Natural Remedies for Nail Fungus: Home Treatments

Cayenne

Posted by Thomas (Los Angeles, CA) on 06/17/2007
★★★★★

Guaranteed to clear nail fungus a lot faster than other methods. Mix cayenne pepper with water and spread on THICK like paste. Pull on socks without disturbing paste. Will clear nails in 4 - 7 weeks.

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.

Mouthwash

Posted by Alice (Sierra Vista, AZ) on 12/07/2006
★★★★★

I have used vinegar and monostat plus a wide range of expensive over the counter "cures" for toenail fungus. I'm thinking of using the vinegar and hydrogen peroxide. Most of these things "sort of worked" but only mildly and slowly. I'd get a patch of clear nail at the base, and a lessening of the under-nail build up, only to have the fungus rush in and take over the whole nail again if I missed any treatments. I used Listerine-type mouthwash only by accident, because both big toes and one smaller toe became infected and I was too poor to visit the doctor. I was only hoping to control the infection long enough to be able to get medical help. Imagine my amazement when I found not only the infection cured in just a day or so, but also the fungus problem both in the nail and beneath the nail make dramatic improvements. I am angry because the medical establishment should be aware of this and other cures which are readily available to the public at a cost which almost every person in this nation CAN afford. I am angry because I would not have had the nail fungus get to the point it has, except due to the medical profession and the pharmaceutical industry, I have been deliberately led to believe nail fungus was almost impossible to cure, and therefore any "home remedies" would have next to no effect in curing fungus, so I did not even try try until I accidentally got monostat on a "mole" and saw it instantly begin to "cure" the mole. I reasoned it might also help fungus. It did help, but nothing like the dramatic effect I've had with the mouthwash. Because of the misleading by our medical and pharmaceutical industry, I thought the progress I saw was the best I could hope for. The medical and pharmaceutical industry expect and demand to be paid immense amounts of money, so they can live like kings. To do this they apparently are either willing to lie or at best incredibly negligent, at a huge cost to the rest of us, in life and in health, as well as in money. My mother died with feet so badly infected with fungus and the subsequent infection, it was horrible. Had she known she could have cured the fungus problem with something as cheap and simple as mouthwash, she might be alive today. I know she believed toenail fungus to be extremely difficult or impossible to cure. It would have been nice to cure mine before my big toenail was totally destroyed. I'm hoping it will come back, but at least I have a real CURE. Plus I bet the other cures given here will also work. Meanwhile doctors collect vast sums of money to give people pills which destroy livers and cost a fortune. When they could simply advise them to use mouthwash! Isn't that what quacks are supposed to be guilty of?

Application Hints

Posted by Alex (Thessaloniki) on 12/19/2023
★★★★★

For better results and penetration of every active ingredient you use, a Scholl product suggests filing the infected nail first. Their plan is to file the nail once per week (with a new or disinfected file) but apply the active ingredient every day. Repeat this for four weeks. Then in the second stage of protection just aply once per week until the new nail is developed and no discoloration exists.

Urine Therapy

Posted by Linda B. (Oregon) on 02/11/2022
★★★★★

Have you ever heard of using urine? My husband had toenail fungus so bad he literally had no nails on both big toes! I heard about using urine and finally talked him into peeing into a shallow pan and soaking his feet for a few minutes. I could only get him to do it once as he thought I was crazy but after a few months, his nails started to grow back to normal! I still can't believe it worked after only one quick treatment.

PS, it's free😍

DIY Hand Sanitizer

Posted by Redj (Cuba) on 06/20/2020
★★★★★

This cure is based on a scientific study with good results (DOI: 10.7547/87507315-89-3-124) and made into DIY home remedy.

The study used a solution of 0.1% Benzalkonium chloride which is a common ingredient in non-alcohol based hand sanitizer. At 0.1% there is no risk of skin irritation unless you are allergic.

The other ingredient was allantoin which is a mild keratolytic and surfactant. This can be replaced with a crushed up aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid), dissolved in approximately 100ml of solution. Mild body soap may also be added in a small amount however this isn't necessary but it may help.

The study applied the treatment to the infected nail and the base of the nail twice daily over 10 months.

RECIPE

• Benzalkonium chloride 0.1% (Non-alcohol based hand sanitizer or a concentrate diluted appropriately)

• 1 crushed aspirin, dissolved in 100ml of solution (optional, dilute further or omit if you experience a skin reaction)

• A small amount of gentle soap or bodywash (optional, omit if you experience a skin reaction)

METHOD

Cut away all excess infected nail with separate nail scissors or clippers so that you don't spread the infection to other nails.

