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Besides leaky gut and the host of autoimmune issues that go along with it, antibiotic overuse is also a major cause of nail and toenail fungus. The unbalancing of the gut that occurs allows pathogenic fungal strains like Candida to become dominant over beneficial, friendly microbes, get into the blood and infect other tissues. The fingers and toes are a common location for a fungal infection to take hold. Incidentally, one of the least talked about side effects of birth control pills is a damaged gut environment – just like antibiotics!
How does this happen? Once Candida takes hold from overuse of pharmaceuticals, its roots, called rhizoids, gradually penetrate and compromise the gut wall. This allows it to enter the bloodstream and travel freely around the body. This domino effect is described in detail in Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride’s bestselling book on reclaiming gut health and reversing autoimmune disorders.
Once Candida spills into the blood, fungal overgrowth can easily take hold elsewhere in the body. Nails and toenails are prime locations for these secondary fungal infections that originated in the gut.
Another possible cause for nail fungus comes from gardening or otherwise digging in the dirt without gloves. This happened to me when I was in middle school. I loved gardening and maintained quite an impressive patch of sunflowers that grew most of the year.
My unsophisticated cultivation efforts were entirely supported with my bare hands digging, planting, and weeding these beauties. Unfortunately, the constant dirt under my fingernails eventually led to fungal overgrowth in both my thumbs. I worked hard to keep my nails clean, but infection took hold nonetheless. Since I never took antibiotics as a child, these infections were primary rather than secondary in nature.
The Hot Water Remedy for Nail Fungus
My father, who is a [retired] Family Physician, suggested I immerse both my thumbs in cups of water as hot as I could stand for as long as I could stand as a remedy to cure the nail fungus infection. I dutifully followed his advice day after day for several weeks until I could see healthy new nails starting to grow. Within a few weeks, healthy thumbnails completely grew in.
Fortunately, I never had a problem with nail fungus again. I also learned to wear gloves when gardening!
My personal experience dealing with nail fungus is that it can indeed be resolved without drugs. While you can definitely go the hot water approach to resolving nail fungus, resolving toenail fungus presents a trickier challenge. Toenails are not as easily immersed in a cup of hot water like fingers are! What to do in that case?
Toenail Fungus Natural Cure
Toenails grow quite a bit more slowly than fingernails. By some estimates, they grow half as quickly. The good news is that the nails on the big toes, where toenail fungus issues are frequently present, grow faster than other toenails. Still, the growth is slow at best. Depending on age and nutritional status, it can take anywhere from 6 – 18 months for new nails on the big toes to grow in.
Hence, any natural cures for toenail fungus require an immense amount of persistence and patience!
That said, the best and most inexpensive natural remedy for toenail fungus is Vaseline petroleum jelly. This inexpensive ointment very effectively cuts off the supply of oxygen to suffocate the fungus within a matter of weeks. While not a green solution as it is made from the hydrocarbons derived from oil, petroleum jelly is at least nontoxic when applied to the skin.
The Environmental Working Group Skin Deep Database ranks Vaseline petroleum jelly as a low risk to health. If this does not reassure you enough, feel free to give natural and organic alternatives to petroleum jelly a try first. They may or may not be as effective at sealing up the nail from exposure to oxygen.
To use, simply slather up the toenail in petroleum jelly. Take care to seal in the corners of the nail. Thickness of the jelly is not as important as complete coverage.
Petroleum jelly is waterproof, so it won’t easily wash off unless you use soap. Re-apply as needed and wear socks at night to ensure you don’t grease up your bed sheets.
Your persistence will pay off within a few weeks or months as healthy nail growth starts to peek through the nail bed.
For more easy natural remedies ideas like these, check out my book Traditional Remedies for Modern Families. It is available in both print and ebook.
Sarah, The Healthy Home Economist
Help! I’ve been using petroleum jelly since Oct and not seeing an improvement in toe nail. I’ve been applying it to my nail at least two times a day and keep a sock on my foot at night. In fact, the toe nail appears to be getting brittle, rather than healthy. I’ve recently begun applying tea tree essential oil to the open area under the nail, and then applying the petroleum jelly over the nail as well. I’ve been battli g this issue with this nail for the last 3 years and just want this to be done and over with. What am I doing wrong? How might I go about ridding my nail of this once and for all???
I would reach out to a practitioner in your area as you may have a systemic fungal problem that is preventing the nail from growing out healthy.
Is helpful to not allow the infected nail to get large and thick. Keep it trimmed down. I think this helps with keeping the vaseline seal.
Good tip!
I had success clearing up a nail infection with coconut oil. I cut the nail back as far as I could (which was about half the big toe – yuck!) Using sanitized tools each time and taking care to wash hands thoroughly, I slathered on the oil several times a day. The new nail grew in and the infection has never returned. Passed the remedy along to my mother and it worked for her as well.
Recently I had to nail fungas from wearing nail polish too long. Each day I would dab a W-2 in tea tree oil and was gone in about three weeks.
Sarah,
Does the Vaseline go on dry toes or damp/just out of the shower???
Good question. The toes should be dry.
if i ever feel it coming on, i soak my feet in hot water and acv while i shower. gone the next day
My mother did this nightly and it actually caused her toenail fungus! Mine started AFTER I went gluten and sugar free ans brought along horribly painful calf cramps which oddly only happen to my right calf. When I ate the SAD diet I had NONE of these problems! Sara help!
Great article Sarah. Thank you.
I look forward to nothing more than getting my hands dirty in my organic garden. I always thought this was a healthy thing to do (I even go barefoot sometimes). Should I start wearing gloves?
Yes, exposure to “clean” dirt is probably a good thing. But, there is a risk for a fungal infection in the nails for sure if you do it a lot like I did. I also was raised in hot, humid Florida where all types of fungus thrive in the damp soil so that probably had something to do with it. Wear gloves if you like. Your call.
What about beeswax instead of petroleum jelly?
Yes, that may work. Let us know if you try it!
I wish what you wrote would of worked for me. Chronic stress was the source of fungal infections such as jock itch and mild foot nail infections in my experience as the chronic stress lowered the function of my immune system. I use to be the type of person always walking fast because the air and noise pollution from vehicles stressed me out since very few kids walk to school anymore. I forced myself to walk extremely slow to control myself and ultimately control the stress induced by the pollution. I recently started to wear comfortable reusable ear plugs in supermarkets with self checkouts to mute out the chaos and annoying music & cashiers.
Other sources of stress were hot showers because of the chloroform or chlorine vapors. I also don’t use body wash on my upper body as I find the chemicals affect me negatively mentally and instead wet scrub with a small towel if I need to. I only wash between my legs with a little bit of loreal red shampoo as I found it to be the only shampoo not to negatively affect me for some reason. I don’t smell at all since body odor is directly linked to the type of food we eat.
I don’t believe in using chemicals to eliminate a supposed pathogen. The ultimate problem is an immune deficiency due to either toxicity from pollution or seed oils and/or deficiency of fat soluble vitamins.