Athlete's Foot

[Laura]

Podiatrist here.
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There is also Castellani Paint. I think things like this, Gentian Violet and permanganate are rather aggressive, although they do work. Be careful and be aware of staining if you choose to use these. I can't advise on proper dilutions and treatment schedules.

I'm not even sure that potassium permanganate is easily available in the US as it is here at about any pharmacy. I think the US has gone firmly in the direction of pharmaceuticals and tries to discourage the older, cheaper remedies. Here, PP comes in little dose sized packets or tiny pills that you dissolve in the water. I've never experienced it being "aggressive" except in terms of really smacking the microbes of whatever ilk. We use it for wound cleaning and I cured a toenail fungus with it when the pharmaceuticals hadn't worked after years of application. I've stopped turning to the pharmaceutical creams and such now and pretty much go for the PP automatically.

 

[Muxel]

I mentioned "permanganate" to my GP and she immediately knew what I was talking about thank goodness. Of course she still loaded me up with all the pills and creams to turn a buck... But I thought I'd document my permanganate wash with some pics (you have to be signed in to view attachments).

Have to say thanks to Laura for doing us all a solid with the recommendation - I was reading a thread where people talked about having athlete's foot during the WW2 era and the nurse giving them purple crystals which did the trick... even how people would use it to tan their legs! (Now these were the kinds of tried-and-true anecdotes I was looking for!)

Thank you Yupo for your input as well, I looked up Whitfield's and it seems to be benzoic acid and salicylic acid in a base.

Now my feet are getting soaked and I pray to god it works.

 

[Muxel]

Here, PP comes in little dose sized packets or tiny pills that you dissolve in the water.

My GP straight up gave me the crystals in a small dispenser... Left me thinking that I could have sourced it myself from a lab supplier without the unnecessary expense.

Oh, and I remember back when I was a kid and got a wound at school the teacher would apply a purple paint as antiseptic - I'm pretty sure that was permanganate as well.

 

[MusicMan]

Hello again, Muxel. I just wanted to add that cotton socks would assist with keeping your feet dry. You could wear your work socks over the top of them. The polyester varieties seem to encourage the fungal growth. Same with underwear - you may find that you get 'jock itch' which is basically the same thing but in your groin area. If you work hard and break into a sweat this could be a problem in all your damp areas. Soldiers in wartime used to suffer dreadfully with the condition, and you would find that they would 'Go Commando' (not wear underclothes) to combat the problem.

 

[Fluffy]

You should look into Candida. Athlete's foot is one of the many symptoms of Candida overgrowth.

Here is a thread on this forum about it.

http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,9796.0.html

I was having problems with athlete's foot, along with other symptoms of Candida overgrowth. Now that I have been making progress fighting Candida overgrowth I know longer have athlete's foot issues.

Yup, agree here, my candida infection is a challenging one, when it's somewhat under control my athletes foot goes away.

What is your diet like?

Well that's interesting. Yesterday I ordered all the components to do a probiotic enema and am just about 2 weeks into a keto diet. My diet has been on and off, I did keto from jan to about march, then paleo till about june, then had a dissociative binging episode... and now am climbing back up to full keto. Basically fat bombs (no butter or cacao or egg yold), and meat with some veggies (zucchini, cabbage, avocado, onion).
I will look into my candida situation.

Long term keto diet will certainly help candida overgrowth if you can stick to it, if that's what the issue even is. Candida is tricky, my longest stint on keto was 4 months and although my candida did get a bit better in other places it didn't do much for my athletes foot. I was using sugar alcohols as sweetener which I had a intolerance to but didn't realise at the time until I stopped using it then started again.
What really knocked the socks off my candida problem was iodine. I was taking a very large dose, which I don't recommend unless you're really unwell with an infection and nothing else is working, it's a last option for me in the future. I had a resting heart rate of 120bpm and felt pretty awful, but no athletes foot, my tongue was pink for the first time i can remember and my digestion nice and smooth with no complaints.

Good luck finding the cause of your problem.

 

[Z...]

in addition to what everyone said about the diet there is a simple home remedy that seems to be working very well for this problem, apple cider vinegar diluted 1:1 with water in a sprayer bottle , spray generously between the toes and on foot twice a day.

 

[birk]

in addition to what everyone said about the diet there is a simple home remedy that seems to be working very well for this problem, apple cider vinegar diluted 1:1 with water in a sprayer bottle , spray generously between the toes and on foot twice a day.

I have treated it sucsessfully with undiluted ACV soaked cottonballs between toes. It might sting bit at first. I put on a sock to keep it in place and sleep with it overnight. After 2 or 3 nights it is gone, although I don`t think my cases have been very severe. But it might be worth a try.

 

[Foxx]

This isn't entirely related, but I did have something going on with my feet for a long time (not a huge problem, but I had smelly feet) and I thought it might have been a bacteria. I had tried just smearing iodine on my feet and it seemed to make some improvement, but didn't correct the problem, so I decided to try soaking my feet in warm water with iodine. I used a good amount of iodine, enough so that the water was a light brown/orange and so that my feet were a little stained by the end of the soaking, and soaked them for 30-45 minutes and that seemed to cure the problem and it hasn't come back (I think it's been about 2 months or so).

Since iodine is also an antifungal, I would suspect this method would work on athlete's foot as well, though of course caution should be used if one hasn't worked with iodine before or has had a strong reaction to it, to avoid any complications from it being absorbed by the skin.

 

[Yupo]

FYI, when I mentioned thinking PP was rather aggressive, it is because we used a much stronger solution of it than what is pictured here on this forum thread.
Hope it helps.

 

[Zar]

Much to consider and apply, thank you all for your info. I will start with candida and PP and work my way down. Hopefully you have success as well Muxel.

 

[kinyash]

Thanks for this thread. I've had athletes foot for as long as I can remember. The most common treatment is mycota powder which did not work for me. At one point in time I went to see a doctor who looked in horror at my feet and then prescribed enough antifungals to kill a horse.
I will try out the PP treatment. I also experimented with iodine foot soaks and that seemed to help but I did not keep up the treatment. I'll also read up on the candida thread.

 

[Muxel]

Checking in to say that it seems to have worked. Although it may be too soon to say, and I did it only once, but my feet aren't giving off any odor.

At least I know what to do if it comes round again. And I am minding my feet more, taking care to wear socks with my shoes, and keeping them dry.

 

[Laura]

Checking in to say that it seems to have worked. Although it may be too soon to say, and I did it only once, but my feet aren't giving off any odor.

At least I know what to do if it comes round again. And I am minding my feet more, taking care to wear socks with my shoes, and keeping them dry.

Don't just do it once or twice. Do it every day for two weeks. You can also wipe or rinse out your shoes with the PP solution and then dry them well. It really kills about everything.

 

[Yupo]

Don't just do it once or twice.

Ditto!

 

[Zar]

Don't just do it once or twice.

Ditto!

Tritto