Using a separate file, file back the nail on all surfaces well often. Ideally this should be repeated at least twice a week or more for best results.

Apply solution to infected nails once in the morning and once in the evening, ensuring that you cover underneath the nail where possible and where the base of the nail joins your finger or toe. Ensure that you apply the solution after showering and drying yourself for best results.

Continue until the infected nail has been removed and only uninfected nail remains.

DISCUSSION

This is a safe method of long-term treatment of nail fungus which has good results in controlled study environments.

Hand sanitizer can be applied regularly to the skin and left to dry and has very low risk of causing irritation.

I have personally been applying this solution regularly for about a month and a half and I can see a clear diagonal line of new, uninfected nail emerging from the base of my infected toe. I have often applied the solution more often than twice a day with no ill effects.

If you are a busy person or you have a disability which makes this sort of treatment regime difficult you can try applying the solution to a cotton ball or similar and attaching this to your infected nail using tape or a band-aid. The benefit of this is that you can re-wet the bandage for reapplication of the treatment, and as the solution remains in contact with the infected nail for a longer period this should result in a higher success rate. Ensure that you pay close attention to ensure that you are not causing irritation with the prolonged skin contact from this method.

10-Undecylenic Acid

Posted by E. (Bklyn, NY) on 01/24/2019
★★★★☆

Hi, How can I find out more about using the undecyclinic acid on empty stomach for toe nail fungus?? Thank you.

Vicks

Posted by Suzy (Hemel, Hempstead ) on 01/02/2018
★★★★★

My daughter had nail fungus on her toes. The doctors said they don't describe it on prescription anymore for children so it was nearly £20 for a small tiny bottle that would last a month and would need more each month for 7/8 months Dr said.

I came on here and choose to give Vicks a go and within a couple of weeks of putting Vicks on each day it has totally cleared up, so a big saving. thank you :)

How to Self-Test for Internal Fungus

Posted by Robert Henry (Ten Mile , Tn) on 11/06/2017

HOLLY,,,,,,, you seal the sterile jar, so only your saliva is involved. That's the way my doctor does it.

======ORH======

Baking Soda

Posted by Deborah (Michigan) on 08/10/2017
★★★★★

I have suffered from toenail fungus on a toe that got injured, years back, and I have erratically tried the medication from the drugstore, and a doctor prescribed some for me that can damage your liver, et cetera. I will not take anything like that that hurts my liver, so I had to find alternative ways to do it. For a while I soaked my feet in warm water and dish soap to soften the nails and then I purchased one of the battery operated nail files and filed the diseased nail down. Eventually I got rid of most of the unsightly nail, and change my socks twice a day. It was amazing how much the filing took care of it, and then air was able to get it the rest of the nail bed and the healthier nails. I have noticed that is a little tiny bit in the one corner that I don't want to encourage to go on so I purchased a heavy duty nail file and keep it filed down, and now I put a paste of baking soda on it and let it sit on it. It looks better! So I'm pretty excited about that. I'm thinking I'll also try the apple cider vinegar. Thank you for your great article I've been looking for this help for a long time. It's encouraging to know I'm not alone in this.

Multiple Remedies

Posted by Kitchenwitch (New York) on 06/12/2017
★★★★★

I've been reading this forum and using the curse to no avail. I realized that under my sink I now had tea tree oil, vicks, oregano oil, lugol's iodine, white iodine and coconut oil. I figured maybe if one didn't help I would bombard my nails until I used everything under my sink. I started with filing the nail down and whenever I got out of the shower I put a drop of iodine on the nail bed. Sure it turned my nail and ugly brown but I was tired of twenty yeas of fungus on each of my pinkie toenails. For the next three months, whenever I walked into the bathroom I applied and alternated between cures basting my nails up to five times a day. I also took a nail brush and used some coal tar dried scalp shampoo taking up space in my shower. Before I put on socks I applied either one of the several oils or vicks and changed my socks daily. Shock and Awe worked. I am fungus free for the first time. These natural solutions work but maybe you just haven't found the right combination.

Vicks

Posted by Gman (Alabama) on 03/28/2017 6 posts
★★★★★

I've tried many things for nail fungus and my toenails just kept getting thicker and didn't seem to be getting better. But just a couple of weeks of the vapor rub showed definite improvement. I think I will finally cure my toenail problem and finally enjoy healthy toes with no ugly fungus.

Iodine

Posted by Cindy Mick (Ohio) on 05/15/2016
★★★★★

I also used iodine and it was very successful in curing the toe nail fungus. Every morning and night for about 4 months.

Bleach

Posted by Timh (Ky) on 08/14/2017 2042 posts

Try using Povidone Iodine 10% from local market or drugstore/pharmacy. You can apply directly or add to a warm water foot-bath.

