Common Home treatments for Nail Fungus Infections - By: Greg Neal

If you have had a nail fungal infection, finding an useful remedy is of real importance to you. Finding home treatments for nail fungus infections can be extremely advantageous because the prescription medication the physician gives you, has some enormous disadvantages. First of all, it is extremely expensive and is often not covered by your insurance. They also come with some serious side effects, especially on your liver. Like any nail fungus remedy, oral prescriptions take a considerable amount of time to work.

Depending upon the severity of your nail fungus infection, home remedies can and do work...it just depends on the circumstances and how diligant you are in staying with the treatment. Some just don't work, period, and you are wasting your time with them. Hopefully this article will give you the information you need in finding one that works.

The first one we will discuss is Listerine. Yes, the mouthwash, and believe it or not, it does have some good anti-fungal and anti-bacterial elements to it. This oral hygiene product works pretty good on mild cases of nail fungus. It will not work if the fungal infection is in the nail bed itself. Listerine cannot penetrate far enough into the nail bed to knock out the fungus. If you do use it, soak your nails in it for 10 to 20 minutes a day. Preferably at night before going to bed.

Vicks Vaporub may also work for you, but there are problems with the application marking bed linen and being rubbed off in the course of the night. Wearing a protective cover can aggravate the condition because to the protection could retain moisture, providing a beneficial environment for the fungus. Not something you really want to do!

Another option is colloidal silver, which has anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties. It can be applied topically as well as taken internally. If you do decide to take it internally, please be warned that it may destroy your intestinal flora and you may end up with needing to take a probiotic for this. What you need to do is not take more than a teaspoonful at a time and keep it in your mouth, swirling it around for 5 – 10 minutes so that the silver is absorbed through the mucus membranes of the mouth. You may then swallow or spit the remainder out. Colloidal silver will penetrate adequately.

There are further home remedies involving apple cider vinegar, tea tree oil, lavender oil or oregano oil. All of these suffer from the disadvantage that they may not penetrate enough. But they may certainly be effective, especially if used with a carrier oil like olive oil.

Dr. Jonathan Wright (Tahoma Clinic in Seattle, Washington) recommends using iodide (SSKI) along with dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO). He suggests a 50-50 mixture of the two elements. The DMSO allows for deeper penetration into the nail bed which gives the iodide a chance to work more effectively. This treatment has shown nail improvement in as little as two months. You can also use DMSO with some of the other topical applications mentioned above.

If you have this irritating problem you need to take care of it before it becomes so bad that medical attention becomes an urgent necessity. Perhaps a good idea would be to start with the SSKI/DMSO treatment. Dr Wright is well-known and respected for his highly effective treatments. But make sure not to become re-infected or infect others in your family. There are also other patent herbal remedies on the market which are reputed to be highly effective - although I would be suspicious of any claiming overnight cures without substantial independent evidence. Effective nail fungus remedies are obviously highly important to people with this condition and we would be pleased if this information has helped you.

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There are a few other natural herbal remedies being sold that can be helpful as well. Again, these treatments will work well on mild cases of nail fungus. If you have a severe case, you are going to most likely require help from your doctor with an oral prescription. For additional information on Toe Fungus Treatment, please visit Natural Health Wellness Review.

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