Natural Remedies to Treat Athlete's Foot Effectively

Apple Cider Vinegar

Posted by Katrina (NYC) on 12/21/2008
★★★★★

Athletes Foot: I rented ice skates for 1-hr and next morning got an AF. I read all the solutions here and doing following:

ACV -- i soak my foot for 15 min
ACV+ wet clay -- I put it as a mask on my foot overnight-- improvements right away!!!
Oil of Oregano -- overnight-- great improvements!!!

Bleach

Posted by Steve (Hernando, MS.) on 11/19/2008
★★★★★

I researched the Internet found that bleach CO. in the early days listed that it cured foot fungus the big Government & Doctors did not like this it takes Big Money from their Big Pockets, the FDA forced the Company's to remove it. Foot Fungus is treatable I have done this with Great results there are some side effects, the fungus tries to survive I got rashes up my legs & back I almost gave up but I refused I found this site and others I do this as often as I can and have great results my toenails use to be yellow and thick now they are pink and feel GREAT!
http://www.pedsforparents.com/articles/2822.shtml
http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-131080893.html

http://antinailfungus.com/toenail-fungus/bleach-for-toenail-fungal-infection

Good Luck!

Apple Cider Vinegar

Posted by Bluebell (Acton, MA) on 11/14/2008

cool to hear you mention the coconut oil. I have used the oregano oil, after trying the tea tree oil and the ACV. They all made a difference and finally I put coconut oil all over my feet and that made a difference, too. I have lots of foot pain, too, such as plantar fascitis/spurs and I thought the coconut oil at night made them feel a bit better in the morning. Also, a cream with calendula in it made the inflammation feel better by morning when it was applied at night.

Salt Water

Posted by Jay (Altona, Fl) on 11/05/2008
★★★★★

Salt water cured Athletes Foot and Foot Odor

I keep a spray bottle in the bathroom filled with a mixture of salt and water. After showering I spray my feet with the saltwater and leave it on all day. By that I mean that I do not wash it off at all. This cured a case of athletes foot that was resistant to all OTC drugs I tried. I also spray the saltwater into my tennis shoes and that kills the fungus that is in the shoe.The saltwater also eliminates foot odor. I use about 1/2 (one half) cup of salt in the bottle.

Listerine

Posted by Megan (Jacksonville, FL) on 10/24/2008
★★★★★

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!

Cayenne

Posted by Larry (Dumageute, Philippines) on 10/08/2008
★★★★★

Editor's Choice

I had chronic athletes foot, i could never get rid of it. Over the counter creams such as lamisil controlled the problem but did not get rid of it. I then tried not using the creams and only apple cider vinegar instead. The result was disaster, rampant athletes foot. I was almost about to give up but did a final search and found postings on both Salt and Cayanne, so I decided to try an experiment. I made up a mixture of half salt and half cayenne pepper. I then Put a little bit of Lamasil cream on the infected area. Then while my finger still was sticky from the cream i dipped my finger in the salt/cayenne mixture and worked the powder into the infected area. The result was incredible. Noticible improvement after 24 hours. After two weeks, once a day, for the first time in years i am athletes foot free. I have no idea if it was the salt, the cayenne or the combination. I don't know if the Lamisil did anything more than provide a sticky base. But my feeling is don't change success. This combination worked fantastic for me.

Apple Cider Vinegar

Posted by Larry (Dumaguete, Philippines) on 10/08/2008
★☆☆☆☆

I had chronic athletes foot for years, i could never get rid of it. Over the counter creams such as lamisil controlled the problem but did not get rid of it. I then tried not using the creams and only apple cider vinegar instead. The result was disaster, rampant athletes foot, so this is a definite NAY, but amazingly I did find something that finally worked after many years! And it involves Cayenne pepper and salt, see my additional comment below under Cayenne.

Hypoallergenic Baby Wipes, Aloe

Posted by Doris (Santa Ana, CA, USA) on 09/12/2008
★★★★★

During years typing often had painful raw red skin, not peeled but just seemed eaten away - from using SHARED typewriters and pc keyboards. Would go to work with perfect skin, by day-end skin at base of inside palm and pinky sides of hand all raw red stinging peeled looking, sometimes very chapped or even cracking to bleed. Nice clean offices and people, just all shared copiers, phones, ofc eqpmt. Also some keyboards or machine casings had lead-base paint.

To clean surfaces Lysol spray stank, hydrogen peroxide bottles spooked bosses, but OK'd non-soapy-frothy kind of unscented hypoallergenic baby wipes. I baby wiped my own eqpmt, and my palms before work, after lunch, before leaving the ofc. I bought a small aloe vera plant for home. After work, I took a 1-inch aloe leaf piece, split open and put the gooey piece right on any raw skin for a minute. By morning any raw areas would have new skin. In a couple weeks, no more shared Athletes Hand and some other staff was using aloe vera hand lotion too. Big difference at work. My hands are all better.