You will also need to do an internal Candida Cleanse which may also include other cleanses like heavy metal, parasite, gallbladder, and colon, as fungal infections are most times opportunistic meaning you have chronic immune suppression.

Check out Bill's book Killing So Sweetly here on E.C.

Grapefruit Seed Extract

Posted by Renee (Utah) on 07/10/2015
★★★★★

I started with grapefruit seed extract and take 10 drops internally 3 x day in water. I also rub it on my toenail 2-3 times a day. The next day the hard stuff behind my nail started to soften and I could remove some. Each day I am seeing improvement. It is just amazing.

Listerine

Posted by Nichole (Washington, DC) on 02/02/2013
★★★★★

On both of my feet, the second toe from the big toe were discolored, as well as the other three small toes on my left foot, and two of the other toes on my right foot. This has been very distressing! I tried tea tree oil by itself with no results. After seeing that some people had used hydrogen peroxide, I planned to get that. Since I was desperate to start immediately, I used my generic whitening mouthwash listerine, which has hydrogen peroxide as its second ingredient, because I already had that. I used a cotton ball and applied it liberally on all of my toes taking care to get as much as possible below the cuticle and under the toe nail. Then I applied tea tree oil. I did this twice a day (morning at night) and followed up with vicks vapo rub at night before putting on socks. I am one week into my routine and three of my darkest nails have gone from black to 95% normal! They are pink. I am so happy. I will continue until I have totally nice and fungus free toes. I also cut off as much of the dark toe nail as I can each night or every other night as well as any surrounding flaking skin that needed to go.

Listerine

Posted by Big Joe (Chicago, Il) on 10/23/2012
★★★★★

I had these ugly yellow toe nails. I hated them. I would gargle with Listerine and then afterwards put my bare feet into the sink, one at a time, and spit the Listerine on them. Then I would just let it dry on them. They went away in about 10 days.

I guess you could apply Listerine directly or tape a cotton bandage to your toes, but this is what I did and it worked. I used just the standard yellow Listerine.

Listerine

Posted by Beth (Kirkland, Wa) on 03/24/2012
★★★★★

I've had fungus on 5 of my toenails for over 20 years. It started with injuries to my nails from running many miles and then subsequent infection. The affected nails were yellow and at least 5 times as thick as normal nails and deformed in shape. I would have to file the surfaces with a very abrasive file to get the nail thin enough to be able to hide with nail polish.

I did not want to subject my body to long treatments of meds that might harm my liver, so I decided to use Listerine at night and Vicks during the day. Be aware that this treatment can take a couple of months, but it does work!! Be patient. I had an especially stubborn fungus. The first thing I did was file nails down as thin as possible without pain, as to remove as much damaged nail as possible. Every other night before bed I would put band aids around toes with the "non-sticky/white" part facing/touching the nail. I then used a syringe to squirt some Listerine inside the bandage - this way nails would be "soaking" all night. During the treatment time remember to keep nails extra short and filed thin so that there is not as much bio burden for Listerine to work through. In the am, take bandages off and let nails dry a bit before putting a dab of Vicks Vapor Rub on the toenails - no band aids, just socks. I did this every other day for about two months. Fungus is gone and I have normal pink flat nails again!!

Ted's Remedies

Posted by David (Denver, Co) on 03/07/2011
★★★★★

Editor's Choice

Yea for Ted's Remedy -

Thanks Ted, I have dealt with toe nail fungus for about 6 years. I actually took the pills (which have gone generic in the last 2 or so years, dropping the price considerably) but noticed a huge effect on my health while doing so. It was sucessful in curing 4 of 5 affected nails, it took about a year and a half to see the results. One toe nail in particular looked suspcious so was applying ACV to it, along with an over the counter fungus remover. It was masked but never really cured, it was on a smaller toe so it wasn't very noticable and I ignored it for a while. This winter I vowed to have another go at curing it and came upon this site.

Ted's recommendation worked wonders for me. I filed down the nail as much as possible, I thought I went to far as I started to feel a bit of irritation and some very slow bleeding but proceeded anyway. I put ACV, H2O2, and a small amount of listerine (another site's recommendation) in a bucket to soak the affected foot. After I would follow up with the bleach/water solution. In the morning I would coat the foot with the Tree/Lavender oil (mixed with vasoline) and at night after the soak I would use Lamisl and I would re-coat with the Tree/Lavender before bed. After 3 days I saw that the nail had hardened under where I had previously filed. The portion under the nail, that I though was the nail bed was really just infected nail that was soft and looked and acted like nail bed (and actually bled), it was really a surprise and now I know where the reinfection was coming from. I re-filed the area again (no bleeding or irritation this time) and saw a huge improvement in the general area and nail, along with dead skin sloughing off of my foot. I have been at it for 2 weeks with exellent results and the new toe nail coming in looks great. I believe that with diligence and this method I will end this stupid thing that has inconvienced my summers for too long. I wanted to leave my feedback and say thanks my foot health in general is so much better. I wanted to comment that a lot of dead skin on the foot may be the same fungus as what can work its way under the nail, I have had a similar dissapearance of that dead skin on my foot while taking the pills and now while doing this soaking method.

