Hey guys in this week's video we are looking at fungal nail infections and in particular
we're looking at the best fungal nail treatment basically the most effective way of treating a
fungal nail infection this is the video for you if you currently have a fungal nail infection so keep
on watching so before we begin this is going to be quite a long video full of information on how to
treat a fungal nail infection so if at any point you want to find a specific piece of information
feel free to click on the description below it's all chaptered you can find what you want
also if at any point you find the information in this video helpful please click that like button
because it's really going to help me and it's also really going to help the video grow so let's
begin with the basics how can you tell if you have a fungal nail infection it's pretty simple
everyone says your nail will be discolored but what does discoloration mean so these
are normal nail colours that we all know but a discolored nail usually starts as a yellow colour
it can then turn white it can also turn a greeny color and it can potentially then
turn black so fungal nail infections can have all spectrums of colours but that's what we
mean by discoloration so a different colour to the normal colour that we expect nails to be
when they're nice and healthy now whilst we're on the topic of the nail colour i also want to make
you aware of something really important that we need to spread more information on
that is if you ever notice a black vertical line running through the nail so it's a very particular
type of line just vertically running through the nail this can sometimes be a sign of cancer so if
you ever notice this if you have one currently you need to speak to a healthcare professional this is
super important and it's one of the main things i want you to remember and spread to other people
from this video now with a regular fungal nail infection the infection the discoloration usually
starts at the top of the nail then it works its way down it can then move on to the skin it can
make the skin around it red and inflamed and also sometimes it can then spread to other toes or the
nails this can happen as well and along with all this discoloration and change around the nail you
might also notice that nail becomes more brittle it's breaking easier it's flaking off kind of
and it can sometimes distort the shape of the nail as well so these are all the kinds of symptoms to
be aware of now fungal nails aren't particularly painful it's not really a condition that's
associated with pain but sometimes it can become painful especially when they start to peel away
and show the cuticle also for example if you're wearing shoes and it's starting to lift the nail
and it's pressing down on it this can sometimes cause a lot of pain but generally speaking
you don't usually get pain with this condition now fungal nail infections are more common in
toenails than fingernails in men rather than women and in older people rather than children
but they can affect anyone of any age you're also more likely to get them if you have damaged nails
for example through regular nail biting have psoriasis diabetes peripheral artery disease
or a weakened immune system but please do not fear i'm going to be going through the best fungal nail
treatments for you so the next question is how do we treat a fungal nail infection what is the most
effective way of treating a fungal nail infection well first of all before we move into that
some patients choose not to treat a fungal nail infection and this is
completely okay as long as you speak to your healthcare professional about it you might be
you're thinking to yourself well i'm okay with it it's not causing me any problems so i don't really
want to treat it but i imagine you're watching this video because you want to do something about
it but i just wanted to make everyone aware that you don't have to technically treat a fungal nail
infection but please do remember if you don't treat it it's not going to go away on its own
it's not something that's just going to go away on its own if you don't do anything with it and
it could potentially spread to other nails as well and other parts of the body as well potentially
so it's super important if you don't want to treat a fungal nail infection that you speak to
your healthcare professional just so you can make them aware and make them aware of what's going on
because they might say to you actually you need to treat it so run it by your healthcare professional
now moving on to fungal nail infection treatment what is the best treatment i think the best thing
the best way that i can present this to you is to go through each treatment option and describe
how it works so the first treatment option is a nail lacquer known as a moral fine five percent
so you apply this on the nail it's not suitable for everyone however you have to be over 18
and it's not suitable for pregnant women either in the uk you can buy this over the counter but
the thing about a moral fine is it can take quite a while to see results and you need to be really
strict with it and use it properly and use the file that comes with it and do all the things
that you're instructed to in the pack as well so it can be a bit difficult to do but if you
use it for long enough and you stick to it and you stretch with it it can be really effective
at treating the fungal nail infection now a moral fine lacquer is applied to the affected nails once
or twice a week after filing and it's best to avoid false nails or nail varnish during
treatment if you feel like you can't avoid wearing cosmetic varnish this should only be used when
needed and applied at least 10 minutes after the immortal fine and always completely remove it
before any filing or your next immoral fine application now an alternative to antifungal
lacquer is using a special nail softener to soften the nail and then scrape the infection
away until healthy new nail can grow from the base this method doesn't treat the nail infection