Hydrogen Peroxide

Posted by Doris (Santa Ana, CA, USA) on 09/12/2008
★★★★★

Adding to my 04/28/08 entry. Pedicuring 82 yr old mom's Athl Feet, red chapped cracked heels she had thru my childhood years. Now her poorly cleaned large toenail had accumulated dead skin under nail with yucky dark fungus. I bought kitchen dishgloves dishpan scrubber-sponge hydrogen peroxide (HP). She couldn't reach to clean anymore. Athl Foot etc was up calves to her knees. In dishpan I mixed 4 cups comfy-hot water, 1 cup HP. Feet in pan, I scrub-sponged one leg. It didn't sting, Strongly tingled refreshingly like when your hand falls asleep. She didn't realize how numb Ath Ft made her feet sense of no feeling. Cleaned feet nerves felt like taking off thick socks for the first time. Dishwash gloves protected my hands while scrubbing. We both couldn't believe visual immediate result of no redness, and of powdery white dusty skin sloughing easily into water mixture. To do other leg, washed out dishpan, used new gloves, new sponge, fresh water-HP mix. Dust-size flakes came off her feet. Now with vigorous gentle sponge scrub, I could feel the difference between cleaned slick skin and slippery athl foot. Scrubbed 3 minutes foot-calf-knee per leg. CLEAN. Dumped water was thick with scaly powdery dead skin slough. Big point was Athl Ft numb feeling wasn't noticed till after cleaning. Last, I put aloe vera gel on each leg using 3rd pair kitchen latex gloves. Then used spray bottle of water-HP mix with paper towels to wipe dry, on her whole apartment especially shower stall, sink, commode, all chromework, doorknobs and sliding glass door-windows handles. Got her new shower flip flop sandals, sprayed them too. NOTE: Her bldg staff smelled vinegar-water wash I'd once used, which worked good enough, but staff said NO in case of doctor's meds conflict by skin absorption - go figure! HP has no smell. She does her own laundry, but now puts some HP in rinse cycle now. Thanks for this site. Years of Athl Ft - gone. It needs done 3X/year now.

EC: Doris, thank you so much for these detailed instructions!

Apple Cider Vinegar

Posted by Stephanie (Tampa, Florida) on 09/09/2008

You're probably very sensitive to the acid in the vinager. Try aveeno oatmeal bath soak, it will help with the irritation on your skin. Or plain oatmeal you can make a paste out of it but dont mix anything else with it besides water. The salt will dry out your skin, its no good for rash's. But like any skin allergy it will probably take a week or two to clear up. Also check to see if your sister wears perfume on her feet? alot of girls do maybe its not just the shoes, Hope this helps.

Oregano Oil

Posted by Jonna (NYC, NY, USA) on 07/27/2008
★★★★★

1:30am, Saturday Night: I read AC from West Midlands, England's post about using Garlic for Athlete's foot a few days ago and was eager to try it. I have had athlete's foot on and off for years. I also have deeply etched cracked heals which I understand is possibly a fungal infection. And then recently the skin around my right big toe started to peel and looks nasty as can be. I tried the best OTC for Athlete's Foot, but with limited success. Takes 5 days to go away and then comes back a couple weeks later.

We had just run out of garlic, so I opted instead for another powerful anti-fungal, Wild Oil of Oregano. I use OO for coughs and sinus infections and had about 15 capsules left. Before going to sleep, I punctured a capsule of oil and rubbed it over both of my feet, especially concentrating it on my big toe, in between my toes where the athelete's foot itched and the cracks on my heals. I put socks on so the oil wouldn't get all over the sheets. It doesn't smell bad at all -- much better than garlic for sure!

Just like AC reported, there was dramatic improvement by the morning! The infection around my big toe was 50% better... The blisters in between my toes had disappeared. The cracks in my heals have started to seal and are unbelievably soft... (I had been rubbing shea butter on the cracks every night, which helped, but not to this extent).

I did the Oregano oil 3 morning and night for 2 days, took a day off. The infection around my big toe is all but gone. No more peeling skin. The cracks on my heels continue to slowly improve. Tonight I switched to Grapefruit Seed Extract and my feet, normally cold, warmed up right away. This may be a great remedy for those suffering from cold hands and feet. My feet are still tinglingly warm 2 hours after applying the GSE.

I have the feeling that the GSE will work just as well as the Oregano Oil. I also am trying the GSE on my perioral dermatitis and will report back any improvements. I can tell you that the itchy postules around my nose have disappeared. I had to wash off the GSE after about 20 minutes because it started to burn.

Baker's Yeast

Posted by Francis (Montreal, Canada) on 07/25/2008
★★★★★

As a kid I use to have such a severe Athlete's Foot problem that I could not walk and my mother needed to drive me to school near by. Large bleeding wounds between toes puzzled the doctor who prescribe foot bath with baking soda but it just did not do anything. An old neighbor told my mother to find bakers yeast and mix it with water and apply a thick coat on my feet covered wit a plastic bag for the night.

After 1 week it was all gone, that was 40 years ago and never came back. I am not talking about the little dry yeast. This stuff is only available from bakeries and it comes in pound brick packed just like butter. Mix with water to have a tick goo, magic.

