The comments below reflect the personal experiences and opinions of readers and do not represent medical advice or the views of this website. The information shared has not been evaluated by the FDA and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or prevent any disease or health condition. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional for medical concerns.
Lemongrass Essential Oil
Posted by Joan (Stony Brook, US) on 03/24/2007
★★★★★
I tried lemongrass on my toe fungus, and yes, it turned black overnight. My question is, what next? I used it full strength with no ill effect so far. Do I continue to use it, if so, how often and for how long? Thanks so much.
Lemongrass Essential Oil
Posted by Melissa (Staten Island, New York) on 04/25/2007
★★★★★
Lemongrass Oil. Wow...Turned Black overnight. However, I am curious, do you keep applying 2x daily and just wait for it to grow out? I'm so happy that it looks like it's dying. It does mean it's dying when it turns black right? I've also adjusted my diet and included flaxseed-Oil and Evening Primose caplets and have been drinking 2 oz Unsweetned (not Sugar free but Knudsens sugar free) Cranberry juice diluted with water. 64 oz a day. I will take your advice Ted and begin to cleanse my bloodstream with the baking soda, Citric Acid and water mix. Just need this to be at least half way gone for Sandal season.
Natural Mineral Springs
Posted by Jim (San Matero, CA) on 01/24/2007
★★★★★
Best cure I found for toenail fungus was camping on a river with a very hot natural mineral Springs that I walked in each day cured fungus I had been trying to cure for a year with over the counter. My Dr. says do not use the prescription on tv for any reason as only works on 60%, and causes liver damage in about 1/4 of healthy individuals using the products...said it was very risky even with blood tests.
Tea Tree, Lavender, Rosemary Oils
Posted by Susan (USA) on 03/17/2007
★★★★★
Lynn from Danby, VT writes: "Perfect cure for toe fungus, and it rids your shoes and sox of any crud as well. A third of each of these:
tea tree oil
lavender oil
red rosemary oil
Cotton ball dab all over. Pull on sox and shoes..and, voila! It's gone in a shake. Also smells wonderful. I used to put a dab in all of our trash brown bags when we were selling our house. Everyone asked what smelled so wonderful!
Rubbing Alcohol
Posted by Rebecca (Victoria, BC, Canada) on 03/15/2007
★★★★★
I had a severe fungal infection under my big toenail. My doctor prescribed antibiotics that I would need to take for a year (lamisil?); this drug had a risk of serious side effects and also required completely giving up drinking alcohol for a year! Before taking the antibiotic, I decided to try just applying rubbing alcohol (50% alcohol readily available and cheap at any pharmacy) twice a day.
I put the alcohol in an eye-dropper and was careful to get as much under the nail as possible; I also cleaned out dead skin if necessary. I did this twice a day, and also at any time when my feet got wet. I saw progress very soon, and the fungus was completely clear in 6 months. I did not lose the nail as had been predicted. I did not change my diet, stop drinking, or take any special supplements - just the external rubbing alcohol directly on/under the infected toenail.
Worth a try for a month; if you are diligent you will see progress and this has to be the cheapest, easiest way to handle the problem.
Yellow Corn Meal
Posted by Ellen (Redwood Shores, California) on 03/26/2007
★★★★☆
To Allen regarding Cornmeal: For several months last summer, I used the same cornmeal treatment. I made progress and got lazy. I probably used it about 10 times. 7-10 days apart. Now I am doing it once again. I started a month ago and have used it 3 times. My toenails never fell off. You used it only 3 times??? I have a 35 year old infection. I do know it works, it's just keeping up with the weekly soaks-- it takes so much time!
Yellow Corn Meal
Posted by Allen (Fort Worth, Texas) on 03/24/2007
★★★★★
Toe nail fungus that I experienced was cured by soaking my feet in a yellow cormeal solution. you need a footbath and a small bag of yellow corn meal. Empty bag into footbath and add enough water to cover cornmel. Let cornmeal soak for i hour. after one hour add about one and a half inches of water and soak your feet for two hours..I had yellow nails and nails fell off with fungus. I was cured after three treatments two weeks apart..good luck
Alkalize
Posted by John (Perth, Australia) on 02/08/2007
★★★★★
I think that alkalizing had the biggest affect on curing my nail fungus. I undertook a number of means to alkalize. That included virgin coconut oil, olive leaf extract, alkalized water, alkaline foods, zeolite, heavy metal detox, etc. I also found that wearing a poultice of zeolite powder and cayenne pepper also has good healing properties. I would often soak my feed in zeolite and acidic water. And after I put my socks on, I would soak some coconut oil and essential oils into the sock just above the nail. But I think the ultimate cause is being too acidic (I had candida too). I have now raised my pH to over 7.0 - up from less than 5.0 a few months ago. My ORP has changed from -ve 20 mV to close to -ve 200 mV. From what I have read, fungus can't exist in an alkaline body.
Garlic
Posted by Sharon (Chicago, Illinois, USA) on 07/06/2007
★★★★★
To treat my tonenail fungus, I followed J. Riley from Honolulu's advice to first trim back all the dead nail with a cuticle trimmer. Then I applied fresh garlic (I read recently that it has antifungal qualities). I chopped the garlic finely and added a little coarse salt to help grind it into a paste. Sensation is returning and all the skin appears to be tightening up and becoming healthy. The chopped garlic keeps well covered in the refrigerator and I apply it once or twice daily when I can walk around barefoot for an hour or two.
