How does modern medicine treat nail fungus?
Before we begin a discussion of mainstream medical treatments for nail fungus, a disclaimer of sorts is necessary. This article is no way anti-medicine. We encourage each and every person who suspects they are suffering from nail fungus or onychomycosis to visit their doctor, discuss their condition with their doctor and have their nails tested to discover exactly what, if any, type of nail fungus infection you have. That being said, onychomycosis is a condition that has not been seriously taken by many in the medical profession. The writer of this article is himself is a sufferer of nail fungus infection and he can speak from personal experience as to the indifference with which doctors have diagnosed his nail infection.
My general practitioner even went as far as to tell me to just live with it that it was too difficult to cure, and the prescription drugs available were largely ineffective. This indifference towards onychomycosis has been well documented in medical journals and there seems to be a rift of sorts in the medical field with many older doctors taking a “don’t worry” approach to nail fungus, while younger ones aggressively pursuing its destruction. When you meet with your doctor regarding your nail fungus they will most likely recommend you to a laboratory which will collect a sample from your nail and/or nail bed. This sample will then be analyzed to determine exactly which type of onychomycosis infection is present in your nails.
This can be a somewhat difficult process for the laboratory and the test can take up to several weeks for a result to be returned. If a conclusive diagnosis cannot be achieved you may be asked to return for a second test. This difficulty in narrowing down exactly what type of fungal infection you have in your nails may be one of the reasons contributing towards the onychomycosis apathy among some doctors. Laboratory test are expensive and time consuming.
Once the type of fungus has be pin-pointed your doctor will then recommend a treatment based on what he or she thinks will be the most effective means of attacking your particular infection type. This is where the problems begin. There are several types of mainstream anti-fungal prescriptions for onychomycosis but none of them is 100% that effective. Clinical tests on both topical and oral anti-fungal prescription drugs show a cure rate as high as 70% for oral anti-fungals and as low as 20% for topical prescriptions.
According to medical researchers, a combination of both topical and oral treatment regimes may be necessary to achieve acceptable cure rates. The problem with this approach is of course these drugs are very hard on the body. While topical agents are certainly not as effective as oral agents, they have far few side-effects than ingested anti-fungals. However, topical agents are so ineffective that many doctors do not even both prescribing them anymore. Even though topical agents have fewer side-effects than oral anti-fungals, they still contain very harsh chemicals one would not want to regularly apply to their skin. However, it is with the orally ingested anti-fungal drugs that many of truly frightening potential side effects occur. The numerous side-effects of both topical and ingested anti-fungal drugs will be thoroughly detailed below.
Unfortunately, even with all the side effects, and even with combining oral and topical agents to achieve a higher than 70% cure rate, the traditional medical approach to curing nail fungus is a lengthy, intensive and expensive process.
Click the link below to find out some of the draw backs associated with using synthetic drugs to treat nail fungus infections.
