. I tried to avoid toenail polish. If I did need to go to a social function I applied polish just before I left the house and took the polish off as soon as possible. Fungus loves polish! I just had to pass this on as I have been very frustrated wasting time for years on other remedies.

Years ago, I had a lifelong fungal toenail, the left big toe. I started taking macadamia oil, two tablespoons after each meal.

Two months and two 16 oz bottles later, the toenail dropped off and grew in healthy over the next year.

I now take 1 tablespoon daily because Macadamia oil also takes the sting out of my candida pain, making the pain livable and hardly noticeable.

Macadamia oil has 18% palmitoleic acid, an antimicrobial.

I also began having intermittent numbness and tingling in my toes which went away sometime during the same 2 months of taking macadamia oil, causing my fungal toenail to drop off and regrow healthy and pink during the next year.

On 9/19/2006, I wrote about my use of Manuka Oil. As 6 months have passed, I thought I should update you with my progress. I have fungus on 2 toenails, the large toenail and the middle one but both are affected differently. The large toenail was separated from the nail bed from about a third across. I would cut the hollow part off but it would always grow back in the same way. The middle nail was thick and yellow on one side. I could not cut the affected part off so would file it flat. That was basically how I dealt with it. I have been using tea tree oil and manuka oil on alternate days. Instead of using an eyedropper, I cut off the cotton buds on a Q tip resulting in a narrow plastic straw and use this as a dropper. I am pleased to report some success. The big toe nail has grown properly and is no longer separated from the nail bed. It may be a coincidence but when I ran over my foot with an airline trolley, I bruised the big toe nail quite badly but only the hollow part filled up with blood. When the bruised part grew out it was no longer separated. (I do not suggest that you hammer your nails. That would be silly.) I have not been so successful with the other nail. I had been consistently filing it down with an emery board and applying manuka oil. I know that it is a long process but find it difficult to see how progress can be recognised within a few days. I stopped filing the nail but continued with the application every day. The nail grew but grew back thickened and yellow. I am now using coconut oil, tea tree oil and manuka oil and every now and again I put a few drops of surgical spirit on it. This is war! I think that I have not made much progress with this nail because I have been wearing boots and shoes for the past 6 months. For the next 6 months, I intend to wear open toed sandals until the Autumn kicks in. I hope to update you then, meanwhile I think I shall get some lemongrass oil. It must be very satisfying to see the fungus turn black, yeah! turn black and die you fungus!

I have been using Manuka Oil for 3 weeks. Manuka Oil is New Zealand's equivalent to Australia's Tea Tree Oil. I was using Tree Oil before that and the nails seemed to be improving slowly and steadily however I read on the web that Manuka Oil is 10 times more potent than Tea Tree Oil for fungal problems. It is too early to say if Manuka Oil is a miracle cure and matters were not helped when I ran over the affected toes with a heavy airline trolley. The bruised nails are growing out and the areas affected by the fungus seem to be shrinking. I use an emery board to file the nails so that they are thinner and more likely to absorb the oil down to the nail bed. I have had fungal nails for at least 5 years but have only seriously started to tackle the problem a few months ago. Prior to that I hid the problem under layers of nail polish which, of course, just made them worse.

I've used milk of magnesia (dry COMPLETELY) for skin fungal infections. Desitin works too.

I have used vinegar and monostat plus a wide range of expensive over the counter "cures" for toenail fungus. I'm thinking of using the vinegar and hydrogen peroxide. Most of these things "sort of worked" but only mildly and slowly. I'd get a patch of clear nail at the base, and a lessening of the under-nail build up, only to have the fungus rush in and take over the whole nail again if I missed any treatments. I used Listerine-type mouthwash only by accident, because both big toes and one smaller toe became infected and I was too poor to visit the doctor. I was only hoping to control the infection long enough to be able to get medical help. Imagine my amazement when I found not only the infection cured in just a day or so, but also the fungus problem both in the nail and beneath the nail make dramatic improvements. I am angry because the medical establishment should be aware of this and other cures which are readily available to the public at a cost which almost every person in this nation CAN afford. I am angry because I would not have had the nail fungus get to the point it has, except due to the medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry, I have been deliberately led to believe nail fungus was almost impossible to cure, and therefore any "home remedies" would have next to no effect in curing fungus, so I did not even try try until I accidentally got monostat on a "mole" and saw it instantly begin to "cure" the mole. I reasoned it might also help fungus. It did help, but nothing like the dramatic effect I've had with the mouthwash. Because of the misleading by our medical and pharmaceutical industry, I thought the progress I saw was the best I could hope for. The medical and pharmaceutical industry expect and demand to be paid immense amounts of money, so they can live like kings. To do this they apparently are either willing to lie or at best incredibly negligent, at a huge cost to the rest of us, in life and in health, as well as in money. My mother died with feet so badly infected with fungus and the subsequent infection, it was horrible. Had she known she could have cured the fungus problem with something as cheap and simple as mouthwash, she might be alive today. I know she believed toenail fungus to be extremely difficult or impossible to cure. It would have been nice to cure mine before my big toenail was totally destroyed. I'm hoping it will come back, but at least I have a real CURE. Plus I bet the other cures given here will also work. Meanwhile doctors collect vast sums of money to give people pills which destroy livers and cost a fortune. When they could simply advise them to use mouthwash! Isn't that what quacks are supposed to be guilty of?