but physically removes them now one of the main benefits of nail softeners is first of all the
ingredients aren't very harsh so you can use them quite often the ingredients are usually urea based
or lanolin based so you can use them quite often and more people can use them so it's not a big
list of people that can't use them also one of the other main benefits is you're going to see results
really quickly with it possibly in one to two weeks if you're doing it properly now compare
that to a moral fine which we're talking six to 12 months to see the real benefits now i know what
you're thinking you're probably now thinking well what's the downside of these well the downside is
first of all if you're diabetic you can't use a nail softener also remember it's not treating
the fungal infection you're just scraping it off so after you've finished with it you need to then
apply an anti-fungal cream for a couple of weeks maybe even up to four weeks to try and prevent it
from coming back again now moving on to the next treatment options the first two that i've told
you so far have been over-the-counter ones that you can get from any chemist now if they're not
working if you're not seeing any results then you're going to go and have to speak to your
healthcare professional your gp advanced clinical practitioners like myself we'll speak to you then
when you speak to one of us we're going to take a nail sample we're going to take a biopsy and
send it to the lab to find out exactly what is causing it now once we've done the biopsy and we
sent it to the lab sometimes we have to repeat them as well because sometimes they're not able
to find out what's causing it so you might need repeat biopsies as well but once we've got the
results in it's gonna help us make an informed decision as to one what's actually causing it is
it fungal is it something else that's causing it and then we're gonna be able to make that
informed decision and prescribe treatment for it now let's say the results come back to me
and it's a fungal infections one of my favorite treatments is a tablet that's prescribed usually
to benefit tablets there's also hydroconazole tablets both of these are antifungal tablets
that can be prescribed you can't buy them over the counter they must be prescribed and also remember
they can be very harsh on the liver so when you're on this medication we're going to be sending you
for routine blood tests every month to make sure that your liver is okay because sometimes
it can really damage the liver that's why we need to monitor it routinely now one of the good things
about these tablets is they're going to work far faster than the lacquer is that killing
this fungus usually you start to see results in about one to three months okay and treatment with
subiniting can last up to six months as well so bear this in mind but always do speak to your
healthcare professional so they can make sure you're safe and suitable to take any medication
now let's say for example you've tried the over-the-counter treatment the immoral fines the
nail softeners they haven't worked and then you've been prescribed an anti-fungal tablet and that
hasn't worked then the next option potentially that your healthcare professional can go down
is actually physically removing that nail now it can be relatively painful but it's one of the
most effective ways of treating a fungal nail infection okay but a lot of patients don't want to
go down that route but sometimes when you've gone through all the options that's the only one left
it's not that painful as well i know i said it is painful but they numb it so you won't feel much
okay when it happens but the recovery time can vary it can take up to four to 12 weeks
and it can take up to 18 months for that nail to regrow as well so bear that in mind as well
but like i said always do speak to your health professional about these for more information okay
so now that we know all about the best treatment options for fungal nail infections and what are
the most effective treatments for fungal nail infections the next thing that i want to discuss
with you is preventing a fungal nail infection in the first place now before we move on to that if
you found any of this information helpful so far i would really appreciate it if you click that like
button just to show that you've learned something new or you found this video interesting and it's
going to help me but most importantly it's going to help the video grow so more people can see it
too and learn from it as well now the next thing i want to tell you is the nails grow very slowly
on the toenails for example they grow about one centimeter every three to four weeks so you need
to bear this in mind that's one of the reasons why it takes so long to treat a fungal nail infection
but it's also important to remember when we're talking about preventative tips so tip number one
you need to keep your feet clean and dry as often as you can when you wash your feet make sure
you're going in between the toes wash all over it but then the most important step afterwards
is make sure you're drying it thoroughly with a clean towel don't keep reusing that towel
on the foot or on your hands or on your body when you've used the towel you need to put it in the
washer it can be woke so using a new towel every time and make sure you're drying in between the
toes nicely so there's no damp no moisture there because fungus loves moist environments it loves
warm environments and dark environments but when you think about your foot it's pretty much got all
three of them so you need to keep it nice and dry another tip as well is to get the hair dryer as
well afterwards i like to do this obviously not on the super hot setting on the cold setting or
on the medium hot setting so you're not burning yourself but get in there nicely in between the
toes and nicely dry all over the foot moving on to tip number two you need to make sure
that you're not wearing tight constricting shoes all this is going to do is increase that moisture
increase the heat in the shoes and cause you to sweat more and again create that environment for
