Why does nail fungus appear? What are the signs of the disease? This disease destroys the nail plate and causes many problems. Our medical experts answered frequently asked questions and taught us how to cure it quickly with effective medicines.
According to statistics, 20% of the Earth's total population is susceptible to nail infections caused by parasitic fungi. This condition is called onychomycosis and is caused by nail fungus.
What is onychomycosis?
The disease is infectious in nature, infection occurs from person to person, as well as through contact and household through objects of common use. A fungal infection attacks the nail plate and eats away at it, destroying the nail.
Nail fungus most often occurs on toenails, since the feet are most susceptible to negative influences. However, the beginning of the development of the pathology is preceded by a weakening of the immune system, leading to a decrease in the body's defenses, which does not allow the immune system to be sufficiently effective in combating pathogens.
Some types of mycotic infections cause onychomycosis on the hands and feet:
- dermatophytes;
- yeast;
- musty;
- trichophytosis;
- microsporia;
- athlete's foot.
All fungal pathogens fall into two broad categories:
- Pathogenic.
- Conditionally pathogenic.
Pathogenic microorganisms are microorganisms that penetrate from the outside and cause harm to human life. Conditionally pathogenic agents are those that normally live on the skin, mucous membranes and keratinous areas of the human body, for example, fungi of the genus Candida.
Normally, the body coexists symbiotically with opportunistic pathogenic microorganisms. But with a decrease in immunity and favorable conditions, these organisms begin to develop uncontrollably, which leads to the emergence of a pathological process.
Why does nail fungus appear?
Common causes of ringworm may include the following:
- weakened immune system;
- concomitant chronic diseases (e. g. eczema, diabetes);
- non-compliance with personal hygiene rules;
- visit places where fungal infections are concentrated (bathhouse, sauna, swimming pool, public shower, water park);
- wear closed shoes, in which the feet are subject to profuse sweating;
- old age (after 65 years, natural immunity decreases);
- working environment conditions (working in a humid environment, with high ambient temperatures, when there is radiation, dusty and dirty environments).
Under these conditions, nail fungus develops on the hands and feet. It has been observed that the disease is also distributed by gender - men suffer almost 3 times more often than women.
How does the pathogen penetrate the nail plate?
The keratin plate itself is not vulnerable to the penetration of mycotic pathogens. For an infection to begin to develop, its integrity must be compromised. There are three main ways in which mycotic organisms enter:
- Through the nail plate due to injuries and damage to the keratin layer;
- Through the subungual notch;
- Through the proximal nail fold.
Conditionally pathogenic organisms often cause inflammation of the cuticle.
What types of onychomycosis are there?
The disease occurs in three types or stages, each of which differs in severity:
- Normotrophic type. Thin yellowish-gray stripes appear on the nail plate, fragility and brittleness appear, but subungual thickening and hyperkeratosis do not occur.
- Hypertrophic type. It appears when there was no treatment or it was selected incorrectly and ineffectively. Firstly, the phenomenon of subungual hyperkeratosis occurs, leading to thickening, which persists for a long time after successful treatment.
- Atrophic type. The most difficult phase of the disease. The nail becomes thinner, brittle and brittle, changes its color to dark grayish-brown, over time its growth stops and complete separation from the nail bed occurs.
Finding out the type of disease will allow you to decide how to treat nail fungus.
What are the symptoms of onychomycosis?
Signs that indicate a fungal infection:
- the appearance of light yellow or grayish stripes and spots on the nail plate, which makes its appearance painful;
- change in the color of the plaque to yellow, brown and brown, which darkens over time to black;
- the cuticle and proximal ridge become inflamed;
- the dish thickens and becomes fragile, brittle, brittle;
- a characteristic specific smell appears;
- Over time, the nail plate becomes completely detached.
How to diagnose the disease?
Changes in color, roughness, and chipping can help suspect onychomycosis. However, similar symptoms are also characteristic of many other diseases (e. g. eczema, psoriasis, lichen planus). Therefore, a medical examination is not enough.
With this problem you need to contact a dermatologist, podiatrist or mycologist. If it is difficult to differentiate the cause of the disease, you should contact a general practitioner or family doctor, who will refer you to a specialist. To adjust the treatment, it may be necessary to consult a surgeon.
When making the diagnosis, it is necessary to check the mycotic origin of the infection. To do this, a microscopic examination of the keratin thickening is carried out. However, to determine the type of pathogen, it is necessary to take a bacterial culture for analysis.
How to cure nail fungus?
Treatment is a long process, taking several months to a year and requiring significant effort from the patient.
Antifungal therapy depends on the route of exposure of the affected area and can be:
- local - use only local ointments and creams that affect the pathogen at the site of the lesion;
- systemic - use of systemic oral antifungals, necessary if the infection has penetrated the affected area through the bloodstream;
- combined - a combination of local and systemic therapy, which gives the best result.
As the most effective remedy for nail fungus, systemic preparations containing the following substances are used:
- ketoconazole substance— the effectiveness of treatment with this remedy is achieved in half of the cases, the approximate course is 8-12 months;
- itraconazole substanceis a popular antifungal medication that is effective in 85% of cases. Its clear advantage is the short treatment period - only 10 days;
- terbinafine hydrochloride substance- one of the best medicines that helps in 90% of cases. The course of treatment lasts up to 4 months for onychomycosis on the hands and from 6 months on the feet. However, the appearance altered by ringworm can persist for a long time – up to 50 weeks.
Systemic therapy is used in cases of moderate severity or more. Typically, oral antimycotics are combined with the use of local ointments. However, systemic agents have several side effects and can be toxic. Therefore, its use is not practiced in pregnant and lactating women, as well as in people with chronic metabolic and liver diseases.
Local remedies in the form of creams and ointments do not have a toxic effect, but are treated only in mild cases - when only ⅓ of the nail plate is changed and when there is no deep penetration of the pathogen into the keratin tissue. This is due to the fact that local products cannot penetrate deeply into the keratin layer.
In mild cases, when treatment was started in a timely manner, systemic agents can be dispensed with. However, with an advanced clinical picture, surgical elimination of the damaged area is sometimes necessary, and only then is local therapy carried out. Removal is painless and with subsequent antifungal treatment leads to complete recovery.