Urine

Posted by Jonny J (Woodland Park, Colorado) on 07/25/2008
★★★★★

YES! I also have been using urine for athletes foot and have ALWAYS had complete success. Just Like the post says, Just pee on your feet in the shower and it'll kill it dead. Don't be grossed out either. First of all you ARE in the shower. Secondly, If you read up on urine its not as bad as you may think. its even used (fresh) on the face in some cases. (I personally will use soap for that one though!)

Garlic

Posted by AC (West Midlands, England) on 07/21/2008
★★★★★

I read a post on EC that said:
[YEA] Anonymous writes: "I had athletes foot badly between two of my toes. I taped a cut piece of garlic onto the wound in the morning and looked at it the afternoon, and the skin was totally healed and looked like new. I couldn't believe it!"

It took me a long time to follow this advice, but when I did, I took it a few steps further.

1. I took garlic cloves and cut them into smaller pieces lengthwise.
2. I stuck each of the smaller pieces between my toes: the ones that had fungus and even the ones that didn't.
3. I put plastic/non-PVC wrap over the top part of my feet.
4. Put on a pair of thin socks and then another pair of thick socks.
5. Went to sleep.
6. Woke up, took garlic out and washed feet.
7. Fungus between feet was reduced dramatically.

In addition to the fungus problem between my toes, I apparently had some sort of fungus problem with my small toe. My small toenail was hard and black. The blackness reduced significantly, maybe by 40 or 50% overnight.

I smelled the garlic very strongly as I was sleeping but my husband (who hates garlic and won't even touch me if I eat it) says he didn't smell it at all.

I hope this helps someone! Coconut oil has also helped.

Apple Cider Vinegar and Hydrogen Peroxide

Posted by Margaret (Tallahassee, Florida) on 07/10/2008
★★★★★

Every summer I frequently get Athletes Foot and have spent numerous dollars on different medicines. They work for a while and then it returns. I decided to try a 1/2 and 1/2 mixture of Hydrogen Peroxide and ACV dabbed on all areas of my feet.Within 1 day all areas started to clear up and have healed completely!!!!!!! Now as a precaution I dab on a little each day, especially going out and walking through wet grass to water my plants. No more athletes foot problems! This really works!!!!

Nu-Stock

Posted by Jean (Franklin, WI) on 07/06/2008
★★★★★

A number of years ago, we acquired a German Shepherd with a severe case of mange, covering about 1/3 of his body. The vet's expensive prescription products hardly touched it. After a lot of study, I found a product generally used for horses to heal wounds and rashes. It's called Nu-Stock. It cleared the mange up after only 2 applications and it has never returned. His hair grew back very quickly, and although he wasn't too thrilled with the first application, he WANTED the second one very much. The itching stopped immediately.

A couple years later, my daughter had a rash that no doctor seemed able to get rid of. We tried the Nu-Stock and it cleared right up and hasn't returned.

I've had a problem with athlete's foot for years. I tried all the other remedies and it got rid of "most" of it, but there was a spot on the ball of one foot, including two toes where it just wouldn't go away. One day it occurred to me to try Nu-Stock. After just a couple of applications, the skin was back to normal, all itching gone, and it appears to be healing permanently. I think this is going to finally kill it!!!

Doing a little studying, I've found that Nu-Stock is 73% sulphur, 25% mineral oil, and 2% pine oil.

I've also discovered that there are other health products made for pets that aren't available for people. For instance, in the local Farm & Fleet, you can buy a cheap package of electrolytes for your pet's water. 16 oz. of DMSO was only $5. And there were other things as well, most of them in the section for horses! Isn't it amazing that you can buy products for your pets, cheaply, and you can't get prescription products that work for yourself???

EC: Yes, agreed! Years ago we bought a 5 lb container of glucosamine at a tack shop in Burbank, CA for about $45 to give to our dog for his arthritis. The tack shop also sold chondroitin in large containers too.

Urine

Posted by Steve (Plano, TX) on 05/08/2008
★★★★★

Urinating on Foot cures athletes foot. I know this sounds foul but it works and is free. I learned this in the Army since athletes foot is pretty common. Your first morning's urine is best because it will have the highest concentration of enzymes. So when taking a shower in the morning, try this procedure and you should see the fungus die off pretty quickly.

Apple Cider Vinegar

Posted by Teresa (Minnesota, USA) on 05/01/2008
★★★★★

Yes, ACV does cure dundruff but do you know it can cure athlete foot too... Just put acv on your affected foot 2x a day, do not rinse- let it dry.. yes it will sting but it will cure the athlete foot.you will see improvement on the first try by 2nd to 3rd day it will all be gone.

Hydrogen Peroxide

Posted by Doris (Santa Ana, CA USA) on 04/28/2008
★★★★★

Equal parts hydrogen peroxide and water in foot-bath bowl. Set feet in, and gently scrub with sponge. Good time to do it is after shower or bath and before bed. For worst cases, cotton swab damply all over affected foot skin. Immediately cleaned, no more co$$$tly stores remedies in very tiny tubes and bottles. Then, keep clean your barefoot walking or standing areas (shower, tub, etc). The immediate clean look and clean feel will be dramatic.