Why does nail fungus appear? What are the signs of the disease? This disease destroys the nail plate and causes many problems. Our medical experts answered frequently asked questions and told us how to cure it quickly with effective medicines.
According to statistics, 20% of the entire population of the Earth is susceptible to nail infections caused by parasitic fungi. This condition is called onychomycosis and is caused by nail fungus.
What is onychomycosis?
The disease is infectious in nature, infection occurs from person to person, as well as through contact and household through objects of common use. A fungal infection attacks the nail plate and eats away at it, destroying the nail.
Nail fungus most often appears on the toenails, as the feet are more susceptible to negative influences. However, the beginning of the development of the pathology is preceded by a weakening of the immune system, which leads to a decrease in the body's defenses, which does not allow the immune system to be sufficiently effective in the fight against pathogens.
Some types of fungal infections cause onychomycosis of the hands and feet:
- dermatophytes;
- yeast;
- musty;
- ringworm;
- microsporia;
- athlete's foot
All fungal pathogens fall into two broad categories:
- Pathogenic.
- Conditionally pathogenic.
Pathogenic microorganisms are microorganisms that penetrate from the outside and cause harm to human life. Contiguous agents are those that normally live on the skin, mucous membranes and keratinous areas of the human body, for example fungi of the genus Candida.
Normally, the body coexists in symbiosis with opportunistic pathogenic microorganisms. But with a decrease in immunity and favorable conditions, these organisms begin to develop uncontrollably, which leads to the appearance of a pathological process.
Why does nail fungus appear?
Common causes of ringworm can include the following:
- weakened immune system;
- concomitant chronic diseases (e. g. eczema, diabetes);
- non-compliance with personal hygiene rules;
- visiting places where fungal infections are concentrated (bathroom, sauna, swimming pool, public shower, water park);
- the wearing of closed shoes, in which the feet are subjected to profuse sweating;
- old age (after 65 years, natural immunity decreases);
- working environment conditions (working in a humid environment, at elevated room temperature, in the presence of radiation, dusty and polluted environment).
Under such conditions, fungus develops on the fingernails and toenails. It is noted that the disease is also distributed by gender - men suffer almost 3 times more often than women.
How does the pathogen penetrate the nail plate?
The keratin plate itself is not vulnerable to the penetration of mycotic pathogens. In order for an infection to begin to develop, its integrity must be violated. There are three main ways of penetration of mycotic organisms:
- Through the nail plate due to injury and damage to the keratin layer;
- Through the cuticle;
- Through the proximal nail fold.
Conditionally pathogenic organisms often cause inflammation of the cuticle.
What types of onychomycosis are there?
The disease comes in three types or stages, each varying in severity:
- Normotrophic type. Yellowish-gray thin stripes appear on the nail plate, fragility and fragility appear, but thickening and subungual hyperkeratosis do not appear.
- Hypertrophic type. It appears when there was no treatment or it was incorrectly selected and ineffective. First of all, the phenomenon of subungual hyperkeratosis occurs, leading to thickening, which persists for a long time after successful treatment.
- Atrophic type. The most difficult stage of the disease. The nail thins, becomes brittle and fragile, changes its color to dark gray-brown, over time its growth is disrupted and complete separation from the nail bed occurs.
Finding out the type of disease will allow you to decide how to treat nail fungus.
What are the symptoms of onychomycosis?
Signs indicating a fungal infection:
- the appearance of light yellow or grayish stripes and spots on the nail plate, which makes its appearance painful;
- a change in the color of the plate to yellow, brown and brown, which darkens over time to black;
- the cuticle and proximal edge become inflamed;
- the plaque thickens and becomes brittle, brittle, crumbly;
- a characteristic specific smell appears;
- Over time, the nail plate peels off completely.
How to diagnose the disease?
Changes in color, roughness, and scraping may help to suspect onychomycosis. However, similar symptoms are also characteristic of many other diseases (for example, eczema, psoriasis, lichen planus). Therefore, a doctor's examination is not enough.
With this problem, you should contact a dermatologist, podiatrist or mycologist. If it is difficult to differentiate the cause of the disease, you should contact a general practitioner or family doctor who will refer you to a specialist. To adjust the treatment, you may need to consult a surgeon.
When making the diagnosis, it is necessary to check the mycotic origin of the infection. For this purpose, a microscopic examination of the keratin thickening is performed. However, to determine the type of pathogen, it is necessary to make a bacterial culture for analysis.
How to cure nail fungus?
Treatment is a long process that takes from several months to a year and requires considerable effort from the patient.
Antifungal therapy depends on the route of exposure to the affected area and can be:
- local - the use of only local ointments and creams that affect the pathogen at the site of the lesion;
- systemic - the use of oral antifungal drugs with systemic action, which are necessary if the infection has penetrated the affected area through the bloodstream;
- combined - a combination of local and systemic therapy that gives the best result.
Systemic preparations containing the following substances are used as the most effective means of treating nail fungus:
- substance ketoconazole— the effectiveness of treatment with this drug is achieved in half of the cases, the approximate course is from 8 to 12 months;
- substance itraconazoleis a popular antifungal drug that is effective in 85% of cases. Its clear advantage is the short course of treatment - only 10 days;
- terbinafine hydrochloride substance- one of the best means that helps in 90% of cases. The course of treatment lasts up to 4 months for onychomycosis of the hands and from 6 months for the feet. However, the appearance changed by mycosis can last for a long time - up to 50 weeks.
Systemic therapy is used in cases of moderate severity or more. Oral antifungals are usually combined with the use of topical ointments. However, systemic agents have a number of side effects and can be toxic. Therefore, their use is not practiced in pregnant and lactating women, as well as in people with chronic metabolic and liver diseases.
Local means in the form of creams and ointments do not have a toxic effect, but are treated only in mild cases - when only ⅓ of the nail plate is changed and when there is no deep penetration of the pathogen into the keratin tissue. This is due to the fact that local products are not able to penetrate deep into the keratin layer.
In mild cases, when treatment has been started promptly, systemic agents can be abandoned. However, with an advanced clinical picture, it is sometimes necessary to surgically get rid of the damaged area, and only then local therapy is carried out. The removal is painless and with subsequent antifungal treatment leads to a full recovery.