Cut the Nail Down
Posted by J. Riley (Honolulu, Hawaii) on 04/30/2007
★★★★★
I had nail fungus on most of my nails-over half of them. I had a problem years ago with only the thumb nail. This time it was really bad-I'd had artificial nails and I neglected them. When they were removed, my nails were absolutely gone-paper thin with fungus. After removal this continued to spread lower and lower. Over half of my nails had extensive fungus--apparent by the unattached white colored nails. Some were almost unattached all the way down to the "moon". From my other incident years ago I learned there is NO cure other than to cut away COMPLETELY ANY and ALL nail that isn't attached (debriding). I messed around with a thumbnail for over 2 years. Attended a doctor who game me Rx and told me to keep my nail dry-nearly impossible. Finally I got fed up and cut down the thumbnail all the way as far as I could. Knowing this, this time I cut back my nails completly all the way down as far as possible. This involved over half of most of them. Kind of hard on the eyes, but why screw around with all these liver damaging drugs, and soaking, and failures. Amazing! I marked the calendar: by the time 4 weeks had passed all of my nails had reached the point of where the natural quick is--except the 2 thumbnails-they're alot slower! It's been 6 weeks since I trimmed them all the way back. I did have to invest in some special clippers-"cuticle trimmers". Otherwise it would have been impossible to get rid of all the "white"with regular nail clippers. The clippers are about $14.00. Much better than Dr. bills, Rx's soaks, salves; Also much better than fooling around for weeks, months, and years. Generally for me, the smaller the nail, the faster the recovery. I would like to thank the manicurist on this site for her imput. She has been a manicurist for 19 years and her advice includes using clear iodine on your nails. This, she says makes the nails grow fast. I have a slow thyroid so the iodine thing is very intesting to me. The best part aobut ths whole thing is: Not only did my nails fill back in quickly, but now they are the strongest I've ever seen them! Almost every night I put the clear ("blanco") iodine on them. I'm not a doctor, but I would NEVER take any prescription drug that would damage the liver. That to me is unconsiousable. I am not a doctor and cannot advise others. All I wish to do is share how quickly this worked for me and how strong my nails are now! I'm very grateful!
Application Hints
Posted by Philip (Thunder Bay, Canada) on 02/20/2007
★★★★★
I have one foot cured and the other almost done with this new approach. I dip my toes in scalding hot water (one at a time) long enough that I can't take the pain anymore. I dry them off with a hair dryer and then apply antifungal ointment. I trim the nails as short as possible. I have been doing this for two weeks at bedtime and in the morning. It's working for me so far. I make their home small, hot, and poisonous. If they still want to live there, they will be uncomfortable
Application Hints
Posted by DeeDee (Sydney, Australia) on 02/03/2007
★★★★★
Just a hint for all the medications you try. I found it best to appy after showers, soaking etc. But also needed to use on perfectly dry nails like at bedtime. You can see the liquid being pulled in by the dry tissue. Cures work much quicker.
Fresh Air
Posted by Bob (San Franciso, CA) on 05/06/2007
★★★★★
Guaranteed Cure: I used air to cure my fungus. I just didnt wear shoes for a whole year (even in business meetings!) and sure enough it worked!
Epsom Salt
Posted by Ellen (Redwood Shores, CA) on 07/29/2007
★★★★★
For my toenail fungus, I've noticed with various soaking type remedies that the infection actually spreads--too much moisture for me. I was a little skeptical of the epsom salts in very hot water, but nonetheless I purchased the epsom salts and microwaved a couple of cups of water in a bowl. Stirred in the salts and then began dipping my feet in the water. It's too hot for me to leave in for more than a second or two, but it quickly cools down and the feet do get used to the hot water. I just keep dipping a second or two at a time. Normally, when I do use a remedy, I do both my big toenails. But this time, due to my problem with too much moisture, I decided to only treat my toenail with the most stubborn long standing fungus as I didn't want to make my "good" toenail worse. So then a month goes by and I notice that my "bad" toenail is half "pinkish" and I start to wonder why my toenail with the long standing stubborn infection is looking better than the other. Then the lightbulb comes on in my head. I did treat it differently. Then about a week ago, once I realized that it must have been the epsom salts and the very hot water, I did it again, on both feet. Then the next day, I didn't feel very good and I realized that I was probably experiencing the die-off effect, with the fungus releasing their toxins as they're dying. I still am doing multiple (6 or so) remedies, concurrently. In addition, I stopped drinking alcohol and having any sugar--cakes, donuts, candy bars, ice cream, etc. I still do have pasta, potatoes and bread. Since I just did the other toenail only one week ago, I'll still have to wait to see the effects. But I am extremely gratified to see the worse toenail now is half pink with the outer half being brown with white marbling growing out.
Neem Oil
Posted by Otti (Tampa, Florida) on 08/06/2007
★★★★★
I discovered an awesome natural remedy for any yeast infections and fungus - neem tree see oil. It even works on plants, not just my boyfriend's toe nail fungus. However, the seed oil smells worse than garlic but it is so very strong and powerful. Mixing it with an essential oil can help with that smell. Other neem tree extracts can cure viral infections as well and can be taken orally. I have used the seed oil on my cold sore (mixed with carmex because of the smell) and it stopped the herpes outbreak immediately.