the fungus to grow so what do you need to do you need to get some new shoes if they're too tight
and also make sure that you're not wearing synthetic socks instead go for natural ingredients
not ingredients but natural materials like cotton it's much more breathable your feet can breathe
and also make sure you're changing your socks at minimum daily okay if you've got really sweaty
feet you can do it twice a day some people do that it's quite normal but if you at a minimum
change yourself brand new songs once a day moving on to tip number three when it comes to shoes
trainers can be particularly bad culprits for contributing to fungal nail infections
try not to wear them for long periods of time and alternate between at least two pairs
if you're using the same ones every day look for ones with ventilation holes as part of the design
and loosen the laces when you're storing them so they can aerate properly and get nice and dry
and whilst we're on the topic of shoes make sure that you're avoiding tight shoes because that's a
really good way to prevent fungal nail infections instead choose shoes that have a wide toe box some
of them state that as well on the shops now or on the website when you're about to buy them and that
allows good circulation as part of the design you should also throw out any old footwear that
is too worn and down moving on to tip number four i'm sure this one we've all done at one point in
our lives when you're going anywhere public where you have to take your shoes off and you have to go
barefoot like swimming pools public baths wherever you go sauna anything like that in the gym
changing rooms all these places make sure you're not walking around barefoot make sure you've got
some flip-flops so you're not spreading anything to other people but most importantly you're not
catching anything from other people as well so flip-flops are a must make sure they're in your
gym bag all the time if you forgot them just don't do it okay if you forgot them go home and get them
okay or leave them in your car always so you can always remember it or just leave them in your bag
all the time so that you can always remember to bring them now tip number five is all about
personal hygiene and it's making sure you're not sharing personal equipment for example towels for
example razors tweezers clippers all these sort of things you shouldn't be sharing with other people
that's your stuff you look after it you keep it clean don't share it with other people because
remember fungal nail infections are contagious so if someone else has got it and you're using
theirs as well it's just going to spread to you or vice versa and lastly tip number six remember that
fungal nail infections can sometimes result from athlete's foot an athlete's foot is again a fungal
infection that usually happens between the toes now i do have a video all about this as well so
if you want more information on treating athlete's foot and preventative tips on that as well i will
leave links up here and the description below i would highly recommend you watch it because
we want to keep the feet nice and fungal free so the next question is when should you seek medical
advice for a fungal nail infection well the first thing is you should always speak to a healthcare
professional if you have a fungal nail infection this is really important to make them aware so
they can give you the best advice on what to do next however there are particular circumstances
as well where it's even more important that you seek medical attention so for example if you're
diabetic or you've got any immunosuppression 100 you need to speak to a healthcare professional
about it because you're at much higher risk of complications and things going wrong
also if you've got any pain if it's red if there's any pus coming out this can sometimes be a sign of
an infection which again you need to speak to your healthcare professional about these are the main
things that you need to remember but i will put more information in the description below as well
and i nearly forgot to mention this again don't forget the vertical dark line that runs through
the nail if you ever notice this a vertical line running through the nail okay this can be a risk
of cancer it could potentially be cancer so it's really important you remember it and that you
remember if you see it on other people you know you could see i don't know you could be in the
train and someone's holding the pole and you can see their finger they've got a black line running
through it mention it to them okay these are things that we can do as human beings to look out
for each other and spread the love to each other because it's important that we look out for each
other so it looks like we've come to the end of this week's video like i said if you found any of
this information helpful do click that like button i'd really appreciate it and it's going to help
the video grow which is the most important thing so more people can learn about the best fungal
nail treatments about the most effective way of treating a fungal nail infection and knowing what
to do when to seek medical attention and knowing everything about it thank you for watching always
remember you're awesome and always remember i'll see you next week remember if you have
a heart at heather okay okay okay okay so now that we've looked at the best fungal nail treat
okay okay okay okay so now that we've looked at the best fungal nail infection treatments out
okay did you know that no when we're talking about fungal nail inflections inflections so tell your
friends tell your family tell your loved ones tell everyone tell your neighbor tell your dog
i don't know we've all done it before you've gone to the changing room and you've forgotten
your flip-flops and it's complete horror you know what i mean it's go you forgot your your
flip-flops and you've gone to the chain you're actually finishing like oh my god i can't even get
a shower now i'm gonna have to go home hey guys thanks for watching this week's video make sure
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