★★★★★
After 12 years of ineffectively dealing with athlete's foot fungus, it migrated to my crotch and so I made a full commitment to getting rid of it. It took two more years after trying many cures including ones on this excellent blog and also prescribed Lamisil taken internally.
The high points of my cure are:
- soak in a whirlpool bath that has a regulated anti-fungal solution (chlorine level monitored and maintained) for at least 10 minutes every day until the fungus is killed. If you have had the fungus for as long as I did, it is deeply embedded in your skin so it takes the chlorine a while to be absorbed adequately. You will feel the areas that are infested as they will itch while you are soaking. When the itching stops, the fungus has been killed. Repeat this treatment until the fungus is completely gone. It took around three months for me as it was deeply embedded. Chlorine has the benefit that it can actually kill the fungus and it's spores. Swimming in chlorinated pool suppressed my fungus, but wasn't concentrated enough to kill it off. Most other treatments cause the spores to go into a defensive mode that is very durable and will re-emerge.
- increase the acidity of the infested areas by applying a citric acid solution. Use a strength level of 1 teaspoon per cup of water. This acid is what is used for food products, can be ingested, is very effective and doesn't burn nearly as much as other options. This will keep spores from re-producing between whirlpool treatments. There are spores everywhere in your home if you've been infested for a while.
- wash your socks and underwear in very hot water for an extended cycle. Normal hot water washing didn't kill the spores of the fungus I had.
- toss shoes that are infested. If you have a really nice pair of shoes you'd like to salvage, you can lightly soak your socks and wear them in the infested shoes for a day. If this doesn't work, toss.
- clean your bathroom floors/shower/tub with a bleach solution to kill spores. This won't get them all as some will remain in bedroom carpets, etc. but this will get rid of most of them.
