Nail Fungus Natural Remedy (that actually works)

How to eliminate nail fungus safely and naturally without resorting to dangerous pharmaceuticals from the doctor or getting scammed by over-the-counter options that don’t work.

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 this pathogen to enter the bloodstream and travel freely around the body.

This domino effect is described in detail in Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride MD’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 those 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.

Hot Water Remedy

My father, who was a 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.

I dutifully followed his advice day after day after school 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 try the hot water approach for resolving nail fungus, an infection in the toenails 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?

Nail 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. Nails for the smaller toes grow in more quickly.

Hence, any natural cures for toenail fungus require an immense amount of persistence and patience!

That said, the most inexpensive natural remedy for toenail fungus is petroleum jelly. This ointment works by cutting off the supply of oxygen to suffocate the fungus within a matter of weeks. While not a green solution as it is made from oil hydrocarbons, 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 as regular petroleum jelly.

To use, simply slather up the toenail in the jelly. Take care to seal in the corners of the nail. The 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.

Faster Option (this works!)

I wanted to share the fastest option I’ve ever come across for resolving toenail fungus. It is a new alternative to try since this article was originally written in 2017.

Fenbendazole horse paste from the feed store works amazingly well, ridding the nails and toenails of an unsightly fungal infection in a matter of a couple weeks!

As it turns out, fenbendazole is not just anti-parasitic. It is also a strong fungicide even at the low concentration in the oral paste (in this case, used externally), although the drug manufacturers don’t want you to know this because they want you to resort to the toxic drug Lamisil instead. (1, 2)

Applying fenbendazole paste thoroughly to the affected nail (including the cuticle surrounding the nail) once or twice a day will clear the infection quickly, with healthy, uninfected nail starting to grow in within a few weeks.

This method worked for me when I developed a very intractable fungal infection a few years ago from a cut on the side of one toenail after walking barefoot outside. The hot water method that had worked for my thumbnails so many years ago did not work on my toenail. Petroleum jelly and tea tree oil also had minimal effect.

I was shocked at how fast fenbendazole paste worked!

Give fenben a try! A tube only costs about $10 at Tractor Supply or your local feed store.

References

(1) Antifungal activity of fenbendazole

(2) Fenbendazole Controls In Vitro Growth, Virulence Potential, and Animal Infection in the Cryptococcus Model