I also wanted to leave feedback to some of the other users of this method. I believe that some other people that have different symptoms (i.e. Not just nail fungus) and should look at different methods as this can be pretty agressive on the skin. For instance, start with the recommended soaking times and if it irritates the condition, stop using. I have upped my soaking times in the past week to a few hours (for the ACV/H202) when available with no adverse effects on my feet.

Apple Cider Vinegar, Hydrogen Peroxide

Posted by Mary Moore (Memphis, Tn) on 02/02/2011

If people feet are not getting better they need to change there shoes. PEROXIDE AND VINEGAR ARE SOME OF THE BEST ANTISEPTICS. THE VINEGARS SOFTENS THE TOENAILS SO U CAN CUT THEM. THE VICKS SAS WILL STOP THE WORST FUNGUS ON YOUR FEET AND TOES AND CUT THE TOENAILS SHORT. PROBABLY NEED TO TAKE SOMETHING BY MOUTH IF THE FUNGUS HAVE GOTTEN UNDER THE TOENAIL. THE ACID LEVEL IS PROBABLY TO HIGH.

ACV, Borax and Peroxide Soak

Posted by Bill (San Fernando, Luzon, Philippines) on 09/23/2010

Hi Deidre... Wonderful to hear that you have finally rid yourself of and conquered the dreaded toe-nail yeast. I now also have a complete set of pink toe-nails for the first time in years!!

For me, it has all been a fairly long and fascinating road in trying to completely understand the way natural herbal remedies and natural body chemicals work to successfully heal our bodies. Now, I always make a point, even with skin or other outside body problems, to attack the infection/problem both topically as well as internally. In my own specific remedies, whether herbal or otherwise, I've always found that the regular internal use of magnesium chloride(10 drops mag oil in a half glass of water/day or transdermally), 5% lugol's iodine(high dose - 2 drops a day) and vitamin C powder(as ascorbate - megadose 5 grams a day), borax(weekly/monthly), fulvic acid(removes body toxins -- 10 drops, twice a day a day, in water), Ted's BS based alkalizing protocols(particularly Ted's citrate remedies) and dessicated liver (containing all necessary minerals, amino acids and vitamins for the body -- 3 large tabs twice a day) all seem to act synergistically and very positively on my own body with respect to increased energy and healing capability. I usually combine all the mineral and vitamins mentioned above into a drink taken with water -- twice a day outside mealtimes(taken after lunch and in the evening). The dessicated liver I take at mealtimes. And that's my preventative routine, which is all pretty non-intrusive to my own lifestyle. This preventative regimen is simple to follow and is relatively flexible and variable according to my needs. Apart from their many other benefits, I regularly use this standard combination as an efficient body-balancer, to increase the efficiency of both the body's hormone system as well as to put the immune system into turbo mode -- and to simultaneously create a very bad and unpleasant body terrain for any invading microbes. As a result, I haven't been ill with flu/cold etc for about 4 years now.

As an example and perhaps as more evidence and proof for the above, my girlfriend, who is a Filipina, recently caught a really nasty sore throat. She had an annoying dry cough, tickling sore throat, with bad headaches and nasal problems, and had difficulty sleeping because of aggravation from the aircon(I live in the tropics).

When she had caught this bug, I also noticed odd changes in my own nose and throat -- I was becoming ill with the same bug -- so I immediately upped my dosages/frequency of Ted's alkalizing remedies and minerals, vitamins etc as described above, to much higher dosages taken several times a day(this was all I did). The result was that my girlfriend's sore throat problem lasted for well over ten days but I never caught her bug, it never took off -- even though some of our friends caught the bug from her and suffered too, so the bug must have been quite contagious. I must also add that my girlfriend has a very good diet. Being a provincial Filipino, she eats fruit regularly and eats fish and vegetables with every meal(she even gets wihdrawal symptoms if she doesn't eat fish every day!! ... LOL). My girlfriend also prefers going to the doc rather than taking natural remedies, which is her own choice for sure. I prefer avoiding all anti-biotics and drugs whenever possible because of my past candida problems and experience.