Is There a "Cure" for Toenail Fungus?

When I had my first run-in with toenail fungus, I hoped there might be some sort of cure for it. However, toenail fungus is just that - a fungus - that plagues your poor feet. Fungal spores are notoriously difficult to kill off, and some can survive outrageously high temperatures. So - are there any pills for toenail fungus?

The preeminent pill to treat toenail fungus is Lamisil. It is very powerful stuff... perhaps too powerful. There are a number of potential, yet very detrimental side effects, including these from rxlist.com:

"Some people taking terbinafine have developed severe liver damage leading to liver transplant or death. It is not clear whether terbinafine actually caused the liver damage in these patients. In most cases, the patient had a serious medical condition before taking terbinafine."

Whether or not people suffering liver damage had a medical condition beforehand should not really make any of us feel safer about taking such a pill. The problem with Lamisil is that it does not target any one part of the body specifically. Liver damage can lead to yellowed skin and eyes, and obviously death in more severe cases. Your toes are probably the only place with noticeable fungi damage, so a better solution would be to target that are directly.

While Lamisil may kill off spores quicker (being able to enter your bloodstream and go to the nail bed, killing off deep-seated fungi), that won't matter much in terms of how your nail appears. Yes, as it grows back it will look much better, but you will still have to wait 2-3 months for a fully new nail. Better to take the safer route, using a topical solution, and work to physically make the nail appear better (using sanding boards, clippers etc.)

Having tried various treatments (although not including Lamisil, due to potential dangers), I recommend a combination approach of careful nail maintenance and the application of thyme oil. I have spoken about the treatment routine in more detail in other posts, so I will not provide a recap. I use it daily, provide before and after pictures, and can vouch that I believe it to be both highly effective and also safe.

So, to answer the question as to whether a "cure" is available for toenail fungus, in terms of a "set it and forget it solution," I say no. The reason is that toenail fungus can return within (as in my experience) 4 years of having treated it successfully the first time. You can get rid of it fully, but if you are not careful, it will come back, whether you used lasers or Lamisil or anything else to treat it the first time. So the main point I want to share is maintenance and upkeep.

Toenail Fungus Treatment: Before and After Pictures

Today's post will cover my own personal journey "curing" toenail fungus. I'll show my own before and after pics and go over the treatments I used.

Starting Point

Here are the beginning images:

Those are just my big toes, obviously. I had the fungus on all my toes to varying degrees. Those pics are also available in another post on this site.

Growing increasingly embarrassed over my toenails, I looked for some solutions. I chose thyme oil, and for the time being, it was my only treatment. I used it twice per day. For each foot, I applied Thyme Oil from a cotton pad. 3 drops covered all the nails of one foot.

About 2 weeks later...

I noticed the thyme oil was improving the look of each nail. However, I wanted to quicken the results. I decided to also use a more intensive approach. I decided to use filing boards for nails, as found in many drugstores.

Below are the pics I took right before getting to work on my feet. For detailed instructions on this treatment, click here.

And about 30 minutes later:

What a difference! You can see some of the nail shavings in the background. I used sanding sticks and really worked hard to smooth everything down.

The nail also smoothed more in the coming days, and I used very fine sanders also. The thyme increases nail shininess, so the abraded areas were even less noticeable. Overall, I was elated (and surprised) at how much better my feet looked.

And about two weeks after that...

I kept using the thyme oil, every day. Toenail fungus can definitely come back, if you aren't careful. The fungi spores are very strong.

Here is a more recent picture of how well my nails have improved recently:

Now that the nail is treated, I just need to maintain, mostly. Thyme, frequently cleaning of gunk from under nail (sock lint, etc). And yes, I should probably get to waxing my toes some time :)

So I hope some of this helped you! Curing toenail fungus is not expensive at all, and can be done very quickly. Make a habit of taking better care of your feet, and you will be rewarded.

How to Immediately Treat Toenail Fungus by 90% or More

Today, I will discuss the best way I have found to INSTANTLY get rid of perhaps 90% of the bad appearance of one's toenails and feet!

I found this treatment after browsing some websites, and bringing together all the best information on what would help me immediately.

Combine today's treatment with a long-term regimen as well, and you'll have happy, beautiful feet in no time!

Now on to the discussion.

You will need:

1. One toenail clipper
2. Several gradients of pedicure sanding paper/buffer
3. Thyme Oil (optional but highly recommended) for maintenance

Thyme oil has powerful antiseptic properties, due to its thymol quantity. I used it twice per day when starting out, then once per day as maintenance (when the fungus has visually been eradicated.)

Includes sanding stick and 4 sided sander with different strengths.

Step 1: Wash your feet with warm water and clean-rinsing (we don't want heavy moisturizers) soap.

Step 2: Trim your toenails. If there is dirt or grime in under the nail, get that out as well.

Step 3: If there is any dead skin along your nails (to the sides and elsewhere), you can get that out with the point end of your nail trimmer attachment (the part that folds out.) If the nail gets dusty at any point, use a moist paper towel to wipe away excess.

Step 4. Use the multi-sided nail sander across the top surface of your toenails (horizontally if looking straight down, across the direction your nail grows in.) Start out with the biggest grit (the bumpiest textures) to sand out the most noticeable marks and such. Then work your way down to the smoothest grit. Voila!

Step 5: Apply the thyme oil in order to preserve your work. This is your maintenance plan, to kill all the fungus. Get a cotton pad, put some drops of thyme oil on, then wipe down each toenail completely, including edges and niches. Use new pad for each foot.

And then you're done, all in five simple steps! Keep maintaining your feet, trimming nails regularly, and using that thyme oil. 

Toenail Fungus Pictures and Images: Beginning of Treatment

These are some images I took of "my friend's" beginning to mild toenail fungus. These pictures were only to track the progress of my experiments with toenail fungus treatments. Hopefully they are clear enough for you to see as well.

Some symptoms early toenail fungus are striations and cracks (as you see here on the big toenails) and thick, yellowing nails. It can get much worse down the line, but this is typically how it starts out.

This image also shows more of the damage done to the big toenail. The toes themselves, the fleshy part, aren't peeling, so there is little to no Athlete's Foot going on, thankfully.

In this left image, you clearly see the vertical striations, or lines, cutting across the big toe. There is yellowing as well. The fungus is predominantly on the big toe, 2nd from right, and little toe. The 2nd toe from the right has some blood caked underneath, or a scab that had formed. The affected toes have what look like warps or scratches as well, although that is actually an effect of the fungus.

Here you can see some of the fungus in the middle of the little toe's nail. It makes it a bit difficult to see where the nail begins (inserted into toe.)

This is an image of the left foot's big toe. Clearly this one has early-moderate signs of toenail fungus too. The other toes were in decent shape, but this one had a rough and uneven toenail surface.







So there it is, folks. The unsightly truth. But rest assured, they do look much better now; they were taken a month or so ago. I will go treatment options and simple maintenance techniques over the coming days.