We get a lot of questions about the efficacy of non-medical treatments (DIY) for curing nail fungus found on the internet. Most of the time, we find the DIY treatments to cure nail fungus super silly and we giggle a little and roll our eyes. After all, If Vicks Vapor Rub or Listerine could cure nail fungus – it would be listed on their respective labels and other marketing material and trust us – they would be leading with that claim.
There are 3 main factors to curing nail fungus and these 3 are true for everyone, every time:
Infection Type and Severity
Nail Penetrability
Your Overall Health – certain conditions; Diabetes or a Weakened Immune System can make curing nail fungus more difficult.
Our main concern with non-medical people making claims about how to DIY cure nail fungus, is that they are saying that only anecdotal evidence exists. Ummmmm, say what now? And unfortunately the same incorrect information gets blogged all over the internet and repeatedly. As science people, we only believe in clinical data that has supported findings by a regulatory agency like the FDA. We use Tolnaftate 1% as our active ingredient because there are 50 years of clinical data supporting its efficacy and safety.
Clinical data on plant medicines is now becoming available and looks promising. The two plants that stand out so far are Snakeroot Oil and Tea Tree Oil. As more information becomes known we will keep you posted and we promise to always source and blend the best antifungal, antibacterial and antiviral plant medicines available in our family of products.
As silly as some of the DIY remedies are, our personal favorite is the garlic treatment – Can you imagine taking 2 cloves of garlic, chopping them up and placing on your infected nails twice a day for 30 minutes? Us neither and while we know this won’t cure nail fungus, we do know it will keep all family, friends , pets and vampires away during the treatment course!
We do have to mention our number #1 pet peeve (Grrrrrr….) with the internet bloggers and some other nail fungus treatments available for sale and that’s the” 1 week cure nonsense.” No product can cure fungus in a week or even 3 months – this is a long term treatment that you have to stay committed to and make sure you stay on track so as not to get re-infected. Medically cured nail fungus means the entire infected nail must grow out clear, which realistically means 6 months to see clear nail on new growth and 12 months to a completely grown out nail. So how can any product claim to cure your fungus in a week ? They can’t folks and we think it’s really irresponsible for any company to claim different. ( Also the FDA doesn’t allow this claim on any antifungal treatment they approve, so if a company is making this claim – well you connect the dots…..)
We hope everyone is surviving the winter. Here in Northern California we traded our cars for boats and float down to the lab.
We needed the rain after all the scary fires but now we are ready for spring and the arrival of our 2 new products:
Urea Nail Gel
Antifungal Urea Combo Pack to really attack that fungus!