I have been using Listerine on toe nails with good results. I tried many other things for the fungus. It is going to side 3/4 of fungus is gone now It be all gone but forget to put on every day. I would like people to try it and would like to know if it helped anyone else. Both of my big toe nails are 3/4 clear from the side not from the bottom.

Soak feet once a week in an antibacterial wash. Found cure on Diva's Home Remedies. I purchased a large cheap bottle of mouthwash mixed half with water in foot tub. After a couple of weeks the fungus will disappear. Do not purchase dark colored mouthwash as this puts a tinted color on skin. I'm sure if you had a fingernail fungus you can put mouthwash in a cup and soak finger once a week and be cured.

I've been reading this forum and using the curse to no avail. I realized that under my sink I now had tea tree oil, vicks, oregano oil, lugol's iodine, white iodine and coconut oil. I figured maybe if one didn't help I would bombard my nails until I used everything under my sink. I started with filing the nail down and whenever I got out of the shower I put a drop of iodine on the nail bed. Sure it turned my nail and ugly brown but I was tired of twenty yeas of fungus on each of my pinkie toenails. For the next three months, whenever I walked into the bathroom I applied and alternated between cures basting my nails up to five times a day. I also took a nail brush and used some coal tar dried scalp shampoo taking up space in my shower. Before I put on socks I applied either one of the several oils or vicks and changed my socks daily. Shock and Awe worked. I am fungus free for the first time. These natural solutions work but maybe you just haven't found the right combination.

I've had toenail fungus for years but was slow on the uptake. At first my last two nails on each foot grew in deformed and separated from the nailbed, growing upward. Eventually my big toenails grew in ribbed and discolored. They also began to separate from the nailbed and developed white patches. I also developed my first Ingrown nail. After a lot of research I began using tea tree oil along with alcohol, hydrogen peroxide and ACV. Two months in my nails are growing in clear and smooth!

Here's the regimen that works for me: (I keep the nails trimmed very short. I clean my tools regularly as well. ) In my morning shower I scrub my nails with a designated toothbrush and Dr. Bronners peppermint oil soap. Before I step out of the tub, I spray my toes with hydrogen peroxide. ( It comes in spray bottles at my local drug store)

Next, I swab my nails with alcohol on a cotton ball, then with ACV on a cotton ball, then I paint my nails and cuticles with a qtip and tea tree oil. I follow the same regimen at night. From other posts I've learned I've got to keep this up long after it appears the fungus is gone. I use this regimen because it's easy, cheap and I can sustain it over time. And it's working! It took only a few days for the white patches to disappear and of course the whole nail needs to grow in to see results.

I also have begun drinking lemon water to alkalize. Don't know which is helping the most but I suspect it's the tea tree oil given that's what I use the most of. These items are inexpensive and I'm grateful I didn't try medication as my friend did. Her fungus has cleared up but she's concerned about liver problems.

As an added bonus... My feet are always clean and I feel I am nurturing myself every time I take care of them.

I've had toenail fungus for years but was slow on the uptake. At first my last two nails on each foot grew in deformed and separated from the nailbed, growing upward. Eventually my big toenails grew in ribbed and discolored. They also began to separate from the nailbed and developed white patches. I also developed my first Ingrown nail. After a lot of research I began using tea tree oil along with alcohol, hydrogen peroxide and ACV. Two months in my nails are growing in clear and smooth!

Here's the regimen that works for me: (I keep the nails trimmed very short. I clean my tools regularly as well. ) In my morning shower I scrub my nails with a designated toothbrush and Dr. Bronners peppermint oil soap. Before I step out of the tub, I spray my toes with hydrogen peroxide. ( It comes in spray bottles at my local drug store)

Next, I swab my nails with alcohol on a cotton ball, then with ACV on a cotton ball, then I paint my nails and cuticles with a qtip and tea tree oil. I follow the same regimen at night. From other posts I've learned I've got to keep this up long after it appears the fungus is gone. I use this regimen because it's easy, cheap and I can sustain it over time. And it's working! It took only a few days for the white patches to disappear and of course the whole nail needs to grow in to see results.

I also have begun drinking lemon water to alkalize. Don't know which is helping the most but I suspect it's the tea tree oil given that's what I use the most of. These items are inexpensive and I'm grateful I didn't try medication as my friend did. Her fungus has cleared up but she's concerned about liver problems.

As an added bonus... My feet are always clean and I feel I am nurturing myself every time I take care of them.