Foot Fungus

It’s best to avoid Foot Fungus as it’s a annoying and gross condition. I had it once, and it took me a long time to recover fully. Athlete’s foot is the result of a fungus that lurks in showers and gyms. If your feet get near this contagious disease, you may catch it!

Although the condition typically affects the feet, it can spread to other areas of the body, including the groin. Athlete’s foot can be prevented by good hygiene, and is treated by a number of pharmaceutical and other treatments.

Athlete’s foot causes scaling, flaking, and itching of the affected skin. Blisters and cracked skin may also occur, leading to exposed raw tissue, pain, swelling, and inflammation. Secondary bacterial infection can accompany the fungal infection, sometimes requiring a course of oral antibiotics.

The infection can be spread to other areas of the body, such as the groin, and usually is called by a different name once it spreads, such as tinea corporis on the body or limbs and tinea cruris (jock itch or dhobi itch) for an infection of the groin.

Tinea pedis most often manifests between the toes, with the space between the fourth and fifth digits most commonly afflicted.

Athlete’s foot can usually be diagnosed by visual inspection of the skin, but where the diagnosis is in doubt direct microscopy of a potassium hydroxide preparation (known as a KOH test) may help rule out other possible causes, such as eczema or psoriasis.

If the above diagnoses are inconclusive or if a treatment regimen has already been started, a biopsy of the affected skin (i.e. a sample of the living skin tissue) can be taken for histological examination.

The fungi that cause athlete’s foot can live on shower floors, wet towels, and footwear. Athlete’s foot is caused by a fungus and can spread from person to person from shared contact with showers, towels, etc.

Hygiene therefore plays an important role in managing an athlete’s foot infection. Since fungi thrive in moist environments, it is very important to keep feet and footwear as dry as possible.

There are many conventional medications (over-the-counter and prescription) as well as alternative treatments for fungal skin infections, including athlete’s foot. Important with any treatment plan is the practice of good hygiene.

Several placebo controlled studies report that good foot hygiene alone can cure athlete’s foot even without medication in 30-40% of the cases.

However, placebo-controlled trials of allylamines and azoles for athlete’s foot consistently produce much higher percentages of cure than placebo.